2012 Federal Budget

[Stranger]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Well if CBC cuts thier massive executive traveling and lunch budgets, George Str stops throwing 6 figure taxpayer funded parties for celebrities so he can feel like a rockstar, and the CBC stops paying for porn from france they won't have to cut much of their operating budgets.

Its a pig trough that needs to be reformed.

Make them open the books. Every other channel on TV can get by without a billion dollars handed to them every year. The CBC should take up the PBS model and have minimal government funding with viewers chipping in the rest.

And I wonder how much taxpayer pay to stroke Strombo's ego? Maybe he'll have to cut out his taxpayer funded party this year?

"I've always wanted to be in a band, not a solo artist. And I want to be in a community.
I've always thought that community is interesting. An individual is a tree. A group of individuals is a forest. And forests are strong and they're beautiful and they work together and they feed other things and other things feed them."

"I like partying with people. You know, so, tonight I come and I get to see my friends, you know. And that's fun."

[Ozy_Flame]

Although eccentric at most, why did you pick those quotes from Strombo? It does nothing to show his ego in the context of a rant against CBC.

Did he really thow a six-figure celebrity party on taxpayer dime? Is there a source?

[Azure]

OTTAWA - CBC paid more than one-and-a-half times the average income of a working Canadian for a one-night, celebrity-filled party last September.

Called the Hazelton Takeover, the event cost taxpayers more than $72,000, thousands more than CBC president Hubert Lacroix claimed when he appeared before a Commons committee.

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/19...cost-72gs-plus

[Stranger]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Although eccentric at most, why did you pick those quotes from Strombo? It does nothing to show his ego in the context of a rant against CBC.

Did he really thow a six-figure celebrity party on taxpayer dime? Is there a source?

He throws a Toronto International Film Festival Party in the fall. The quotes were from his 2011 party.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics.../19144661.html

^^ Azure beat me to it.

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

You are wrong, I know a lot of people who would notice. I know many people who watch the following CBC shows:

22 Minutes
Arctic Air
Dragons' Den
the fifth estate
George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight
Heartland
Hockey Night in Canada
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Marketplace
Mr. D
The National
Republic of Doyle
The Rick Mercer Report

I'm sure the people who watch these shows can find replacements easy enough. A billion dollars and this is what they come up with? I know there's more to the CBC than just the TV stations but how can they even burn through that much per year. Heck, the TV station has as much commercials as every other channel. They should be self-supporting not a funds black hole.

The CBC is archaic, no longer serves it's original purpose, and should be eliminated entirely.

[squiggs96]

The biggest thing for me to be thankful in the budget was they did not make any changes to how tax losses are used. I don't know if I'd be out of a job, but a substantial part of what I do is utilize tax losses from other companies. There were rumours this would be taken away this round, but it looks like it is still under discussion.

I like the new allowances for cross border shopping and the enhanced SR&ED credits.

I am also in favour of anything that removes Gerry Dee from the air.

[etherealgirl]

I'm against the cuts to the CBC because I think a strong public broadcaster is important to democracy in general, but also because they promised not to cut it.

I do support the elimination of the penny. Long overdue!

[etherealgirl]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

And no one under 40 should be counting on OAS to be there when we retire anyways.

My uncle, an economist, wrote a book about this, and the gist is that they will still be there for us if managed appropriately.

[Northendzone]

The gov't should limit the term of committees that never sit to two years, they'd likely save millions

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by etherealgirl

I'm against the cuts to the CBC because I think a strong public broadcaster is important to democracy in general, but also because they promised not to cut it.

I do support the elimination of the penny. Long overdue!

I don't recall the Conservatives promising not to cut the CBC, but I might be missing something.

And maybe if the CBC hadn't put themselves on the hot plate with their actions they might not have faced cuts.

But far more important areas and departments got slashed today a 100 million dollar cut is pretty minimal.

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by etherealgirl

My uncle, an economist, wrote a book about this, and the gist is that they will still be there for us if managed appropriately.

I stand by my comment. The Baby Boomers are going to suck the entire thing dry, and the politicians will be too afraid of them to turn off the tap (although "stop filling the trough" might be a better analogy)

[Tinordi]

Sustainable Development Technology Canada was not recapitalized which is a major disappointment. They leveraged over $1.5 billion in industry funding for clean tech development and commercialization. Just plain stupid for the Government to get all high and mighty on anything with a 'clean' moniker.

What the Government failed to realized is that 75% of SDTC's projects were in cleaning the oil sands and gas production.

Goes to show just how far off this Government is from truly moving Canada to an innovation type economy and from developing a truly worthwhile energy strategy.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Sustainable Development Technology Canada was not recapitalized which is a major disappointment. They leveraged over $1.5 billion in industry funding for clean tech development and commercialization. Just plain stupid for the Government to get all high and mighty on anything with a 'clean' moniker.

What the Government failed to realized is that 75% of SDTC's projects were in cleaning the oil sands and gas production.

Goes to show just how far off this Government is from truly moving Canada to an innovation type economy and from developing a truly worthwhile energy strategy.

Theres nothing on their website that showcases any innovation related to Oilsands. They've got a coating for industrial furnaces related to plastic production, and an airborne NG pipeline leak detection system.

The meaningful innovation is still being done by the industry, like the shift to dry tailings for oilsands mining, and the tailing pond water and suspended solids reclaimation.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

You sir are obviously a troll as you did not include Being Erica

I only listed shows that people I know are regular viewers. I can't think of anyone who has ever mentioned Being Erica.

And the 1st 3 Degrassi series were all CBC shows. There would be none of the reminiscing about Degrassi Junior High threads on CP if CBC wasn't around. And some of the crap on today will be things people remember fondly 20 years from now.

Yeah CBC shows a lot of crap, stuff that I'm not interested in and probably will never be interested in. But it is stuff that isn't shown on other stations, and someone somewhere in Canada probably appreciates that it is the only venue to see that sort of content.

Perhaps in this era of 500+ channel availability the need for CBC has diminished, and the cost/value ratio just isn't there anymore. But I do think it still has a lot of value to a lot of people. Perhaps it needs to take more chances, spend the money to do more edgier things that commercial TV would be afraid to touch. But for the time being I think it still has a place.

There are enough Canadian TV networks that do little beyond rebroadcasting American shows and replace the commercials on the American cable stations.
Something different on the dial shouldn't be viewed as a burden, it should be seen as a benefit, even if it isn't always catering directly to me.

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I only listed shows that people I know are regular viewers. I can't think of anyone who has ever mentioned Being Erica.

And the 1st 3 Degrassi series were all CBC shows. There would be none of the reminiscing about Degrassi Junior High threads on CP if CBC wasn't around. And some of the crap on today will be things people remember fondly 20 years from now.

Yeah CBC shows a lot of crap, stuff that I'm not interested in and probably will never be interested in. But it is stuff that isn't shown on other stations, and someone somewhere in Canada probably appreciates that it is the only venue to see that sort of content.

Perhaps in this era of 500+ channel availability the need for CBC has diminished, and the cost/value ratio just isn't there anymore. But I do think it still has a lot of value to a lot of people. Perhaps it needs to take more chances, spend the money to do more edgier things that commercial TV would be afraid to touch. But for the time being I think it still has a place.

There are enough Canadian TV networks that do little beyond rebroadcasting American shows and replace the commercials on the American cable stations.
Something different on the dial shouldn't be viewed as a burden, it should be seen as a benefit, even if it isn't always catering directly to me.

If there are 34 million people in Canada and if the CBC's budget is $1 billion it works out to a cost of almost $30 per person. If there's 23 million taxpayers in Canada it would cost a little over $41 per taxpayer. What benefit are we getting for that amount? We have access to hundreds of tv and radio stations and with the internet it is impossible to justify the cost of a national broadcaster.

[Azure]

- Give $105 million next year to Via Rail for operational and capital projects.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/business/2012+...#ixzz1qdIH33fm

??

[yads]

Originally Posted by sevenarms

If there are 34 million people in Canada and if the CBC's budget is $1 billion it works out to a cost of almost $30 per person. If there's 23 million taxpayers in Canada it would cost a little over $41 per taxpayer. What benefit are we getting for that amount? We have access to hundreds of tv and radio stations and with the internet it is impossible to justify the cost of a national broadcaster.

We spend $5 billion (soon to be $4.6 billion) on foreign aid. What benefit are we getting for that amount? With so much bureaucracy in the federal government, there is much more low hanging fruit to reduce the deficit, than wiping out the CBC.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2371543/

[etherealgirl]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I don't recall the Conservatives promising not to cut the CBC, but I might be missing something.

And maybe if the CBC hadn't put themselves on the hot plate with their actions they might not have faced cuts.

But far more important areas and departments got slashed today a 100 million dollar cut is pretty minimal.

"We have said that we will maintain or increase support for the CBC. That is our platform and we have said that before and we will commit to that."
— Conservative minister James Moore, May 3rd 2011

Slashing the budget a little bit every time is an excellent "starve the beast" strategy. So easy for everyone to say it's nothing, this once. Of course.

[CaptainCrunch]

Thats a year ago, around the last budget, I figured there was something that involved this budget

There are far more important ministries taking larger then the CBC is taking.

With their huge expensive lunches and traveling expenses that they were really reluctant to disclose with rockstar parties a 100 million dollars shouldn't really effect their product if they got their spending in other areas under control and maybe gassed a bunch of their executives.

Maybe if CBC didn't continually fight the access to information act to cover that the executives were treating taxpayer money like it was their own wallet they wouldn't have lost their cuts.

The cuts were necessary and it would have looked bad if changes and cuts to defense and social services (increasing OA eligibility) and other areas had happened and the CBC remained the same.

The government should have cut a quarter of the CBC funding this year.

[etherealgirl]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

I stand by my comment. The Baby Boomers are going to suck the entire thing dry, and the politicians will be too afraid of them to turn off the tap (although "stop filling the trough" might be a better analogy)

No. There were inherent problems with the CPP's structure up until the mid-1990s, when several changes were made to make it sustainable for the long term. It is still rated as such.