OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada staged its first annual public meeting Wednesday morning, allowing Canadians to tune in on-line to hear about its financial highlights from last year and its strategic direction for the future.
Board chair Tim Casgrain, president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, and VP and CFO Suzanne Morris took part in the ‘pubcaster’s attempt to appear more transparent in its management of public funds.
"All CBC/Radio-Canada’s services, on television, radio and the Internet, in English and French, cost only $34 per year per Canadian – which translates into less than 10 cents a day”, Lacroix said in a statement. “Our annual public meeting has allowed us to show our shareholders the wide range of services they receive for this amount, and to listen to their comments."
But watchdog Friends of Canadian Broadcasting tried to crash the party by delivering a petition signed by more than 5600 people calling on CBC to retain the one hour format of The National and keep it in its 10 p.m. time slot.
The group announced earlier this summer that it had discovered “a secret plan” to move The National from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on weeknights, which it said "would reduce the reach and influence of Canada’s most important news program and compromise the CBC’s mandate."
CBC subsequently denied the existence of the plan, although Cartt.ca has learned that there are plans to “refresh” the long running news show in early October.
“We have no comment except to note that, as we indicated after their first incorrect news release, there is not and has not been any plan to move The National”, CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay said in an email to Cartt.ca. “Nor will we speculate on their motives for distributing this or the earlier release.”
– Lesley Hunter
