CBC/RADIO-CANADA ASSET SALE SHOULD BE HALTED: NDP

TORONTO AND MONTREAL — In the wake of new reports of the CBC’s planned asset sale, NDP arts and culture critics Andrew Cash (Davenport) and Pierre Nantel (Longueuil – Saint-Hubert) have written to the public broadcaster’s president and CEO, Hubert Lacroix, urging him to halt the irreversible decisions which result from two decades of budget cuts by successive Liberal and Conservative governments.

“The NDP is urging you to hold out hope for a brighter future that may be just weeks away, and to halt the irreversible decisions on CBC/Radio-Canada’s assets that could have a serious impact on its future,” the letter says.

Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have slashed funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, first the Liberals with a devastating $415 M which the Conservatives compounded with a further $115M cut.

“An NDP government under the leadership of Tom Mulcair would not only reverse the Conservative’s $115M cut but finally, once and for all, provide longterm, stable and predictable funding for the CBC,” Cash and Nantel write. “We will usher in a new era of productive innovation, independence and stability for Canada’s public broadcaster.”