He Promised to Fund the CBC. He's Defunding It.
On April 4, 2025, while campaigning in Montreal, Liberal Leader Mark Carney stood before the cameras and made a direct promise to Canadian voters: his government would deliver an immediate $150 million annual boost to CBC/Radio-Canada. He didn't hedge. He didn't offer caveats. He said the CBC was underfunded. He said that had to change. He said he would change it.
Canadians voted. The Liberals won. And now, less than a year later, the government's 2026–27 main estimates — tabled by Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali on February 26 — reveal the real plan: the CBC will receive $192 million less than last year.
The numbers alone tell the story. But the story gets worse. Carney didn't just break a promise — he broke it while his own cabinet minister was publicly defending the CBC from critics, insisting cuts would be an attack on democracy itself.
Those words were spoken to a parliamentary committee — on the public record — just weeks before the estimates were released. The minister defending the CBC's funding was in the same government that had already decided to cut it. Either Miller didn't know, or he knew and said it anyway. Neither option is reassuring.
The CBC's own spokesperson confirmed the situation plainly. Leon Mar, speaking to The Wire Report, acknowledged that neither the $150 million nor the $42 million top-up "will be repeated in 2026–2027" — adding that there is no indication whether either will return in the future.
Source: CBC News, April 4, 2025
Source: Global News
Carney explicitly attacked Pierre Poilievre for wanting to defund the CBC. He said defunding the CBC was an attack on Canadian identity, on Radio-Canada, and on democracy. He used the word "underfunded" to describe the broadcaster's existing situation — and promised to fix it. Then, once in government, he cut $192 million.
This is not an accounting technicality. The November 2025 federal budget did include the $150 million top-up — that much is true, and Carney's team will point to it. But those funds were not made permanent. They were classified as temporary, discretionary spending — and they have now been allowed to expire. A promise Carney made to Canadians as a condition of earning their votes was structured so it could disappear after a single year. It did.
The CBC's funding for 2026–27 now sits at its lowest level since 2023–24 — before the election, before the promise, before any of the speeches about democracy and national identity. The broadcaster has been told to manage with what Parliament allocates. The mandate review Carney promised is still not complete. The long-term funding guarantee he pledged to enshrine in law has not materialized.
Carney campaigned explicitly on boosting CBC funding and attacked his opponent for wanting to cut it. His government then cut it by $192 million — the largest single-year funding drop in recent memory — while his own minister was telling Parliament that such a cut would undermine democracy. What is the point of elections if promises made to win them are abandoned the moment they become inconvenient?