Radio-Canada announced Monday afternoon the elimination of 600 positions, or approximately 10% of its workforce, a new blow for the Canadian media.
It was the president and CEO, Catherine Tait, who made the announcement during a meeting with employees of the public broadcaster. “This portrait results from the latest forecasts,” she said. It could still change. » In addition to the 600 positions eliminated, unionized and non-unionized, 200 vacant positions will not be filled. Layoffs will be made “in the coming weeks,” but most will take place at the start of the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Radio-Canada is facing “pressures” of 125 million and not 100 million, as the boss had previously announced. To justify the cuts, Mme Tait cited “major trends” in the industry, such as inflation, “fierce competition from digital giants” as well as “falling revenues from traditional television”.
This draconian measure is the culmination of a tumultuous autumn in the Maison de Radio-Canada. Already in September, The Press revealed that Radio-Canada management was circulating the word “cuts” during a series of meetings with its employees.
” We [leur] We recently indicated that Radio-Canada is currently facing financial pressures,” confirmed the spokesperson for the public broadcaster, Marc Pichette.
At the beginning of October, it was the unexpected departure of Michel Bissonnette, senior vice-president of French Services at Radio-Canada, which made headlines. This “resignation” – according to the official version – took place in a tense context, not only after the divisions between CBC and Radio-Canada around the controversy of the word beginning with an N, but also at the dawn of inevitable cuts .
Two weeks later, in October, Radio-Canada suspended the creation of new positions, according to information first published in The duty.
Then at the beginning of November, Mme Tait herself confirmed a $100 million cut from the public broadcaster’s next annual budget, adding that there would be “difficult decisions to make.” »
“These pressures are largely attributable to the drop in advertising and subscription revenues, the impact of inflation on operating costs and production costs as well as the savings requested by the federal government from departments and to state corporations, including CBC/Radio-Canada,” he explains.
The year 2023 will have brought dark months for the media: in addition to the elimination of 547 positions at TVA, we must add the closure of the daily newspaper Metrothe end of paper and the loss of jobs at Coops de l’information as well as the decision of Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to block Canadian media in the wake of Bill C-18 on online news.