Is the CBC’s funding in jeopardy under a Stephen Harper majority?

In the Harper government's quest to find $4 billion in savings from program spending, could CBC funding be on the chopping block?

In an apparent pre-emptive public relations campaign, the CBC released a report Wednesday about its worth to the Canadian economy.

The report, commissioned by the CBC and prepared by Deloitte & Touche, claims the public broadcaster contributed $3.7 billion in "gross value added" to the Canadian economy in 2010 based on expenses of $1.7 billion, of which $1.1 billion was direct government funding.

The study has since drawn criticism from many circles of pundits and politicos alike.

John Stephenson, senior vice-president with First Asset and a former consultant, told the Toronto Sun the figures are suspect because CBC paid for the study.

"The way the consulting business works is you're essentially getting a big fat fee to generate a set of findings that management would like you to find," he says. "What they're trying to do is frame the discussion in the most positive light."

Niels Veldhuis, an economist with the Fraser Institute, warned the CBC's study should be viewed with caution.

"For a report to come out that suggests that if we spend $1 on a program like the CBC we're going to generate an additional $3.70 in economic activity, to me, is absolutely preposterous," Veldhuis said.

"The multiplier that's being used is so far outside the realm than what has been found in academic studies, that it's highly, highly questionable."

While the official position of the Harper government is to maintain or increase support for the CBC, some public broadcaster advocates fear a backlash from the Conservative base who believe CBC news coverage has Liberal leanings.

The fears are exasperated by past musings of Harper and other Tories about cutting funding or even abolishing the national broadcaster.

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, an independent watchdog for Canadian programming, tracks anti-CBC comments.

In 2004, as leader of the Opposition, Stephen Harper said he would like to put CBC on a "more commercial footing."

"I've suggested that government subsidies in support of CBC's services should be to those things that are not . . . do not have commercial alternatives," Harper told a crowd in Winnipeg.

In 2008, Conservative party campaign director and now senator, Doug Finley wrote to party supporters with a "National Critical Issues" survey. Question 5 of the survey read: "The CBC costs taxpayers over $1.1 billion per year. Do you think this is a good or bad use of taxpayer dollars?"

In 2010, Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the minister of Canadian Heritage, publicly pondered "killing the CBC."

"Maybe it's time we get out of the broadcasting business," he said during an interview. "The $1.1 billion, plus a whole bunch of other stuff that we're investing into the public broadcaster . . . should we look at reorganizing that in some fashion?"

The national broadcaster may just have something to worry about.

(CP Photo)