Guilbeault praises CBC’s plans to boost local news coverage

OTTAWA — Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault is praising CBC/Radio-Canada’s plans to increase local news coverage as part of its new five-year strategy.

“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 told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday.

While Guilbeault pointed to the Liberals’ promised funding increase for the CBC, he would not say whether it will be included in the upcoming federal budget.

The Liberals promised an initial $150 million boost to the broadcaster’s annual funding during the spring election campaign. They also said they would make the CBC’s federal funding statutory, which would make it harder for future governments to eliminate it.

Guilbeault said “those additional resources will help them make sure that Canadians have access to more information, non-biased information, and more local news across the country.”

CBC president Marie-Philippe Bouchard told a Senate committee Tuesday morning she does not know what the budget has in store for the CBC.

Sen. Donna Dasko asked Bouchard about the prospect of a funding increase, or of having to make cuts in response to a government directive to trim program spending by 15 per cent.

Bouchard said the CBC has flexibility either way.

“Our strategy is really like an accordion,” she responded. “Depending on whether or not we get more funding or we are asked to reduce our dependency on the (parliamentary) appropriation, we will make those decisions based on those priorities.”

Bouchard said she has been given “no assurances of one or another. This is all cabinet secret at this point.”

The public broadcaster has laid out a strategy to expand its audience by reaching out to children and youth, newcomers and non-users or dissatisfied users. Bouchard has said that means a new focus on rural areas and Western Canada through a larger on-the-ground journalistic presence.

The strategy says the CBC intends to “fund additional coverage and hire sufficient journalists” to cover 15 to 20 smaller communities.

A CBC spokesperson later told The Canadian Press the broadcaster had identified the markets where it wants to expand news coverage, and provided a list of 20 communities with populations of 50,000 that are either not served or are underserved by the CBC.

The list included only four communities in Western Canada — three in British Columbia and one in Alberta. No communities from either Saskatchewan or Manitoba made the list.

When asked about the lack of Western Canadian locations on the list, CBC spokesperson Leon Mar said the broadcaster already announced last month it was hiring new journalists in Western Canada, including six in British Columbia, six in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan and one in Manitoba.

Mar also said the list is made up of communities with more than 50,000 people that do not have CBC or Radio-Canada staff “on the ground.” He said the list is not the final word on where the broadcaster will extend its coverage.

In a followup email, Mar said no final decisions have been made yet and the CBC may expand to those communities or others that are not listed, including some in provinces that are not on the list.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2025.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press