“Difficult decisions” are coming to CBC/Radio-Canada, which must find $100 million to complete its budget for next year. The president and CEO of the national broadcaster, Catherine Tait, considers the $50 million emergency fund proposed by the Bloc Québécois to resolve the “systemic” crisis in Canadian media “insufficient.”
She made a plea for the sustainability of the public broadcaster Tuesday afternoon, during a speech before the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM).
The head of Radio-Canada recalled that public media are in turmoil all over the world, often under pressure from populist governments who threaten to reduce their funding. Catherine Tait never named the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, who is threatening to cut funding to the English service of the public broadcaster without affecting Radio-Canada. But the shadow of the aspiring prime minister, who is ahead of Justin Trudeau in the polls, hung over the room.
“We are at the start of a process to examine all our scenarios. We are trying to cut expenses such as travel and discretionary spending, but after this analysis, there will be difficult decisions to make,” warned the CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada in front of 300 people from the industry. business.
The English and French services of the national broadcaster will have to “contribute in a fair and equitable way” to the budgetary effort, affirmed Catherine Tait. She undertakes to “protect our information services, which are essential”, but refuses to comment on possible layoffs.
“Broken” business models
The CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada believes that the federal government will have to do more to help Canadian media, which is suffering from competition from digital giants. She mentioned a solution proposed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, which is to impose a tax on the income of giants like Meta and Google, which monopolize 80% of advertising in the country.
The $50 million emergency fund proposed Tuesday by the Bloc Québécois would undoubtedly help Canadian media, “but I don’t think it’s the solution we’re looking for,” Catherine Tait told reporters after her speech. . “We are talking about a systemic and structural problem. These are the business models [des médias traditionnels] who are broken,” recalled the big boss of the public broadcaster.
The current crisis is hitting major broadcasters hard, who have announced thousands of job cuts in recent weeks.
Last week, TVA Group eliminated 547 positions, or almost a third of its workforce. In June, Bell announced the elimination of 1,300 jobs and the closure of six radio stations. For their part, the six regional daily newspapers that are members of the Information Coops recently announced the voluntary departure of 125 employees, who will not be replaced.
The media crisis promotes disinformation, which risks destabilizing democratic countries, warned Mme Tait, but also the president of the CCMM, Michel Leblanc. “We are living at a time when we most need independent media, which produce information based on facts. The business community wants a strong and enlightened democracy, which offers the stability and predictability we need,” said Mr. Leblanc.