TORONTO – This past Monday, the federal government announced new measures added to its budget bill that would give political control to the Cabinet over how much Crown corporations such as the CBC pays its union and non-union staff and other terms and conditions of employment.
“CBC is not just another crown corporation. The financial decision-making the government plans to take over will affect CBC’s editorial independence,” said Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, in a release. “If this bill becomes law, the government will have one more lever to control what the CBC does, the programs it presents and the editorial content of the news. Our national public broadcaster will take one step closer to becoming a state broadcaster,” Morrison said.
Other groups are also critical of the impact the Conservative government’s budget bill will have on on the CBC’s collective bargaining and journalistic independence.
ACTRA is calling the Conservative government to task over what it calls an attempt to directly interfere in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s bargaining and decision-making, yet another assault on workers’ rights and public broadcasting.
“It is essential that our public broadcaster have an arms-length relationship with the government of the day,” said ACTRA president Ferne Downey said in a release from the organization. “The current legislation violates the very principle of public broadcasting and threatens to undermine and control an institution that is the cornerstone of our Canadian cultural identity.”
ACTRA says the provisions in the Conservative government’s omnibus budget bill would interfere in collective bargaining between the CBC and its employees and contractors. ACTRA negotiates two collective agreements with the CBC on behalf of Canada’s 22,000 professional performers, covering radio, television and new media.
“We have a 70-year history of collective bargaining with the CBC,” said ACTRA executive director Stephen Waddell. “These are never easy negotiations for either side, but we find agreement and address the needs of both sides. There is no good reason and no place for this kind of intrusion into our collective bargaining.”
In a statement released late Wednesday, the CBC itself tried to clarify matters. "Under the Broadcasting Act, CBC/Radio-Canada's budgetary appropriation is approved by Parliament. The Act also gives the Board of Directors the explicit authority to determine the salaries of employees. It also specifies that CBC/Radio-Canada employees are not public servants," reads the statement.
"In recent years, the Corporation has developed an efficient and cooperative bargaining process with its unions, while ensuring that compensation remains aligned with the broadcast industry in which we operate. Like some Crown Corporations, we also need the flexibility to operate quickly in a fast changing industry, while being able to attract the talent necessary in to order to operate at our best. We are keenly aware of the financial realities facing Canadians. CBC/Radio-Canada has not asked Government for additional funding for many years. In 2012, the Corporation's budget was cut $115 million dollars as part of CBC/Radio-Canada's contribution to the government's Deficit Reduction Action Plan (DRAP).
"Despite the loss of 800 jobs during the financial crisis and 650 jobs as a result of DRAP, CBC/Radio-Canada has managed to preserve and, in the case of regional stations, actually expand the services it provides. We have continued to implement our Strategy 2015, which has been endorsed by the Government. We have continued to develop and showcase very popular Canadian programming across our networks. We are still the only broadcaster with so much Canadian programming in prime time, when Canadians are watching television," reads the statement.
"All of this is possible because of the support of Canadian taxpayers. CBC/Radio-Canada values and respects that support. To demonstrate that it is using those resources responsibly, it reports to Parliament and Canadians, the CRTC, and the Auditor-General of Canada. In February 2013, the Auditor General’s special examination confirmed that CBC/Radio-Canada manages its assets efficiently and economically.
"CBC/Radio-Canada supports the Government's goal of ensuring that compensation and benefits are aligned with the private sector. That is why, for the past several years, the Corporation has used an independent Human Resources advisor, Mercer, to benchmark what we pay our employees compared to the industry in which we are required to operate. Salary increases at the Corporation have averaged 1.9% over the past seven years. Salaries in the private sector have increased an average of 3% over the same period," it continues.
"We support efforts to help Crown Corporations manage public resources responsibly. We believe that this initiative may have unintended consequences on the successful operation of some corporations. It is important that these consequences are understood and addressed. We will be writing to the Government to share our concerns about C-60, and to request a meeting to ensure that Ministers have accurate information on CBC/Radio-Canada's record, both at managing public resources and delivering on its mandate."
