CBC and CTV fail to ask key questions about Ottawa’s big three social programs

Parliament is back in session, with fireworks on the House floor over the NDP’s continued support for the Trudeau government.

But rather than spotlight the political drama, the media would better serve Canadians if it critically evaluated government policy, with a keen eye on government finances and taxpayer money.

For example, the government will soon table its fall fiscal update, which presents the state of Ottawa’s finances. It will be the first “confidence” motion directly related to money in the fall session of Parliament and another opportunity for the opposition NDP and Bloc Quebecois to withdraw their support for the government and trigger an election.

Unfortunately, the media will likely delve deeply into palace intrigue rather than ask tough questions about the government’s fiscal policy, which includes unprecedented levels of spending and massive deficits and debt. When reporters do focus on the substance of policy proposals, they often lean on the government’s talking points rather than on any critical evaluation of how to pay for new programs.

Indeed, in my new study I analyze Trudeau government press releases about three new major social programs—child care, dental care and pharmacare—and the subsequent coverage by the CBC and CTV from Feb. 1, 2021 to May 30, 2024.

Not surprisingly, the government press releases talked about how these programs would help Canadians, but downplayed any information on the budget or fiscal implications, and crucially, how the government would fund these programs. In fact, less than one per cent of the government’s press releases about these three programs mentioned their costs. And none of the releases explained how the government would fund the programs, either through new taxes and/or new debt.

And yet, when CBC and CTV television reporters covered the government announcements about these programs, they emphasized the political implications—including the NDP’s deal with the Trudeau government—without examining whether Canadian taxpayers could afford the programs. In fact, the cost of the three programs comprised a mere 4.1 per cent of CTV’s coverage and 3.7 per cent of CBC’s coverage. In other words, on two of the largest news broadcast organizations in Canada, more than 95 per cent of the combined coverage of these three major new government programs made no reference about how the government plans to pay for these programs.

This is no small omission.

When Justin Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, he promised the government would be “open by default.” To underline that commitment, he publicly released the mandate letters of his entire cabinet, drawing applause from media members who said this would allow them to better hold the government to account.

Fast-forward to 2019, Trudeau’s mandate letter to his finance minister (at that time, Bill Morneau) made reducing the government’s debt the first of his key principles. When Trudeau replaced Morneau with Chrystia Freeland in 2021, he said she was to keep the original priorities and be “guided by values of sustainability and prudence.”

Clearly, despite the media’s initial excitement over Trudeau’s public release of his mandate letters, the CBC and CTV failed to ask how the government’s new permanent spending for these three major programs—again, child care, dental care and pharmacare—was consistent with the government’s commitment to “sustainability and prudence.”

Given the massive spending commitments associated with these programs—and the potential for much greater costs in the future—it’s not unreasonable for the public to expect Canadian journalists to critically evaluate these programs, particularly with respect to costs. Unfortunately, many in the media have a lot of catching up to do.