Federal elected officials plan to summon senior executives from Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) to Ottawa to explain 4,800 job cuts announced last week.
• Also read: Cuts to Bell: “It’s a shitty decision,” frets Trudeau
• Also read: Bell is cutting 4,800 jobs and reducing its media operations in Quebec
A motion approved by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage would require six of the company's senior executives, including BCE and Bell Canada president and CEO Mirko Bibic, to appear before the committee during a two-hour meeting on February 29 to make their case explain .
The proposal came from Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed, who lamented that Bell's announced job cuts “significantly impact access to local journalism in Canada” and “harm democracy.”
This was supported by the New Democrats and the Bloc, while the Conservatives neither supported nor opposed the proposal.
In addition, MPs rejected a proposal from NDP MP Niki Ashton to force the ministers of heritage and industry to also appear at the same meeting.
“We want to see Bell. We want answers from Bell. “We want to do a study of everything that led to these cuts,” explained Bloc MP Martin Champoux.
BCE caused an earthquake in the media universe last week when it announced it would cut 9% of its workforce and sell 45 of its 103 regional radio stations, while also considering a 3.1% increase in its dividend in 2024.
The announcement had caught the Liberal government by surprise and castigated it, with the prime minister even denouncing a “poor decision” by Bell.
“I'm quite dismayed by what just happened,” he said on Friday, a day after the formal resignation of his heritage minister, Pascale St-Onge, who also expressed her disappointment.
These cuts added to the litany of bad news that has been circulating in the media for over a year.