Bell confirms April 11 appearance before Heritage committee
In a message titled “Facts Matter” published Thursday on its website, Bell outlined what it says are the facts about its recent restructuring, which includes the elimination of 4,800 positions across the telecom and media company.
The web post appears to have been prompted by what Bell sees as inaccurate information circulating about the situation, saying, “As some distort the truth, here are the facts about Bell’s restructuring as announced on February 8.”
“Bell is supporting each affected team member with a fair severance package, career transition services and continued access to health benefits,” the message begins. “The decision to restructure and say farewell to talented team members is difficult, yet necessary given the current economic, competitive and regulatory conditions.”
Bell reduced the 4,800 positions through voluntary departures and by eliminating vacant positions, it says, noting less than 10 per cent — or 440 — of those affected positions were at Bell Media. Bell’s previous restructuring in June 2023 impacted 1,300 positions across all parts of the business, it adds.
The message discusses Bell’s engagement with Unifor throughout the most recent layoff process, saying the company obtained the union’s consent to offer voluntary severance packages to the majority of the 800 Unifor members affected by the restructuring. Bell also says Unifor representatives did not raise any concerns about having virtual meetings with employees to conduct the layoffs last month.
“Before proceeding with unionized employee layoffs on March 20, Bell conducted a three-hour meeting with Unifor to explain the process by which unionized employees would be offered a voluntary severance package or would be laid off,” Bell’s message says. “Virtual meetings were designed to respect employees’ working conditions, such as working from home, as enshrined in their collective bargaining agreement.
“On March 20, as pre-planned with Unifor, Bell initiated calls with groups of unionized employees to give notice of upcoming changes, ensuring employees with the same roles learned of the news at the same time,” it adds. “Departing employees then had individual meetings with a Human Resources representative to discuss their individual packages. They also had the option to invite a union representative to the meeting.”
The day prior to the March 20 employee layoffs, Unifor organized a media conference and rally on Parliament Hill, where the union accused Bell of ducking accountability for the job cuts by allegedly postponing its scheduled appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that week.
A Bell representative told Cartt at that time the Heritage committee clerk had requested the hearing postponement, information which was later confirmed by the clerk who said other unfinished committee business necessitated a rescheduling of Bell’s appearance.
In its online message Thursday, Bell says it will appear before the Heritage committee on April 11 “to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing our industry,” adding “Bell confirmed its attendance for April 11 as soon as we became aware of the Committee’s discussion on the matter. At no time did we refuse to appear before the Committee.”
In the remainder of Bell’s message, the company talks up Bell Media’s contributions toward news coverage, saying it “far exceeds its regulatory obligations for local news” by airing more than 25,000 hours of local news per year, which is 150 per cent more than the CRTC requires, Bell says.
For the first time in its history, CTV National News will soon have journalists reporting stories from all 10 provinces, Bell says, adding there will be 35 per cent more CTV National News correspondents than prior to its last two restructurings.
“Bell Media invests $1.7 billion per year in content and programming, including $275 million in news,” Bell says. “Despite these significant investments, CTV conventional stations lost more than $180 million last year. Bell Media loses more than $40 million per year on news.”
In addition, Bell pays nearly $2 billion per year in federal regulatory fees and contributions, it says. “In contrast, Amazon, Disney, Netflix and other streaming giants — each many times larger than Bell — pay nothing. This, despite the billions in revenue they earn from Canadian consumers.”
Bell then goes on to talk about the need for federal regulations to keep up with changes in the media industry.
“Canada’s traditional media sector is in crisis due to changing consumer habits, technological disruptions, shifting advertiser demand and vigorous competition from foreign streamers and global web giants that are not subjected to the same costly regulations as Canadian broadcasters,” Bell says. “Technology and viewing habits have permanently changed Canada’s media sector. What worked for Canadian broadcasters 10, or even a couple of years ago, no longer works today.
“The speed of change is striking, yet Canadian regulations have been too slow to adjust to the massive challenges facing the industry. The Online Streaming Act took three years to develop and still has not been implemented.”
The CRTC is currently considering how to apply rules from the Online Streaming Act, which will require online platforms to contribute to Canadian content.
On March 21, the CRTC announced traditional broadcasters will pay lower regulatory fees starting April 1 as a result of a change in the fee structure following the passing of the Online Streaming Act.
Traditional broadcasters had previously for several months been asking for reduced regulatory obligations.
