On the heels of several media outlets reporting about VP of French Sercives Sylvain Lafrance’s expenses, which amounted to almost $80,000 in 2006, it seems Richard Stursberg is next in line.
A report by the Ottawa Sun yesterday says Stursberg raked up $85,000 in expenses over two years.
These stories have been gaining traction for a few days now, so in case you’re not caught up, here’s the background.
Several newspapers are now running stories based on a bunch of Acess to Information requests on CBC executives. The requests first resulted in the Sylvain Lafrance stories. Now Stursberg’s expenses are in the spotlight. The documents were obtained by Ken Rubin who is described as a Sun paper researcher.
Now I don’t know Ken Rubin, or the process to file access to information requests, but if I were him I’d save a few stamps and check this website. It lists all of the executives expenses since 2007 on whatever, whenever.
The site shows that for instance the President of the CBC has a “Business meal with Auditor General of Canada – $23.21″ on June 27, 2008.
Twenty bucks on the auditor general. Hardly seems excessive.
Now don’t get me wrong. There may be some legitimate excessive spending at the CBC, the Sun story details a meal between Richard Stursberg, Rick Mercer and one other person for $616.34. Yes, that’s a lot to spend on dinner, but let’s keep in mind what Mercer does. He hosts of the one of the most popular shows on the network.
Is a $600 dinner an outrageous expense? Or a smart business gesture to keep on of your highest grossing personalities happy?
It should also be said that the money is a combination of personal and business expenses. If Stursberg puts on an event in the atrium, then it goes against his expenses.
But the larger question is: What’s the motive?
The Canadian Press reported that this may be part of a larger strategy to discredit the CBC and lay the groundwork to cut its spending as we head into a recession:
Libby Davies, the NDP heritage critic, said the successive messages point to a government “laying the groundwork” for a whack at its favourite whipping boy.
“They’re sort of cherry-picking now and zeroing in on expenses . . . really setting the stage for something that they want to come up with politically to go after and attack CBC,” she said.
What do you think? Are the executive expenses at the CBC newsworthy? Or is this something else?
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| Access to Information, CBC Policies, Parliament | Posted at 12:59 pm (27 Nov 2008) |
The individual who filed nearly 450 Access to Information requests to the CBC has revealed himself to be Michel Drapeau, a former colonel and now a lawyer in private practice.
