By Terry Vanderheyden
OTTAWA, April 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Conservative Heritage Minister Bev Oda is considering a review of the Canadian public broadcaster, the CBC. Some news sources are highlighting that Oda’s parliamentary secretary is Conservative MP Jim Abbott, who has been critical of the broadcaster in the past.
Abbott, who was heritage critic for the Conservatives under the former Liberal government, suggested privatization or reduced funding of the CBC in the past. He argued that, outside of the CBC’s popularity as a source of sports coverage, there is little interest in the public broadcaster. “If sports is removed, CBC’s audience share would be less than five per cent” of the market, he explained in an addendum to a House of Commons Canadian Heritage committee report tabled in 2003.
Oda, however, reassured CBC supporters that “The platform of the (Conservative) party and the position of the government is certainly not one that says: ‘Get rid of the CBC,’” according to her director of communications Robert Paterson. “But on the other side of the coin, we do have that other sort of overriding commitment to make sure that money is well-spent, and we get good value for it,” he added, according to a CanWest News Service report.
Oda has also confirmed that the review would not be conducted by a parliamentary committee, so it is unlikely that Abbott would even have a say.
Meanwhile, the federal government’s new Accountability Act has mandated that the CBC now be subject to access-to-information rules as well as investigations by the auditor-general, Conservative Treasury Board President John Baird said last week.