The new authority, which appears to contradict a longstanding arm’s-length relationship between the independent CBC and any government in power, is contained in a final section of the 111-page budget bill Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Oshawa-Whitby, Ont.) tabled in the Commons on Monday.
Division 17 of the budget implementation Bill C-60 amends the federal Financial Administration Act to give Cabinet the new powers over collective bargaining mandates of the CBC, the largest news and public affairs outlet in the country, the International Development Research Centre, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Under the amendments, Cabinet will have authority to order any of the Crown corporations to get approval from the Treasury Board Committee of Mr. Harper’s Cabinet for their collective bargaining mandates. The Crown corporation would require approval from Treasury Board Cabinet ministers for any collective agreement reached through the bargaining, while Treasury Board would have the authority to have one of its employees monitor the collective bargaining on site.
Cabinet would also have the power to order any of the Crown corporations to seek approval from Cabinet’s Treasury Board committee before setting terms and conditions of employment for any of its non-unionized employees.
Liberal MP Scott Brison (Kings Hants, N.S.) told The Hill Times he was surprised the Harper government would take such a step toward eliminating the arm’s-length independence of the selected Crown corporations, particularly the CBC, established in the 1930s to be an independent voice for Canadians news and current affairs with a mandate that included national unity.
“These Crown agencies represent public broadcasting, culture, and scientific research, three areas where the Conservatives have been antagonistic,” Mr. Brison said in an interview. “We will thoroughly scrutinize actions by this government towards these agencies.”
At Cabinet’s direction, its Treasury Board committee of ministers could impose terms and conditions of employment for the employees who do not belong to unions.
The board of directors of the corporations, all appointed by Cabinet, “shall ensure” compliance with any of the cabinet orders, but under the legislation “would not be accountable for any consequences arising from that compliance.”
The CBC receives roughly $1-billion annually in federal funding approved by Parliament, but has long been sensitive to its role in public broadcasting and news coverage. Quebecor’s Sun News, a recently new media outlet whose head is a former communications director for Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), launched a campaign against CBC soon after it was formed, criticizing CBC coverage and alleging favouritism while filing dozens of Access to Information requests seeking internal information about the Crown corporation.
Huffington Post Canada reported this week that conservative bloggers who support Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) and his government claimed the network contravened CBC policy against carrying political ads outside election periods, by airing a Liberal ad featuring new leader Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.).
The ad, portraying Mr. Trudeau in a classroom setting, was a response to a negative ad from the Conservative Party that mocked his experience as a teacher, ran on CTV.
But Huffington Post Canada quoted CBC spokesman Angus McKinnon saying the CBC changed its election-period-only policy in 2009, and since then has accepted political ads between campaign periods as long as they meet the corporation’s advocacy advertising standards.
The budget implementation bill is less than one-third the size of the last two controversial budget bills that the federal government tabled in Parliament, but includes several potential contentious elements that, unlike the measures for control over the CBC and the other Crown corporations, have been publicized by the government either in its March budget, or afterwards.
One of the surprise elements, however, was the elimination of a GST exemption for the Governor General on point-of-sale transactions. The government earlier eliminated an income tax exemption for the Governor General, while increasing his salary to make up for the lost income.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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