Bryan Brulotte: The CBC needs reform, not reverence

CBC building on Front and John Street in Toronto, September 6, 2011. Photo by Alex Urosevic/Toronto Sun/QMI Agency

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The debate over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has become predictable. One side defends it as a pillar of national identity. The other calls for its outright defunding. Both positions miss the point. The CBC does not need to be preserved in its current form. Nor should it be dismantled entirely. What it requires is structural change rooted in first principles — clarity of purpose, fiscal discipline, and service to Canadians that the private market cannot or will not provide.

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The central problem is not simply cost. It is mandate drift and institutional culture. Over time, the CBC has expanded far beyond its original purpose as a public broadcaster serving national cohesion, regional access and cultural expression. Today, it operates across a wide range of commercial media spaces, competing directly with private firms in news, entertainment and digital content. It does so with the advantage of public funding. That model is neither sustainable nor defensible.

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More importantly, it is no longer reformable in any meaningful sense. Recent testimony before the House of Commons Heritage Committee reinforces what many Canadians have already concluded. The issue is not a single editorial decision or a temporary lapse in judgment. It is a deeply embedded institutional culture that shapes how stories are framed, which voices are amplified and which perspectives are excluded. Institutions develop internal norms over time. Those norms become self-reinforcing. Hiring decisions, editorial processes and promotion pathways all begin to reflect and protect the same worldview. Once that process is mature, it is extraordinarily difficult to reverse through leadership changes or internal directives. The CBC has reached that point.

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Successive governments have promised cuts, defunding and reform. New executives have arrived with mandates committed to upholding “integrity, objectivity and impartiality” or building trust. None appear to be succeeding. The structural incentives remain unchanged, and the cultural dynamics persist. This is why the current model must be reconsidered. A publicly funded broadcaster should not operate as a dominant player in commercial media markets while also claiming to serve the entire country. Nor should Canadians be compelled to fund an institution that many no longer trust to reflect a broad range of views.

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At the same time, there remains a clear and legitimate role for public broadcasting in Canada. Canadians in rural and remote communities rely on services that private broadcasters often cannot sustain. French-language programming outside Quebec, Indigenous-language services and emergency broadcasting are not profit centres. They are public goods. This is where the CBC should focus. The path forward is not elimination. It is separation.