By Devin Drover

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is taking the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to court to force the broadcaster to provide transparency regarding the money it spends on advertising.

“Canadians have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, but the CBC wants to keep taxpayers in the dark,” said Devin Drover, CTF General Counsel. “That’s why we are going to court to compel the CBC to be transparent and release financial information that taxpayers have the right to see.”

The legal challenge stems from an access-to-information request filed by Ryan Thorpe, the CTF’s investigative journalist, who has submitted dozens of requests to provide transparency about spending at the CBC. His work includes breaking the story about CBC executives receiving millions in bonuses.

Thorpe requested records detailing how much the CBC has spent on advertising over the past five years. The broadcaster has refused to release the information despite receiving $1.4 billion from taxpayers last year.

The CTF has now filed a legal challenge in Federal Court to force the disclosure of these records. A copy of the notice of application is available here.

Meanwhile, the Trudeau government has announced recommendations to nearly double taxpayer funding for the CBC and shield budget reporting from public scrutiny.

“It’s bad enough that the CBC takes more than a billion dollars from taxpayers and the government wants to raise that number, but it’s even worse that the CBC won’t respect taxpayers’ right to know how the money’s being spent,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Now Canadians can add ‘refusing to be accountable’ to the list of reasons to defund the CBC.”

By Franco Terrazzano

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney’s fiscal plan for having no credible plan to balance the budget or cut spending.

“Carney wants to run on his economic credibility, but he has no credible plan to cut spending or balance the budget,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “The next time Carney releases a plan to balance the budget, he should remember to include the plan to balance the budget.”

Today Carney released his “approach to federal budgeting.” Carney’s backgrounder acknowledges “the federal government has been spending too much,” but Carney’s plan does not include a plan to balance the budget or cut spending.

Carney plans to separate the government’s operating and capital budgets.

“A Mark Carney-led government will balance the operating budget in three years,” Carney’s backgrounder states. “At the same time, we will run a small deficit on capital spending.”

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians he would balance the budget after a few small deficits, but instead of balancing the books he ran massive deficits and doubled the debt,” Terrazzano said. “Carney needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a credible plan to balance the budget and cut spending.”

The federal government ran a $62-billion deficit last year. That’s $20 billion higher than its promised fiscal guardrail.

The Trudeau government doubled the debt in less than a decade. Interest charges on the debt are costing taxpayers $54 billion this year. For context, the government is wasting more money on debt interest charges than it sends to the provinces in health-care transfers.

“A balanced budget means the government stops adding to the debt, but Carney’s plan would continue to rack up debt and waste more money on interest charges,” Terrazzano said. “Carney acknowledges the government has a spending problem and now he needs to find concrete ways to save money, balance the budget and cut the debt.”