The 2024 federal budget includes support for media and the cultural industries, with a focus on bolstering publicly-funded broadcasting, fortifying the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI), and championing diverse storytelling in film and television.
Budget 2024 proposes to provide an additional $42 million in 2024-25 for CBC/Radio-Canada news and entertainment programming, on top of its $1.4-billion public funding allocation.
CBC President and CEO Catherine Tait said in a statement that the one-time funding would help the corporation “manage its financial challenges in a more stable manner.”
“This is welcome news. This investment, together with the steps we have taken since December, means we will be able to stabilize our operations, preserve jobs, and continue to invest in programs and services,” said Tait. “That is good news for Canadians, who continue to depend on their public broadcaster for trusted news and information, and great Canadian programming like the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Since the corporation announced in December that it would be cutting 600 positions and leaving another 200 vacancies unfilled due to a $125 million shortfall, Tait says the public broadcaster has reduced its workforce by 141 employees, and cut 205 vacant positions.
“Together with improvements in the Corporation’s overall financial position, today’s new funding means the Corporation can address its remaining forecast shortfall and balance its budget without significant additional reductions this year,” the CBC statement continued.
Tuesday’s federal budget release also included a $15 million investment over two years in public interest programming services, including Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), APTN, Accessible Media Inc. (AMI), ICI Television, and TV5. That includes $5 million in 2024-25 to support capital renewal at CPAC.
As previously announced, the government is also extending the Local Journalism Initiative to the tune of $58.8 million over three years.
“Access to high quality and independent news and information is a key pillar of
any democracy,” the budget document stated. “Over the years, private corporations have bought up media outlets, including small community papers and broadcast channels, but have not been there to support the journalists who are the heartbeat of news.
Combined with shifts to the digital platforms of multinational tech giants who
are reducing revenue streams, local news is facing critical challenges. If we allow
the erosion of news media, we are enabling the sort of unchecked disinformation and misinformation that will erode our democracy.”
To bolster journalist compensation in the current media landscape, the feds have additionally increased the yearly limit on labour costs under the Canadian journalism labour tax credit from $55,000 to $85,000 per eligible employee, and temporarily are increasing the tax credit rate from 25% to 35%.
‘Building a vibrant audiovisual industry’
The budget includes over $780 million in direct support for the audiovisual industry through the Canada Media Fund (CMF), Telefilm Canada, the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), and the National Film Board (NFB), including $40 million over two years for the CMF to continue to support media productions, official inclusion in the budget of previously- announced Telefilm funding of $100 million over two years and ISO funding of $65 million over five years.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will receive $23 million over three years, which will see TIFF launch a film marketplace to run concurrently to the festival.
The government says that by investing in the country’s filmmakers, it’s supporting 183,716 full-time equivalent jobs directly linked to the sector, which contributes $20.3 billion to the
Canadian economy every year.
“This funding will allow the Canadian audiovisual industry to remain competitive and resilient in the coming years, while continuing to generate significant economic impacts,” said Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, CMF. “Thank you to the many organizations who advocated so strongly for this additional investment and Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge for championing Canada’s audiovisual industry.”
“We welcome Budget 2024’s announcement of investments to support the renewal of CPAC’s critical infrastructure. We are grateful for the recognition of CPAC’s important work ensuring Canadians have access to their democratic institutions,” said Christa Dickenson, CPAC President and CEO. “With social media fueling misinformation, disinformation and polarization in the Canadian political arena there has never been a more important time than now for Canadians to have direct, unfiltered access to our CPAC’s content in both official languages.”
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