OTTAWA – According to the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, CanWest’s recently announced plans to centralize TV operations will leave it in breach of its broadcast licences.
CanWest said last month that it is consolidating most of its production work in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto over the next 18 months and will be laying off around 200 people.
CEP Canada today filed a complaint with the CRTC outlining what it believes is a series of breaches of both CanWest’s licences and the Broadcasting Act, if CanWest’s centralization plans go forward.
"We are calling on the CRTC to expedite a public inquiry into CanWest’s plans to centralize its broadcasting operations. These plans not only hurt both communities and approximately 200 broadcasting employees facing layoff, but are in breach of principles central to the Canadian broadcasting system and clear commitments CanWest has made to the CRTC," said Peter Murdoch, vice-president, media for CEP, in a press release.
"It is incumbent on the CRTC to step up to the plate as the public regulator and call CanWest to account."
CanWest is slowly eroding local news across the country through centralization at both its broadcast and print divisions, says the union missive. Having just announced it would be laying off 200 people at its television stations, CanWest is now also cutting editorial jobs in a number of its newspaper newsrooms across the country.
The CRTC, however, does not regulate newspapers.
"These cutbacks by CanWest at its newspapers and broadcasting stations are the result of high levels of media ownership concentration promoted by the CRTC, actions which federal inquiries and parliamentary committees have been warning about for decades. Sadly, the Harper government is not only unconcerned but appears to condone the control of our media by foreign interests,” added Murdoch.
CEP also believes this move has something to do with, or should be linked to, CanWest’s impending purchase of Alliance Atlantis, for which a CRTC hearing will begin on November 19th.
"The CRTC needs to tell CanWest clearly and directly that it can’t buy a new property by ignoring the commitments it has made to Canadians and the CRTC in the past about its existing licences. If the CRTC doesn’t act, then it is moving away from being an independent agency that serves all Canadians and the public interest, and closer to becoming an arm of the stock exchange,” said Murdoch.
