CALGARY – In the face of a chipper AGM report from the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw remains displeased over how the CTF is run.
Thanks to a serious amount of pressure put on the Minister for Canadian Heritage, Bev Oda, and the CRTC by Shaw – and then Videotron – when the two companies pulled their funding from the CTF early this year, the Commission created a special panel headed by broadcasting vice-chairman Michel Arpin.
The panel is examining everything about the CTF, top to bottom, front to back and will file its report with chairman Konrad von Finckenstein by the end of June, to be made public at a later date.
Shaw isn’t necessarily interested in what will be decided in the report, as he has already issued his verdict when he was visited by Arpin, who was gathering evidence for his report. "I told them to wind it down. It’s useless," Shaw told Cartt.ca in an interview.
Most galling for Shaw was that the CTF didn’t have its annual financial statements ready for the AGM held last week during the Banff World Television Festival. Financial statements are normally central to any AGM.
"This is your annual meeting, and yet your financials are not ready?" he asked, incredulous. "You’ve got 25 directors and a whole staff and you can’t get the financials done? That tells me there’s some problem there… in their reporting level."
As for the CTF, chairman Douglas Barrett said in an e-mail to Cartt.ca that there was a very good reason the financials were not on the table at the AGM held last week in Banff during the World TV Festival. "The Financial Statement’s were ready except for information required by our auditors from Telefilm out of its audit being carried out by the Auditor General. As soon as that info has been provided to our auditors the Financial Statements will be brought forward for ratification," he said.
Not good enough, said Shaw. "When I talked to the minister and I talked to Konrad (von Finckenstein, the CRTC chair) I told them it’s a comedy of errors. I’m not saying we won’t pay, I’m saying, who is in charge?" asked Shaw. "It’s a wasted asset. We’ve spent $2.3 billion and we have nothing to show for it."
To Shaw, there is not enough popular Cancon that he’s seen to justify the investment in the CTF, and the upfront presentations by the private broadcasters just cemented his views. "Isn’t the job of the broadcaster to make programming?" he asked. "And then all I see in the papers when everything was announced is ‘hey, here’s my new U.S. lineup.’
"I didn’t see one mention of a Canadian show…. What I’m assuming is of Lenny (Asper, CEO of CanWest Global) can afford to buy Alliance Atlantis and if Ivan (Fecan, CEO of CTVglobemedia) can afford to buy CHUM, then they can afford to do their own Canadian programming."
In the end though, both Shaw and Barrett are hoping for the same: A strong, clarifying report from Arpin’s group.
"I’m hoping the review is very constructive and corrective and then we’ll judge ourselves accordingly after that," said Shaw.
"The general hope is that the overall value of the Fund will be accepted and that both the program work of the staff and the governance work of the board will be recognized," said Barrett. "The CTF has always been open to change and improve, and has fundamentally restructured itself on several occasions. We look forward to examining the report and to working with the CRTC to implement measures that improve the performance of the Fund."
But if things don’t change? "It’s going to get nastier and nastier," said Shaw. "If they think I don’t know how to play the game, then they’ve got something coming."
– Greg O’Brien
