The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation employs more than 250 directors, 450 managers and 780 producers that are paid more than $100,000 per year, according to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“The CBC’s own records show it has a bloated bureaucracy full of highly paid managers and bureaucrats,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Canadians need tax relief not a bunch of managers managing managers at the CBC.”

The CTF obtained a 65-page list of CBC employees that are paid more than $100,000 per year. Some of the positions include:

• Manager = 180 employees
• Senior manager = 277 employees
• Director = 124 employees
• Senior director = 106 employees
• Executive director = 28 employees
• Producer = 493 employees
• Technical producer = 36 employees
• Senior producer = 168 employees
• Executive producer = 86 employees

The CBC also employed 130 advisors, 81 analysts, 120 hosts, 80 project leads, 30 lead architects, 25 supervisors, among other positions, that were paid more than $100,000 last year, according to the access-to-information records. The CBC redacted the roles for more than 200 employees.

The number of employees collecting six-figure salaries has ballooned at the state broadcaster, according to separate access-to-information records obtained by the CTF.

In 2024-25, 1,831 CBC employees took a six-figure salary. Those salaries cost taxpayers about $240 million, for an average salary of $131,060 for those employees.

In 2015-16, 438 CBC employees took home six-figure salaries, for a total cost to taxpayers of about $60 million. 

The number of CBC staffers with a six-figure salary increased 17 per cent over the last year and has increased by 318 per cent since 2015.

“The records prove the CBC has fat to cut and if Prime Minister Mark Carney is serious about saving money, he needs to force CBC to cut its bureaucratic bloat,” Terrazzano said. “Or better yet, Carney should defund the CBC.”

CBC spending on pay raises has also significantly increased.

After cancelling its taxpayer-funded bonuses, CBC handed out record high pay raises of $37.7 million in 2024-25.

This recent round of pay raises cost significantly more than raises in previous years. For context, the CBC handed out $11.5 million in raises in 2023-24.

The higher pay raises more than offset the elimination of the bonuses, which the CBC cancelled following massive public backlash across the political spectrum.

“The Board of Directors, with the advice and concurrence of the President and CEO, has decided to discontinue individual performance pay,” the CBC announced on May 14, 2025. “In order to keep overall compensation at the current median level, salaries of those affected will be adjusted to reflect the elimination of individual performance pay.”

The CBC will cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion this year, according to the Main Estimates.

The Carney government is requiring Crown corporations, including CBC, to propose savings of up to 15 per cent of their spending. CBC is required to find up to $198 million in annual savings in three years, according to media reports.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for an office full of middle managers pretending to be reporters,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director and longtime former member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. “The government should stop giving taxpayers’ money to the CBC and force the broadcaster to raise money on its own merits from willing donors and subscribers.”