Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!ubc-cs!anchor.cs.ubc.ca!acton
From: acton@anchor.cs.ubc.ca (Donald Acton)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: CBC Subsidy (was: That F'n Fed Sales Tax ...)
Message-ID: <4738@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 16 Aug 89 16:20:14 GMT
References: <KIM.89Aug13013635@watsup.waterloo.edu> <3249@watale.waterloo.edu> <639@UALTAVM.BITNET> <KIM.89Aug16025916@watsup.waterloo.edu>
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Reply-To: acton@cs.ubc.ca (Donald Acton)
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Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 51

In article <KIM.89Aug16025916@watsup.waterloo.edu> kim@watsup.waterloo.edu (T. Kim Nguyen) writes:
}>In article <639@UALTAVM.BITNET> TMCLELLA@UALTAVM.BITNET (Tim Mclellan) writes:
}>
}>   I don't like taxes either.  And I don't like subsidizing CBC to the
}>   tune of $50 million (a year?).

}Hmm, all debating about the virtue of the CBC aside, perhaps you
}should concentrate your efforts on getting rid of Significant
}Expenses.  Like this daycare scam.  That's BILLIONS of $$$.  Not this
}piddly million stuff.

If the subsidy to the CBC were in fact $50 million dollars it would
indeed be piddly stuff based on the past and present spending habits
of our federal government. But it isn't. In the last federal budget
the subsidy to the CBC was in excess of $900 million dollars hardly a
trifling amount and this is a recurring expense. But before anyone gets
too excited that this means I support daycare it doesn't. Just think
of the billions that could be saved if the government abandoned the
CBC, and its plans for a national daycare program. 

But while on the topic of government waste there are two new buildings
in the Ottawa/Hull area that are going to cost us well over a billion
dollars by the time they are completed. I speak of the National
Gallery and the Museum of Civilization (or whatever). Based on
conversations I have had with friends who have actually been to both
of these places they are very impressive monuments to the power brokers of
Ottawa. But, they appear to have been very difficult buildings to
construct. (ex My friend didn't think there was a straight line in the
Museum of Civilization.) If the government were truly concerned with
controlling spending I am sure they could have constructed something
to properly house these collections for half the cost. After all look
at the cost of the "Big O", vs Skydome, vs BC Place Stadium. All these
structures serve basically the same function yet there is an order of
magnitude difference in cost between the least expensive and the
most and it certainly can't be said that the most expensive is the
best or most successful. 

} I think that CBC has
}now taken on a more cultural preservation role, and in that I believe
}it does a fine job of giving us an alternative to American
}gunshots-and-car-chases TV shows.

Do we need to finance a complete Radio and Television Network to
preserve culture? If one thinks that the government has any role in
preserving culture, which I don't think it does, then it would be a
lot cheaper to finance select shows and directly buy TV time instead
of trying to provide a generally mediocre service with a few bright
gems. Anyway isn't the NFB supposed to be doing that sort of thing
too?

 Donald Acton