The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is taking the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to task for spending $93,058 to enter and attend the Radio Television Digital News Association of Canada awards since 2019.

“Taxpayers should not be paying for CBC bureaucrats to travel to awards galas,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Many private newsrooms don’t send awards entries due to time constraints, a slim chance of winning and costs of participating, but the CBC has a firehose of taxpayers’ money and it’s getting wasted here.”

The CBC spent a total of $93,058 on the RTDNA awards between 2019 and 2024, according to access-to-information records obtained by the CTF. The CBC spent $54,390 on entry fees for the awards. Travel and attendance costs totalled $38,668. No travel costs were recorded for 2021 or 2022. These costs are broken down at the end of this news release.

The RTDNA presents annual regional and national awards to media organizations for audio, digital and video journalism.

To be considered for an award in each national category, media organizations must pay a $190 fee. Fees for the regional awards cost $95 to $135, depending on the category. For the national awards this year, 65 per cent of the nominees are from the CBC. For the prairie awards, 72 per cent are from the CBC.

The CBC is listed as a platinum sponsor for the national awards gala in 2024. The top sponsorship for this year’s gala costs $15,000.

The CBC will cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion this year.

CBC News Network’s share of prime-time is 1.8 per cent, meaning 98 per cent of TV-viewing Canadians choose not to watch it.

The CBC employs more than 250 directors, 450 managers and 780 producers that are paid more than $100,000 per year, according to separate access-to-information records obtained by the CTF.

“It’s unfair for other media organizations to have to compete with the bloated, top-heavy, taxpayer-funded CBC for these awards,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “The CBC needs to cut this frivolous expense and stop charging taxpayers to jet off to awards shows.”

Total cost of entering and attending RTDNA awards, per access-to-information records: