I am not happy with the cuts to the National Film Board (NFB), CBC and Telefim. It's culturally dumb. It's economically dumb. The cuts will only mean less jobs for the talented people working in this industry. It's time the government's support for telling our stories was not viewed as some fluffy option.
Why has the federal government targeted the CBC, Telefilm and the National Film Board? The only logical answer is that these cuts are purely political and ideological. Ottawa's politicians must stop using the arts as a political football and realize that culture is a profitable industry comparable to any other.
In this budget, we're seeing steep cuts to precisely those areas where the greatest opportunities for growth and evolution reside -- regional services, engaging documentary production, in-depth reporting, and comprehensive news gathering. At Reimagine CBC, we're using this moment as an opportunity for creative intervention.
Apart from the CBC's penchant for secrecy on how it spends the $1.1 billion of taxpayers' money it gets from the government, what I find unacceptable and disgraceful, is the CBC bidding on programs that the private sector would run, but can't match CBC funding which is given to them, rather than earned by them.