600-1,200 CBC job cuts expected
The CBC needs to “stop chasing revenues and eyeballs,” says the minister responsible for the public broadcaster.
In a wide-ranging interview with Sun Media, Heritage Minister James Moore also said CBC layoffs were nearly certain and expected 600 to 1,200 people across the country would lose their jobs.
But the minister said the CBC could trim some fat without sacrificing local programming. He suggested the CBC had many assets to sell that “would not have any impact on the public broadcaster in any way.”
The Conservative government is giving the CBC $1.1 billion in funding, but is refusing to help offset the public broadcaster’s expected budget shortfall of $65 million.
The CBC had requested help obtaining a line of credit to pay for layoff packages, but the government refused.
“I think the CBC has the capacity to do things within the envelope of the financial capacity that they have,” said Moore.
A senior government official suggested the CBC could sell land it owns in Montreal or some of its real estate and lease needed floor-space back.
CBC spokesman Marco Dube said the Crown corporation was worried it would not be allowed to keep money from the sale of its assets. Any assets sold over $4 million must be approved by cabinet.
Moore said the government would only have a problem if the CBC suggested cutting services such as French radio in Vancouver or English services in Quebec City.
The minister said the public broadcaster should return to its mandate of showing Canadian content in a multitude of platforms instead of being a “taxpayer-supported competitor to private broadcasters.”
He added that in an ideal world the CBC would be funded similarly to the BBC, which gets a direct yearly subsidy from viewers, but said that would require substantial changes to the Broadcasting Act.
Ian Morrison, the spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, applauded Moore’s comments, but feared the minister wasn’t controlling the purse-strings.
“The concern is about the gap between his words and others in the government,” said Morrison.
Meanwhile, the CBC announced yesterday Judy Maddren, the voice of its morning news program World Report, will be leaving on March 27.
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