CBC should be strengthened

Dear Editor,

People in Waterloo are about to lose access to CBC and Radio Canada because of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

The CBC and Radio Canada television transmitters in Waterloo are being forced to shut down because the Federal Budget took the axe to CBC-Radio Canada’s operating budget. As a result, residents who get their TV signal from traditional over-the-air signal will be cut off from CBC and Radio Canada broadcasts. Particularly hard hit are seniors, students and the unemployed.

It didn’t have to be this way. If the CBC and Radio Canada had proper funding, they could have built modern digital transmission towers and improved access in Waterloo.

While Heritage Minister James Moore promised in the last election that the Conservative Party “will maintain or increase support for the CBC,” he quickly changed his tune after the election. Now he is has made deep ideological cuts to the CBC-Radio Canada’s budget, slashing 10 per cent of its funding.

Unlike the Conservatives, the Liberal Party believes that the CBC and Radio Canada is pivotal to connecting Canadians from coast to coast to coast and should be strengthened — not gutted.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Simms, Canadian Heritage Critic

Liberal Party of Canada