The CBC already receives "substantial financing" from federal coffers, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Wednesday as the public broadcaster sought help from Ottawa to stave off cuts to staff and programming.

The public broadcaster says it's in talks with the Heritage Department about the dire effects of a sinking economy, which it says will plunge the corporation into a deep deficit in 2009-2010.

But Flaherty said the CBC already receives a significant amount of public money each year.

"There's substantial financing for CBC in the budget — $1 billion," Flaherty said in a scrum with reporters in Ottawa.

"And traditionally, in recent years, they've received an additional $60 million on top of the $1 billion."

CBC president Hubert Lacroix has said that a $65-million advertising shortfall forced the corporation to draw from reserve funds to balance its books this fiscal year.

But he said the outlook for next year is significantly worse and will require "decisive action in the coming months" that could involve cuts to programs and staff.

A CBC spokesman said Wednesday that those decisions would be made by mid-March.

"We anticipate … that it's going to be a very difficult year," Jeff Keay said of 2009-2010.

"Like every other media organization in the country, we're facing significant challenges and those challenges do in fact put programming, services and our own people at risk."

In an internal memo to staff this week, Lacroix warned that the corporation will have to make some tough choices that will affect jobs, services and programs.

The dire outlook comes after the corporation took the unusual step of buying broadcast rights to U.S. shows including Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune last year, a move heavily criticized by the broadcast industry watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

Keay said the investments were made to draw more viewers to the CBC and its Canadian programming. And while he says the game shows have delivered viewers, he admitted that an industry-wide advertising slump has mitigated those gains.

"In the context of the falling advertising revenues, it's too soon to say, but the model is perfectly sound and valid," he said of the CBC's decision to invest in U.S. shows.