TORONTO – The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) has asked for clarification on comments made by CBC president Hubert Lacroix during his speech at a business luncheon in Toronto on Thursday.
At that time, Lacroix reportedly said that he was asking the federal government for financial assistance to deal with an expected budget shortfall and to cover downsizing costs in 2009/2010.
He also said that while no decisions would be made for 2009/2010 until the CBC board meets in mid-March, he is seeking a meeting with the Prime Minister before then, and is meeting with Heritage Minister James Moore next week.
But the CMG, who represents about 4500 CBC employees, said that it has not received notice of layoffs, and in fact, said that it “was assured that no decisions have been made.” The Guild said in a statement that it has asked to meet with CBC before the board meeting to discuss “options for mitigating permanent layoffs and shuttering of programming.”
"The CMG is committed to working with the CBC through this difficult period to come up with creative ways to save the institution and jobs, and continue serving Canadians," says Marc-Philippe Laurin, president of the Guild’s CBC branch, in the press release. "We have developed a good working relationship over the last year and have received assurances from the CBC that the union and employees would be consulted before major changes are made."
The CMG also called on Ottawa to find a way to increase the CBC’s parliamentary appropriation for 2009/2010 “to ensure that the public broadcaster can continue to serve Canadians in these troubled economic times”, perhaps as part of the government’s overall economic stimulus plan, or by increasing its own communications spending to run public service announcements on CBC-TV and Radio-Canada television.
