CBC’s new CEO says cutting government funding would ‘cripple’ English and French services [Video]

The new CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s promise to defund the public broadcaster could “cripple” both its English and French services and change the country’s news and entertainment media landscape for the worse.

“It is to some extent an existential threat because it wouldn’t be the same corporation that we have today,” Marie-Philippe Bouchard told The Current’s Matt Galloway.

Poilievre has said if he becomes prime minister, he will cut the government’s funding of the CBC, which currently runs to the tune of $1.4 billion per year. He said he would cut all English services but keep some French services.

CBC/Radio-Canada’s English and French services share many resources, such as buildings. Bouchard says a $1 billion hit to the former would have serious effects on the latter.

“If we are imagining that we are going to go forward with only French, the math just doesn’t work. There’s a serious risk that …