(Ottawa) Le premier ministre Justin Trudeau se dit « furieux » de la décision « pourrie » prise par Bell Canada de mettre fin à des bulletins de nouvelles télévisés, de supprimer 4800 emplois et de vendre près de la moitié de ses stations de radio régionales.
« This is a garbage decision », a-t-il dit vendredi en anglais au cours d’un point de presse dans le Grand Toronto, ce qui peut être traduit par « c’est une décision pourrie ».
Lisez « BCE élimine 4800 emplois, vend des stations de radio et écorche Ottawa »
M. Trudeau a ainsi rajouté une couche aux reproches faits la veille par sa ministre du Patrimoine, Pascale St-Onge, à l’égard de Bell et de sa société mère BCE.
Elle a notamment affirmé que l’entreprise n’a pas tenu parole de maintenir des bulletins de nouvelles alors qu’elle en avait fait la promesse en faisant des acquisitions. La ministre a aussi soutenu que Bell a effectué des coupes malgré des allégements réglementaires de 40 millions de ses obligations envers le Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes (CRTC).
De voir les grandes corporations comme Bell, dans ce cas-ci, participer à l’érosion non seulement de notre journalisme, mais de notre démocratie et de notre sens de communauté […]this is, for me, completely unacceptable and it annoys me enormously.
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister deplored what he sees as a trend of layoffs, in the context of recent years where “community organizations, local journalists, are being bought by conglomerates, by multinationals.”
“As a government, we have been there and we will continue to be there to invest in local journalism,” said Mr. Trudeau.
BCE specified that less than 10% of the positions cut will be at Bell Media, a division including teams assigned to both information and entertainment content.
Multi-tasking journalists would be called upon to replace teams of correspondents and technicians working for CTV National News in Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, while other correspondent changes would be made in Ottawa.
Minister St-Onge mentioned Thursday that Bell was complaining to her that things were not moving fast enough for the CRTC to adapt its regulatory framework to the digital age, about a year after the adoption of Bill C -11 in this matter.
“There have been reliefs already given to them for the interim period, but at some point, companies that make billions of dollars [et] who have made a commitment to the Canadian population must respect their end of their commitments,” she said.
In a written statement explaining the cuts, BCE President and CEO Mirko Bibic argued that Bell Media’s advertising revenues fell by $140 million in 2023, compared to the previous year.
“Our annual operating losses amount to more than $40 million for all of our news services, despite the fact that we have the most popular network of local television stations,” he said. we read.
Legislation C-11 aims to modernize the Broadcasting Act. The CRTC makes regulatory changes so that new legislative measures actually come into force.
With information from Sammy Hudes in Toronto