The federal Liberals are voicing their support for the public broadcaster after it announced layoffs on Monday, but Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland won’t weigh in on whether Ottawa will exempt it from across-the-board budget cuts. Freeland told reporters on Tuesday morning that the CBC and Radio-Canada cuts were “very sad news.”But when asked whether it was an option to exempt the public broadcaster from overall spending cuts, Freeland skirted the question. “Our government strongly supports Radio-Canada and CBC,” she said in French. Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation earlier this year reveal the public broadcaster has awarded $99 million in bonuses between 2015 and 2022. Despite the latest cuts, the public broadcaster’s president didn’t rule out more bonuses this year in an interview aired on CBC News’s The National on Monday night.
