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On Wednesday's Buffalo Roundtable live stream, Sheila Gunn Reid, Lise Merle, Sydney Fizzard, and Wyatt Claypool reacted to Steven Guilbeault asserting that increasing taxpayer funds to the CBC will help Canadians view more "non-biased" news.

The former environment minister under Justin Trudeau praised the CBC's new five-year plan to address dwindling viewership numbers while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

"I think there's lots of really good elements in this plan. I really like the fact that the public broadcaster wants to invest more in local news across the country," he said.

Guilbeault applauded his fellow Liberal MPs for committing to increasing funding for the public broadcaster, but would not confirm whether this additional funding will be in the next budget.

Sydney criticized the CBC for expanding into a massive burden for taxpayers and diverting away from its primary function of providing unbiased news coverage.

"I think that the CBC, there is a utility there if it was a skeleton service. But it's ballooned into this massive media complex," he said.

"Why are they putting out children's education if they're simply an essential broadcasting service? They should not be in the entertainment business whatsoever, and if they are they should be making money. And they're not, so why are we funding it?" Sydney continued.

CBC/Radio Canada received over $1 billion in taxpayer funds last fiscal year, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre previously pledging to defund the public broadcaster if he becomes prime minister.