OTTAWA - It cost taxpayers more than $56,000 for the CBC to survey its own employees and so-called opinion leaders last winter to measure their feelings about the state broadcaster.

Documents obtained through an access to information request show the CBC signed a sole-sourced contract with Phoenix Strategic Partners to conduct the online surveys between November and December 2011.

The CBC asked Phoenix to assemble a panel of 2,000 "stakeholders" from across Canada, but to include more francophone panellists than the pollster used in a similar survey a year earlier.

Only 410 opinion elites actually completed the survey. They overwhelmingly supported the CBC.

Exactly 80% said they had a favourable impression of the state broadcaster, while 70% agreed the CBC did a good job of "enriching democratic life."

Survey results among CBC employees were not publicly available.

The CBC also surveyed stakeholders in 2010 at a cost to taxpayers of at least $38,000.

Little has changed since then, with 80% of opinion leaders in 2010 saying they saw the Crown corporation in a favourable light.