Catherine Tait, who was not considered competent enough, or too controversial, to renew her mandate, went there, on Monday, to save pennies.
• Read also: CBC/Radio-Canada will cut 10% of its workforce, including 250 positions on the French-speaking side
She thus responded to the request of the Minister of Finance Chrysta Freeland who had already announced that she would subtract approximately $125 million from the $1.2 billion allocated for several years to the public broadcaster. By its own means, the broadcaster collects approximately $350 million in advertising and subscription revenues, but this amount is gradually being reduced due to competition from digital giants and economic conditions.
Resigned and obedient (does she have a choice?), the CEO therefore devoted herself studiously to an exercise that several of her predecessors practiced periodically. An exercise that could be brought to a sudden end by Pierre Poilièvre, since he promises to abolish the CBC and keep only the French network if the Conservative Party is elected. Hard to believe, but with this man, you never know!
NOTHING TO CRY
Regardless, no one is going to cry about the fate of CBC/Radio-Canada. Cutting 600 positions and not filling 200 vacant positions when you have 7,960 full-time employees and a few hundred contract workers is not the end of the world. I am no less sad for all those who will be laid off, because I know very well that it is especially among the department heads and management that we should thin out the ranks rather than among the “little staff”.
Added to the abolition of these positions are the penny-pinching savings I spoke about above: a few fewer acquisitions, existing series cut by a few episodes and fewer original web series. That’s about $40 million saved. There will also be less travel and sponsorships. Who will complain? Another $25 million in savings.
What a pity to see a public broadcaster of the importance of Radio-Canada being managed on a shoestring basis. I believed that Justin Trudeau’s government was finally going to perpetuate the existence of Radio-Canada, that it was going to have a vision for the public broadcaster.
Had he not, upon his election, declared himself unreservedly in favor of long-term financing? Had he not promised that the mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada would finally be reviewed? Was it not, in part, for this purpose that Janet Yale’s committee was formed, whose recommendations regarding CBC/Radio-Canada seemed to so well reflect the wishes of the new government?
Archive photo, QMI Agency
WORDS, WORDS…
Justin Trudeau’s government seemed so in agreement with the Yale report that its latest election platform promised to finally revise the public broadcaster’s mandate and put an end to commercial advertising in its news and public affairs programs. Trudeau was re-elected, but none of what he promised for CBC/Radio-Canada came to fruition. Like so many previous governments, that of Justin Trudeau decided to simply slash the budget of the public broadcaster. It’s much easier than reviewing the situation of the public broadcaster and reviewing its mandate.
The government cannot be blamed for demanding cuts from CBC/Radio-Canada, while the media, and particularly television, are in the midst of an existential crisis. Let’s just hope that we won’t push cynicism to the point of ensuring that CBC/Radio-Canada receives the lion’s share of the $100 million annually that we have just wrested from Google.