CBC quietly hands out record pay raises after axing bonuses
A taxpayer watchdog says the state broadcaster is “using sleight of hand” to dodge backlash while employee salaries balloon.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation quietly handed out $37.7 million in pay raises during the 2024–25 fiscal year — the largest single-year salary hike in the Crown corporation’s history — just months after claiming it would scrap controversial bonuses, according to new access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
After cancelling its taxpayer-funded bonuses, the CBC handed out record high pay raises of $38 million in 2024-25.
— Franco Terrazzano (@franco_nomics) July 21, 2025
The CBC isn’t saving people money if it’s replacing taxpayer-funded bonuses with higher taxpayer-funded pay raises.https://t.co/Md9g32js26 pic.twitter.com/3WDKvaymga
The raises, handed out to 6,295 employees, averaged roughly $6,000 per person, with no pay cuts reported. The CTF says the total figure is more than triple the raises distributed in the previous year, when the CBC handed out $11.5 million in salary increases.
Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF, says the bonus cancellation was nothing more than a PR stunt. “The CBC isn’t saving people money if it’s replacing taxpayer-funded bonuses with higher taxpayer-funded pay raises,” he said. “It’s using sleight of hand — jacking up salaries to bake the bonuses in permanently.”
In May, following widespread criticism of its $18 million bonus scheme amid layoffs, the CBC announced it would eliminate performance-based pay. But in the same breath, it signaled the move would come with a catch: “Salaries of those affected will be adjusted to reflect the elimination of individual performance pay.”
Translation? Bonuses didn’t disappear — they just became guaranteed raises.
And that’s not all. The number of CBC employees earning six-figure salaries has exploded.
In 2024–25, 1,831 employees made over $100,000, costing taxpayers a combined $240 million — up 17% from the year before and a staggering 318% increase since 2015–16, when only 438 employees crossed the six-figure threshold.
The average salary for those top earners? $131,060.
Despite being pressed for comment by the CTF, CBC brass offered no explanation for the record-setting pay hikes.
Terrazzano says Canadians are right to be outraged. “The CBC didn’t listen to Canadians. It isn’t saving taxpayers money. It’s just trying to avoid bad press,” he said.
Polling from the CTF shows 70% of Canadians opposed CBC bonuses, and even typically supportive voices like Friends of Canadian Media called last year’s $18 million in bonuses “deeply out of touch.”
The CBC’s total taxpayer funding for 2025 will exceed $1.4 billion, according to federal estimates.
“If Prime Minister Mark Carney is serious about saving money,” Terrazzano added, “then he needs to step in and put an end to the CBC gravy train — or better yet, defund the CBC.”
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Alberta Bureau Chief for Rebel News and host of the weekly The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. She's a mother of three, conservative activist, and the author of best-selling books including Stop Notley.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-07-21 21:48:26 -0400A raise by any other name is STILL a benefit. And CBC = Cock and Bull Corporation. How I wish they were off the air and a conservative business person bought the facilities. Can you imagine Rebel News and other outlets given time on such stations across Canada? Listenership and viewership would shoot through the stratosphere.
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2025-07-21 20:37:20 -0400When is a bonus not a bonus? When is a raise not a raise? It’s hog-troughing at its best.
