Taxpayers release Naughty and Nice List

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

CBC President and CEO Catherine Tait tops the Taxpayer Naughty List for announcing hundreds of layoffs weeks before Christmas without cancelling bonuses for executives.

“It takes a special type of Scrooge to lay off hundreds of employees weeks before the holidays and not be willing to give up your own bonus, but that’s exactly what taxpayers heard from CBC big shots,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Meanwhile, Senator Pierre Dalphond delayed and watered-down carbon tax relief for farmers and now Santa’s furious because the bills for his candy cane farm and reindeer barn are through the chimney.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the Taxpayer Naughty List for removing the carbon tax from furnace oil for three years while leaving 97 per cent of Canadian families out in the cold. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston also found himself in Santa’s bad books for taking more money from taxpayers through the sneaky income tax hike known as bracket creep.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew made the Taxpayer Nice List for providing taxpayers with Santa-sized fuel and income tax relief. The Parliamentary Budget Officer also made Santa’s good books for improving accountability and transparency in Ottawa.

“‘Tis the season for giving, but Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek and Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi shouldn’t be giving their residents steep tax hikes while they give themselves a raise,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director of the CTF. “The entire Alberta village of Ryley made Santa’s good books for using recall legislation to boot a big-spending politician.”

The 2023 Taxpayer Naughty and Nice List

The Naughty List (So…. long!)

CBC President & CEO Catherine Tait – For clinging to executive bonuses

It takes a special type of Scrooge to announce hundreds of layoffs weeks before Christmas. Even worse, Tait isn’t willing to end the tens-of-millions of dollars in bonuses the CBC doled out in recent years. ‘Tis the season for giving… but giving out bonuses while firing hundreds of staffers is a sure-fire way to land yourself on Santa’s Naughty List!

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – For leaving 97 per cent of Canadians out in the cold

All Canadians need a warm home to celebrate during the holiday season. But Trudeau thinks only three per cent of Canadians need carbon tax relief this winter. Trudeau is removing the carbon tax from furnace oil while keeping the tax on for 97 per cent of Canadian families. Santa is stuffing the prime minister’s stocking with lumps of coal this year and Trudeau will be sure to carbon tax those lumps, too.

Senator Pierre Dalphond – For making Santa’s milk and cookies more expensive

The holiday season is a time to enjoy festive feasts with loved ones. But Senator Pierre Dalphond is making the holiday season more expensive by delaying and watering down a bill that would take the carbon tax off all farm fuels. Canadians worry they may have to cut back on the milk and cookies they leave out on Christmas eve. Unfortunately for Senator Dalphond, Santa is not a happy camper, because the bills for his candy cane farm and reindeer barn are going through the chimney.

Mayor of Quebec City Bruno Marchand and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim – For hiking taxes on pets

It’s one thing to tax the air we breathe, the money we earn or the presents we buy. But taxing our pets … have you no heart, Mr. Grinch? Mayors Marchand and Sim are hiking the taxes families pay to own pets in Quebec City and Vancouver. Rumour has it Santa is launching a campaign to take the tax off his reindeer.

Federal Minister of Industry François-Philippe Champagne – For giving billions of dollars to multinational corporations

There’s only one place you’ll find yourself if you pull a reverse Robin Hood … Santa’s Naughty List! Champagne has been busy taking money from struggling taxpayers and giving billions of dollars to multinational corporations to build electric car battery plants. Champagne should take notes from
Santa and his little helpers. They’ve been building batteries and remote-control hot rods for decades, at no cost to taxpayers!

Mayor of Calgary Jyoti Gondek and Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi – For hiking taxes and their own pay

‘Tis the season for giving … and mayors Gondek and Sohi sure do love giving. They’re giving their residents steep property tax hikes. And they’re giving themselves pay raises. Calgary City Council and Edmonton city council both took a raise this year. More lumps of coal: both Gondek and Sohi take bigger salaries than the premier of Alberta.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston – For his bracket creep income tax hike

Nothing makes Santa more upset than bracket creep. It’s a sneaky backdoor tax grab that allows politicians to use inflation to raise income taxes. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is using bracket creep to gouge taxpayers. And for that, Houston finds himself on Santa’s Naughty List this year.

University of Manitoba’s former law dean Jonathan Black-Branch – For racking up half-a-million in expenses

Black-Branch’s term was cut short after an internal investigation found he expensed upwards of $500,000 in public funds, including for personal dinners and drinks. Now that’s a lot of cookies and eggnog! There’s only one way for Black-Branch to get off the Naughty List: pay the money back.

The Nice List (So… short!)

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew – For the gift of tax relief

Kinew is giving Manitobans Santa-sized fuel and income tax relief in the New Year. He committed
to suspending the province’s fuel tax and providing significant income tax relief. And kudos to the previous Manitoba government who didn’t forget about the Tiny Tims. Thanks to the last budget, taxpayers earning less than $15,000 won’t pay any provincial income taxes.

Liberal MP Ken McDonald – For getting his constituents carbon tax relief

It takes a lot of courage to stand up for your convictions and constituents, and vote against your party leader. McDonald did just that when he voted to “repeal all carbon taxes.” Because of his advocacy, the feds took the carbon tax off furnace oil for three years. Santa just wishes Liberal MPs in other parts of Canada had McDonald’s courage and were willing to stick up for their constituents too.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux – For the gift of government accountability and transparency

Taxpayers always deserve the gift of transparency and accountability in Ottawa. And the PBO delivered it in droves in 2023. From showing the full cost of Trudeau’s two carbon taxes, to fact-checking Ottawa’s deficit numbers and analyzing tax plans, the PBO has been holding politicians accountable all year.

Alberta’s Village of Ryley – For recalling a big-spending mayor

Ryley is the first municipality in Canada to recall a city hall politician, former mayor Nik Lee. During Lee’s tenure, the village’s spending almost doubled from $1.7 million to $3 million in 2022. Lee also spent more than $5,000 on meetings without approval. When Lee refused to resign from council, residents of Ryley took matters into their own hands, launched a recall campaign and booted Lee. For their civic engagement and holding a big-spending politician accountable, all residents of Ryley land themselves on Santa’s Nice List this year!

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CBC’s business model is trapped in a very dark place

Published on November 21, 2024

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David Clinton

I Testified Before a Senate Committee About the CBC

I recently testified before the Senate Committee for Transport and Communications. You can view that session here. Even though the official topic was CBC’s local programming in Ontario, everyone quickly shifted the discussion to CBC’s big-picture problems and how their existential struggles were urgent and immediate. The idea that deep and fundamental changes within the corporation were unavoidable seemed to enjoy complete agreement.

I’ll use this post as background to some of the points I raised during the hearing.

You might recall how my recent post on CBC funding described a corporation shedding audience share like dandruff while spending hundreds of millions of dollars producing drama and comedy programming few Canadians consume. There are so few viewers left that I suspect they’re now identified by first name rather than as a percentage of the population.

Since then I’ve learned a lot more about CBC performance and about the broadcast industry in general.

For instance, it’ll surprise exactly no one to learn that fewer Canadians get their audio from traditional radio broadcasters. But how steep is the decline? According to the CRTC’s Annual Highlights of the Broadcasting Sector 2022-2023, since 2015, “hours spent listening to traditional broadcasting has decreased at a CAGR of 4.8 percent”. CAGR, by the way, stands for compound annual growth rate.

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Dropping 4.8 percent each year means audience numbers aren’t just “falling”; they’re not even “falling off the edge of a cliff”; they’re already close enough to the bottom of the cliff to smell the trees. Looking for context? Between English and French-language radio, the CBC spends around $240 million each year.

Those listeners aren’t just disappearing without a trace. the CRTC also tells us that Canadians are increasingly migrating to Digital Media Broadcasting Units (DMBUs) – with numbers growing by more than nine percent annually since 2015.

The CBC’s problem here is that they’re not a serious player in the DMBU world, so they’re simply losing digital listeners. For example, of the top 200 Spotify podcasts ranked by popularity in Canada, only four are from the CBC.

Another interesting data point I ran into related to that billion dollar plus annual parliamentary allocation CBC enjoys. It turns out that that’s not the whole story. You may recall how the government added another $42 million in their most recent budget.

But wait! That’s not all! Between CBC and SRC, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) ponied up another $97 million for fiscal 2023-2024 to cover specific programming production budgets.

Technically, Canada Media Fund grants target individual projects planned by independent production companies. But those projects are usually associated with the “envelope” of one of the big broadcasters – of which CBC is by far the largest. 2023-2024 CMF funding totaled $786 million, and CBC’s take was nearly double that of their nearest competitor (Bell).

But there’s more! Back in 2016, the federal budget included an extra $150 million each year as a “new investment in Canadian arts and culture”. It’s entirely possible that no one turned off the tap and that extra government cheque is still showing up each year in the CBC’s mailbox. There was also a $93 million item for infrastructure and technological upgrades back in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Who knows whether that one wasn’t also carried over.

So CBC’s share of government funding keeps growing while its share of Canadian media consumers shrinks. How do you suppose that’ll end?

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PBO report shows cost of bureaucracy up 73 per cent under Trudeau

Published on November 20, 2024

Todayville

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Franco Terrazzano

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to rein in the bureaucracy following today’s Parliamentary Budget Officer report showing the bureaucracy costs taxpayers $69.5 billion.

“The cost of the federal bureaucracy increased by 73 per cent since 2016, but it’s a good bet most Canadians aren’t seeing anywhere close to 73 per cent better services from the government,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Taxpayers are getting soaked because the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy is out of control.”

Today’s PBO report estimates the federal bureaucracy cost taxpayers $69.5 billion in 2023-24. In 2016-17, the cost of the bureaucracy was $40.2 billion. That’s an increase of 72.9 per cent.

The most recent data shows the cost continues to rise quickly.

“Spending on personnel in the first five months of 2024-25 is up 8.0 per cent over the same period last year,” according to the PBO.

“I have noticed a marked increase in the number of public servants since 2016 and a proportional increase in spending,” said Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux. “But we haven’t seen similar improvements when it comes to service.”

The Trudeau government added 108,793 bureaucrats since 2016 – a 42 per cent increase. Canada’s population grew by 14 per cent during the same period. Had the bureaucracy only increased with population growth, there would be 72,491 fewer federal employees today.

The government awarded more than one million pay raises to bureaucrats in the last four years, according to access-to-information records obtained by the CTF. The government also rubberstamped $406 million in bonuses last year.

“The government added tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats, rubberstamped hundreds of millions in bonuses and awarded more than one million pay raises and all taxpayers seem to get out of it is higher taxes and more debt,” Terrazzano said. “For the government to balance the budget and provide tax relief, it will need to cut the size and cost of Ottawa’s bloated bureaucracy.”