The Hook

After considerable debate on Tuesday, Parliament passed an opposition motion calling for bridge financing and extra money to support the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. But it didn't mean more money would actually go to the CBC.

In an extensive list of recommendations, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage included these:

RECOMMENDATION 4.1: The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recommends that the Government of Canada commit to stable, multi-year funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, indexed to the cost of living. Funding should be for a period of not less than seven years and be established by means of the proposed memorandum of understanding.

RECOMMENDATION 4.2: The Government of Canada has approved additional one-time funding of $60 million annually since 2002. The Committee recommends that this parliamentary appropriation be permanently added to the Corporation's core funding.

RECOMMENDATION 4.4: The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recommends that CBC/Radio-Canada's core funding be increased to an amount equivalent to at least $40 per capita.

RECOMMENDATION 4.8: The Committee recognizes the current necessity and value of advertising revenues from television and on new platforms, and accepts that the CBC/Radio-Canada continue to pursue those revenue streams. However, the Committee also recommends that the Government of Canada and CBC/Radio-Canada work toward decreasing CBC Radio-Canada's relative dependency on advertising revenues for television programming.

As noted on inside the cbc.com, the non-binding motion was "simply a gesture of support from parliamentarians."

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.