CBC/Radio-Canada employees are called to a virtual meeting Monday with CEO Catherine Tait to take stock of the public broadcaster’s “financial challenges” and possible cutbacks.
• Read also: $100M agreement between Ottawa and Google for journalism
• Read also: Media aid: CBC/Radio-Canada must be excluded, says Lacombe
Several sources mention the possible layoff of 600 to 700 employees across the country as part of these cutbacks. Both CBC and Radio-Canada would be affected by these possible cuts. In Quebec, this could result in more than 300 positions eliminated.
In an email sent to all employees on November 29, Catherine Tait indicated that she wanted to “provide an update as to [aux] financial challenges” and “take stock of what is coming in the coming months”.
Senior management at CBC/Radio-Canada indicated to Newspaper by email not wanting to comment for the moment on the purpose of the meeting between Mme Tait and employees of the public broadcaster.
At the time of publishing these lines, the Radio-Canada Workers’ Union had not responded to our interview request.
Recall that Mme Tait announced last November that “difficult efforts” would be needed to reduce the public broadcaster’s spending by $100 million over the next three years. She then did not rule out resorting to job cuts.
A meeting with employees in October was also the opportunity to announce a hiring freeze.
These cuts would occur in a rather difficult context for the media industry in Canada and Quebec. At the beginning of November, Quebecor announced the abolition of 500 positions within TVA Group as part of a reorganization of its services. Earlier this fall, Métro Média closed its doors. This summer, Bell Canada closed several radio stations in addition to cutting 1,300 positions due to loss of revenue.
As of 1er April 2023, CBC/Radio-Canada had 7,960 full-time equivalents across the country.