(Ottawa) Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge wants CBC/Radio-Canada's role to be redefined before the next federal election.
Published at 1:30 p.m.
In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Ms. St-Onge argues that it is time to update CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate to protect the public broadcaster from a potential change of government in Ottawa.
The minister says the Liberal government believes a strong public broadcaster strengthens democracy and promises to continue supporting it, while she says a Conservative government would destroy CBC/Radio-Canada.
The Conservative opposition, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has promised to cut funding from the CBC and convert its Toronto headquarters into housing. The Conservatives also promise to maintain French programming on Radio-Canada.
The federal Liberals have promised for years to update CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate to meet the modern needs of Canadians as the news sector faces job cuts and declining advertising revenues due to the “web giants.”
The public broadcaster also announced in early December the impending cuts of 600 jobs and the elimination of 200 vacancies, representing almost 10% of its workforce in the country.
Minister St-Onge wants the public broadcaster's new mandate to fill regional information gaps, include a strong online presence, invest in international reporting and support minority language communities.