TORONTO – Reduced CRTC requirements and the recession are the real reasons behind the program cuts and layoffs at Citytv in Toronto, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP).
Canada’s largest media union confirmed that Rogers Television handed out layoff notices to 36 full-time employees and seven part-time employees at the Citytv flagship station in Toronto on Tuesday. Additional program cuts were also made at Citytv stations in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
"Citytv viewers will notice a big difference", said Bob Huget, VP of CEP’s Ontario chapter, in a statement. "The CRTC has permitted major market television stations to reduce local programming to a minimum of fourteen hours weekly and as a result there will be no weekend newscasts, noon news, or five o’clock news.”
CEP said that Rogers told the CRTC at its July 2009 license renewal that it would maintain twenty or more hours of local programming, including ten hours of local news programming, in each market it serves. At Citytv Toronto, the restructuring has cut programming to 27 1/2 hours per week.
