Catherine Tait staying on to lead CBC/Radio Canada — but with a shorter second mandate

Catherine Tait, president and CEO of CBC/RadioCanada, will keep her job for the next 18 months as the government begins the process of picking a perma‐ nent replacement to lead the public broadcaster.

Tait, who has led the ser‐ vice through a tumul‐ tuous time, will stay on until January 2025. Tait's first fiveyear term officially ends in Ju‐ ly.

The shorter second man‐ date gives the government "a bridge to get us through the independent open process we need to run, just like 2017," a senior government source told CBC News, refer‐ ring to the independent advi‐ sory committee that chose Tait.

The previous committee was chaired by former televi‐ sion journalist Tom Clark and eight other non-partisan peo‐ ple from across the country — a process intended to neu‐ tralize claims that the govern‐ ment exerts too much control over the CBC's governance. The government will soon ini‐ tiate a similar process to pick her successor.

Le Devoir was first to re‐ port that Tait has been re‐ newed.

In a statement, Tait said she wants to spend her re‐ maining time at the broad‐ caster focused on addressing what she calls "the urgent is‐ sues of polarization and dis‐ trust" which are "undermining democratic and open soci‐ eties."

"It's a critical issue that all Western democracies are grappling with. I believe Cana‐ da's public broadcaster has a unique role to play to address disinformation, build trust in verified and trusted news, and, most importantly, to fos‐ ter Canadian conversations in English, French and Indige‐ nous languages," Tait said.

Tait's anticipated six-anda-half year stint is shorter than those enjoyed by some past presidents.

Her immediate predeces‐ sor, Hubert Lacroix, a lawyer, businessman and former bas‐ ketball colour commentator, served for 10 years. Before Lacroix, Robert Rabi‐ novitch led the company be‐ tween 1999 and 2007.

The next president and CEO will lead the broadcaster at a time of profound change in the media landscape.

Conventional TV and radio platforms are grappling with stagnant or declining audi‐ ences while fledgling stream‐ ing services, like the CBC's Gem and Listen, find their footing.

"We'll kick off 2025 with an exciting new leader that can carry it forward for the long term," the source said.

Tait, an industry veteran with a long list of credentials, has championed public broadcasting in the five years she's been on the job so far.

In a statement announc‐ ing the extension, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez praised Tait for her efforts to combat online and physical threats of harm against jour‐ nalists.

Under Tait's direction, the CBC has also deployed jour‐ nalists in underserved com‐ munities like Grand Prairie and Lethbridge in Alberta, Nanaimo and Cranbrook in B.C., and Kingston, Ont., Ro‐ driguez said.

"CBC/Radio-Canada plays an essential role in our coun‐

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Tait has also been a source of controversy.

Tait has had a tense rela‐ tionship with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has vowed to "defund the CBC" if he becomes prime minister.

Citing documents ob‐ tained under the access-to-in‐ formation law, La Presse re‐ ported last month that Tait requested a meeting with Poilievre shortly after he was elected leader. Poilievre de‐ clined the invitation.

"Since during your leader‐ ship campaign you publicly pledged to 'defund CBC,' I would have hoped that spending time understanding the organization might have been helpful," Tait said in a let‐ ter dated Nov. 29, 2022.

Tait later told The Globe and Mail in February that Poilievre is fuelling "CBC bash‐ ing."

The party in turn has claimed in its fundraising ap‐ peals that CBC is a "propagan‐ da arm" of the Liberal govern‐ ment — something Tait has vigorously denied.

CBC and the French-lan‐ guage service, Radio-Canada, operate independently — and at arm's length — from the government.