OTTAWA—The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will be getting the money it needs for its so-called “2015 plan,” Heritage Minister James Moore says.

The affirmation, delivered to a Commons committee on Thursday, is a clear rebuff to some Conservatives and CBC critics who have been calling for an abrupt end to the $1.1-billion that goes every year to the public broadcaster.

Moore’s statement, in fact, is the strongest indication yet that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government will continue to stand by CBC and its French counterpart, Radio-Canada, in a coming year of sharp cutbacks across the board in public spending.

“CBC, through their board of directors, has approved their 2015 plan. This is a plan that we support and that we have been pushing for and hoping that the CBC would implement for a long time — staying in the regions, (enhancing) digital technology and protecting their mandate to ensure that it’s all-Canadian programming,” Moore said.

“Those are the three things that we wanted CBC to do, and they’ve done it with their 2015 plan. …In the budget, they will have enough funding to deliver that plan.”

But Moore also hinted to the Commons committee that CBC may have to get along without a separate $60-million programming fund that CBC’s president and executive has repeatedly described has important to fulfilling the broadcaster’s plans for 2015.

The fund has been in every federal budget since 2001, renewed annually to help CBC develop programs in radio, TV and on the Internet.

“There’s a mythology I think built up around that $60-million fund as though it’s untouchable and to touch that would have an impact on the CBC,” Moore said.

The Heritage Minister said that CBC might be better off if it didn’t have to worry each year about whether the $60-million fund would be renewed.

“That’s part of the consideration that we have in working with the CBC, in what’s in taxpayers’ best interests and also what’s in the best interests of the public broadcaster, for a consistent funding envelope, for multiple years,” he said.

In October, in testimony to the same Commons committee, CBC president Hubert Lacroix and two other CBC executives gave a breakdown of how the $60-million had been used to beef up local reporting, create unique shows on radio and TV, and boost journalistic resources where they’re needed.

Acting vice-president Louis Lalande described the fund as “very important” and Christine Wilson, executive director of content planning, said the money had been “pivotal” to fulfilling CBC’s mandate.

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Lacroix told the committee that CBC was not asking for more money, but big reductions in its budget would make it more difficult to reach its 2015 objectives.

Moore told reporters that no final decisions have been made about the $60-million programming fund, but its fate would be revealed in the 2012 federal budget, which will likely be delivered in March.