Familiar faces, voices to leave in CBC cost-cutting
CBC English Services has sent 158 redundancy notices to its Canadian Media Guild employees outside Quebec and Moncton as of Thursday in a cutback program that will see the broadcaster lose several of its best known faces and voices.
CMG represents a range of technicians, producers, librarians, journalists and other employees at CBC and Radio-Canada across the country ó except in Quebec and Moncton.
The total number of potential layoffs across the country was reduced by 73 employees taking voluntary retirement.
Among those to take retirement packages are some of CBC’s most experienced reporters, including Brian Stewart, of The National, Steve Finkelman, a municipal affairs reporter in Edmonton, and John McGrath, who covers Queen’s Park in Toronto.
Also taking a retirement package is Jeff Collins, host of Calgary afternoon radio program, The Home Stretch. In Charlottetown, the staff of Compass received redundancy notices, including former on-air personaility Claire Nantes. Don Newman, host of CBC News: Politics, and Jim Nunn, host of CBC News: Nova Scotia at Six,had previously announced they would be retiring.
Stewart, 67, said he had been thinking of retiring for a few years.
“My reasons are simple ó I’ve been working as a reporter without a break for 45 years this month which is a hell of a long haul,” he said
“I started six months after Kennedy was shot in Dallas and four months after the Beatles hit North America, so it’s probably time for a change. I’ve also wanted more time to devote to writing and to some non-profit activities I’m interested in.”
According to the CMG, about 100 contract employees have not had their positions renewed and a further 19 job vacancies will not be filled. The union says 350 jobs will eventually be cut from the CBC’s service outside Quebec through a combination of layoffs, vacancies, retirements and contracts not renewed.
The full impact of the cuts, however, won’t be known until September. That’s because employees who received notices that their jobs will be eliminated have an opportunity to move into positions held by people with less seniority.
There may also be further changes because of the CBC news renewal process geared to creating 24-hour coverage on radio, TV and online.
Viewers and listeners will begin to see changes on their CBC schedules as soon as next weekend when CBC News: Sunday, the morning TV program with Evan Solomon and Carole MacNeil, is cancelled. The last show airs May 31.
The regional Living shows have been cut across the country, and radio schedules are being juggled to accommodate all the changes at the public broadcaster.
According to CMG, the number of jobs to go, including contract jobs, redundancy notices and voluntary retirements, by city is:
Calgary,18.
Charlottetown, 6.
Corner Brook, NL, 3.
Edmonton, 16.
Fredericton, 3.
Gander, NL, 2.
Grand Falls, NL, 2.
Halifax, 12.
Ottawa, 9.
Rankin Inlet, 1.
Regina, 3.
Saint John, NB, 2.
Saskatoon, 2.
St. John’s, 6.
Sudbury, Ont., 8.
Sydney, N.S., 3.
Thunder Bay, Ont., 5.
Toronto, 155.
Vancouver, 45.
Whitehorse, 3.
Windsor, Ont., 13.
Winnipeg, 9.
Yellowknife, 8
A CBC spokesman refused to confirm the figures.
Listeners to small radio stations such as Windsor, Sudbury and Thunder Bay in Ontario are likely to hear the difference. The Windsor French-language service is to end. And those stations have seen deep cuts to their news and current affairs departments.
“As a northerner Iím offended that we always seem to come out on the losing end of things,” said CMG Sudbury representative Michael Robert.
Local citizens have organized Save the CBC protests in Sudbury and Thunder Bay in the past two months.
The Maritimes initially faced as many as 30 layoffs, but the number of redundancy notices issued was actually 12. Andrew Cochran, the CBC’s top executive in the Maritimes, said efforts have been made to cut as few positions as possible.
“For the last two months, we’ve been going through this difficult exercise. We offered a voluntary retirement incentive program and some people chose to leave because of that,” he told CBC News.
“We were able to find some vacancies where the work can be handled in a different way so we don’t have to fill those vacancies. We were also successful in having some positions returned to the region.”
A spending freeze resulted in some savings that went back into regional stations, Cochran said.
“It’s hard to give rock solid assurance to anybody about their media outlet in these times. That caveat aside, I think what we’ve seen through this process is a reaffirmation of the value and importance of CBC’s connection in communities throughout the country where we are,” he said.
Listeners throughout the country will hear their radio noon shows cut to an hour.
Redundancy notices will be served to the CBC-Radio-Canada’s Quebec services next week. About 363 jobs are expected to be affected.
The public broadcaster is aiming to reduce operating expenses by $171 million in this fiscal year.
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