Posted by Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Heidi Ulrichsen
The local president of the Canadian Media Guild is urging listeners of CBC Radio northeastern Ontario to phone their member of parliament if they are unhappy with recent cuts to the service.
It was announced March 26 that six to eight jobs out of a
newsroom of 16 are being cut at the CBC Radio station in the
northeast, and six jobs out of 12 are being cut at its sister
station in the northwest. About 800 jobs were cut across the
corporation.
No cuts were made to the French-language CBC Radio station in the north, CBON, or the French television station. There may be cuts coming among the seven CBC transmitter technicians in the northeast.
"The time to act is now. The folks that use the service and want the service have to make sure they're heard," said Michael Robert. "I can yell about this and splash water for days and weeks, but it's not nearly as powerful as a neutral person like a listener who says 'I use the service. Don't cut it'."
Sudbury MP Glenn Thibeault is holding a press conference about the local CBC cuts March 27 at 1:30 p.m. Check back to NorthernLife.ca for video coverage of the press conference.
Thibeault said in a release that he was "appalled that the Conservatives would sit back and allow this to happen. This seems to be on par for the course for the Harper government."
Robert said northeastern and northwestern Ontario are paying a heavy price, as opposed to the regional CBC Radio station in Toronto. That station did not receive any job losses, he said.
The justification given for the cuts was that the north has a lower population, the programming doesn't reach as many homes as it would in the south. A number of other stations in the maritimes and the station in Windsor were also hit hard, he said.
The cuts are permanent, said Robert.
"We've been told once it's gone, it's gone. If ad revenues for television come back, the positions we're losing are not coming back."
Robert said the union will likely know by mid-May who has been laid off in the newsroom. Seniority will play a large part in the layoffs.
"The fundamentals of the service are going to change. You can have the same quality level, but you'll just have less of it," Robert said.
Jeff Keay, a spokesperson for CBC Radio, disagreed with Robert that the north is receiving more cuts than Toronto's regional radio station.
"The cuts have been more or less proportional throughout the network. That's pretty much coast to coast. There are some areas that have suffered cuts proportionally more. Those tend to be out towards the east."
The corporation had no choice but to cut service because it was facing a $171 million shortfall due to a drop in television revenue, he said. He noted he would not assign blame for the cuts, although the federal government has not come up with money to finance the shortfall.
The CBC will be working with the relevant unions to implement the job cuts, said Keay. There will be a voluntary retirement incentive program.
"I want to emphasize that we consider this to be a very difficult week. This is not something (in which) anyone takes any joy. We've been allocating losses throughout the system. It's an unhappy thing to do."
