Minister mum on confidence in CBC head, says work to find successor begins next year

The federal government will begin the search for a new head of CBC/Radio-Canada early in the new year, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said Tuesday as she faced questions about her confidence in its current leader.

The mandate for Catherine Tait, the public broadcaster's current president and CEO since 2018, is set to expire in January 2025 after it was extended back in June.

"We will put together a committee that will start searching for the best candidates around the country," St-Onge said on her way into the government's weekly cabinet meeting.

The successful candidate, she said, will have to "lead our public broadcaster into the transformation that it needs to go through because of the media crisis."

It was always the plan to assemble a committee to find Tait's replacement, but the timing of that effort was not clear before Tuesday.

St-Onge wouldn't directly answer questions about whether she still has confidence in Tait, saying the government's focus is on finding her successor.

"I'm saying that right now we are going to concentrate on finding the right person to lead the public broadcaster at the end of Catherine Tait's mandate," she said.

Tait's tenure has come under fierce scrutiny in recent days after last week's announcement that the broadcaster would cut 600 jobs and not fill 200 vacancies over the next year to manage a $125-million shortfall.

The criticism — some of which came from partisan camps — only grew more intense after Tait appeared on CBC's The National that same day and said it was "too early" to say whether executives would receive bonuses.

Last week, MPs on the parliamentary heritage committee voted to summon Tait in the new year to answer for the cuts and whether executives will receive bonuses.

In a statement last Friday, Tait and seven CBC vice-presidents said they were aware of the concerns and that "all possible measures" were being considered to manage financial pressures, including a look at "senior executive compensation."

St-Onge said Tuesday the public broadcaster must "consider the financial situation and the impact that it has on employees at large."

She said questions about bonuses should be answered by executives.

As a Crown corporation, CBC/Radio-Canada operates independently of Parliament but receives roughly $1 billion in public funding annually.

Leon Mar, a spokesperson for the public broadcaster, referred to the executives' latest statement when pressed for details on the options being considered on bonuses.

He also confirmed that Tait is in Australia at the invitation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to appear in her capacity as the chair of a task force on public media, where she planned to speak at an event and meet with other industry leaders.

Tait is spending a week of her annual leave while in Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is picking up the tab for her transportation and accommodation, Mar added.

"She is paying for any other expenses," he said. "Ms. Tait felt that it would be more appropriate to take annual leave for this trip, since she will also be taking some personal time while she is there."

Still, when reporters asked St-Onge about the trip on Tuesday, the minister said in French that while it is important for Tait to be at such gatherings, "it's not an opportune moment right now."

Mar said the broadcaster had "nothing to add" in response to St-Onge.

During question period Tuesday, Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux also pressed the minister about her confidence in Tait in light of the cuts and her trip.