OTTAWA and TORONTO – The CBC could cut even more jobs, now that federal government has it to participate in its strategic review program which asks government departments to identify up to 5% of spending that may be cut.
The CBC informed staff on Friday that the public broadcaster will have to take part in the program this year, and president Hubert Lacroix encouraged employees to “hang in there”.
“The objective of the strategic review is to evaluate all of our program and spending activities to identify the lowest priorities in terms of carrying out our mandate,” Lacroix said Friday in a note to employees.
He also said that a steering committee, chaired by him, will meet over the next few weeks to prepare recommendations for the government in advance of their budget for 2010-2011. 5% of CBC’s Parliamentary appropriation is approximately $56 million.
The government’s strategic review process, which Lacroix called “a pillar of the Government’s expenditure management system”, is applicable to all federal organizations that receive appropriations from Parliament, including CBC/Radio-Canada.
The broadcast advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting released a statement Monday to express their dismay that CBC’s budget would be reviewed again, and at the timing of the announcement which comes days after Minister Moore promised the Commons Heritage Committee that there would be no further cuts to CBC’s budget.
"Friends was relieved to hear Minister Moore’s promise to the MPs on April 29th. Obviously we’re disappointed that he misled the Heritage Committee," said Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, in the statement.
The Canadian Media Guild (CMG), which represents 6,000 workers at CBC/Radio-Canada and other media organizations, called the move “shocking”, and promised to use its appearance before Heritage Committee on Monday afternoon “to call on Parliament to take steps to restore CBC’s budget and prevent job and service cuts”.
"We found out late Friday that CBC is on the chopping block again and we know a further cut would be devastating to programming," said CMG president Lise Lareau, in a statement. "It is outrageous that the government would consider cutting funding at a time when Parliament is grappling with a major crisis in the media industry. It’s also happening just as the CBC is trying to find ways to reinstate some local services affected by this spring’s cut."
The CMG said that it would urge Parliament to implement the key recommendations of the Heritage Committee report on the CBC, released in February 2008. Among other things, the all-party report recommended the signing of a seven-year contract with the CBC outlining expectations for the public broadcaster and providing funding indexed to inflation.
