Catherine Tait, considered insufficiently competent or too controversial to have her mandate extended, traveled there on Monday to save a few cents.
• Also read: CBC/Radio-Canada will cut 10% of its workforce, including 250 jobs in French-speaking countries
In doing so, she complied with the request of Finance Minister Chrysta Freeland, who had already announced that she would deduct around $125 million from the $1.2 billion available to the public broadcaster for several years. The channel generates around $350 million in advertising and subscription revenue on its own, but this amount is gradually being reduced due to competition from digital giants and the economic situation.
So, resigned and obedient (does she have a choice?), the CEO eagerly engaged in an exercise that several of her predecessors practiced regularly. An exercise that Pierre Poilièvre could end abruptly, as 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 about
Regardless, no one will cry over the fate of CBC/Radio-Canada. Cutting 600 jobs and not filling 200 vacancies among 7,960 full-time employees and a few hundred temporary workers is not the end of the world. I am no less sad for everyone who is being laid off, because I know very well that we should thin out department heads and management in particular and not the “small employees”.
In addition to the elimination of these positions, there are the tiny savings mentioned above: a few fewer acquisitions, existing series shortened by a few episodes and fewer original web series. That’s about $40 million saved. There will also be less travel and sponsorship. Who will complain? An additional $25 million in savings.
What a shame that a public broadcaster that knows the importance of Radio-Canada is being managed with extreme hardship. I believed that Justin Trudeau’s government would finally sustain Radio-Canada’s existence and that it would have a vision for the public broadcaster.
When he was elected, wasn’t he unreservedly in favor of long-term financing? Didn’t he promise that CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate would finally be reviewed? Was it not partly for this purpose that Janet Yale’s committee was formed, whose recommendations regarding CBC/Radio-Canada seemed to reflect so well the wishes of the new government?
WORDS, WORDS…
Justin Trudeau’s government appeared so comfortable with the Yale report that its recent election manifesto promised to finally overhaul the public broadcaster’s mandate and end commercial advertising in its news and public affairs programs . Trudeau was re-elected, but nothing he promised CBC/Radio-Canada came to fruition. Like so many previous governments, Justin Trudeau’s government decided to simply cut the public broadcaster’s budget. This is much easier than reviewing the situation of public broadcasting and its mission.
The government cannot be blamed for demanding cuts from CBC/Radio-Canada while the media, and especially television, is in the midst of an existential crisis. Let’s just hope we don’t take the cynicism so far that CBC/Radio-Canada gets the lion’s share of the $100 million a year we just wrested from Google.