Radio-Canada management circulated the word “cuts” during a recent meeting with employees of the information department, we have learned The Press. The public broadcaster confirms to us that it is facing a set of “financial pressures”.
Luce Julien, general director of information at Radio-Canada, for example, alluded to budget cuts, without specifying the extent, during a meeting last Thursday with the radio service, according to the report of several journalists .
“We recently told our employees that Radio-Canada is currently facing financial pressures,” confirms the spokesperson for the public broadcaster, Marc Pichette, in an email to The Press.
“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 extent of the cuts must be communicated in December, said Mme Julien alongside Ginette Viens, first director of the information network, and Maryse Gagnon, radio and audio information director. We will have to wait until next spring to know the jobs affected.
It is impossible, for the moment, to know whether the cuts will result in job abolitions or cuts through attrition, or whether services will be particularly targeted. Young people will not be spared, it was said.
” On this point, [Luce Julien] simply mentioned that if there are job losses, it is never fun and that the collective agreement will be applied if necessary,” comments Marc Pichette.
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No sector will be spared, according to information gleaned at the meeting.
In the sports department, which is not part of information, there was talk of “restrictions” rather than “cutbacks”: efforts of 10% over three years from the next budget would be required, according to information sent to the employees.
“Climate of insecurity”
The statements of Mme Julien “set fire” in the corridors well beyond Montreal, according to Pierre Tousignant, president of the Union of Radio-Canada Workers (STTRC). He appears “at the very least surprised” that cutbacks are already being mentioned even though the 2023-2024 budget year has been approved and ends next March.
With this type of announcement, “we create a climate of insecurity,” regrets Mr. Tousignant. He recalls that the employment contract signed in 2022 was rather synonymous with stability; it supervises the posting of 120 permanent positions, in particular for the benefit of the numerous contractual employees. “There are employees who fear that they will be told of a job loss just before the holidays. »
The STTRC says it has another opinion from general management: no cut plan would be on the agenda, at least for the current financial year. “If there ever is one, that would take us to 2024-2025,” says Mr. Tousignant. According to the collective agreement, any proposed cuts must be discussed with the union, he specifies.
Losses of income
Growing strongly since its launch, the paid platform ICI TOU.TV Extra recorded an initial decline in its subscriptions in 2022, according to a survey by the Academy of Digital Transformation published last January.
Worse still, the Crown Corporation’s advertising revenues are down across Canada, but “particularly in Quebec”, many employees have been told.
“We are told that the advertising revenue targets have not been reached,” agrees Pierre Tousignant, of the STTRC. “But there are six months left in the financial year…”
The head of CBC/Radio-Canda, Catherine Tait, and the senior vice-president of French Services, Michel Bissonnette, took turns talking about budgetary pressures in recent forums with employees. The public broadcaster would not be spared from the slimming regime that the Trudeau government intends to impose on the public service and Crown corporations. The financial efforts requested from CBC/Canada were already known and amount to a little more than 3% of the operating budget over three years. However, job losses are being mentioned for the first time.
According to Pierre Tousignant, the public broadcaster can reduce its expenses without sacrificing staff and content. He recalls, for example, that Radio-Canada benefits from a pension fund contribution holiday for 2022 and 2023, which represents savings of more than 90 million.
A strategic committee mandated by the senior management of the State Corporation is looking, among other things, at the financial challenges of the public broadcaster.
“The management team is currently working to find solutions and develop a plan that will be as painless as possible for employees while helping to prepare Radio-Canada for the future,” underlines spokesperson Marc Pichette.