Guilbeault praises CBC’s plans to boost local news coverage

OTTAWA — Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault is praising CBC/Radio-Canada’s plans to increase local news coverage as part of its new five-year strategy.

“I think there’s lots of really good elements in this plan. I really like the fact that the public broadcaster wants to invest more in local news across the country,” he told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday.

While Guilbeault pointed to the Liberals’ promised funding increase for the CBC, he would not say whether it will be included in the upcoming federal budget.

The Liberals promised an initial $150 million increase in the broadcaster’s annual funding during the spring election campaign. They also said they would make the CBC’s federal funding statutory, which would make it harder for future governments to eliminate it.

Guilbeault said “those additional resources will help them make sure that Canadians have access to more information, non-biased information, and more local news across the country.”

The public broadcaster has set out plans to expand its audience by reaching out to children and youth, newcomers and non-users or dissatisfied users. CBC president Marie-Philippe Bouchard has said that means a new focus on rural areas and Western Canada through a larger on-the-ground journalistic presence.

The strategy says the CBC intends to “fund additional coverage and hire sufficient journalists” to cover 15 to 20 smaller communities. But a list of those communities provided by a spokesperson cites 11 in Ontario and three in B.C., only one in Alberta and none at all in Saskatchewan or Manitoba.

A CBC spokesperson said the broadcaster already announced last month it was hiring new journalists in Western Canada, including six in British Columbia, six in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan and one in Manitoba.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2025.