Defence, CBC staff fall under budget axe
Fewer TV programs, more primetime repeats
OTTAWA— Thousands of federal workers braced for pink slips Wednesday as job cuts set in motion by the Conservative budget began to take a toll across the government.
As details of the cuts trickled out, the Union of National Defence Employees said 1,100 civilian jobs are disappearing, including 350 in Ontario.
The CBC is chopping 650 jobs in response to a $115 million budget reduction at the public broadcaster. The National Film Board announced it was axing 73 jobs and closing facilities, including the viewing post and cinema at the Mediatheque in downtown Toronto.
Citing sources, the CBC reported that at least 840 jobs would be cut at Health Canada.
In addition, more than 400 scientists and professionals across various departments, including Defence, received socalled Work Force Adjustment letters indicating their jobs are being eliminated, their union said.
Lack of information is unnerving workers, said Patty Ducharme, an executive of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
She said that cuts in areas such as Transport Canada, which regulates air safety, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are putting Canadians at risk.
The cuts are expected to continue for months as Ottawa chops19,200 positions amid a $5.2 billion spending reduction.
The CBC will eliminate 650 jobs over the next three years, including 475 this fiscal year, in response to deep funding cuts in last week’s federal budget.
“It’s been a tough day for the broadcaster,” said CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, after informing staff of the looming cuts during a town hall announcement Wednesday.
The federal budget means the CBC will lose $115 million in funding over three years. But Lacroix noted that because of cost increases and investments, it faces a shortfall of $200 million. Lacroix said the CBC hopes to offset that with $50 million in new revenue. The remaining $150 million will be reached through staff and program cuts and efficiencies.
Lacroix noted the CBC is facing about $200 million in financial pressures over the next three years as a result of the budget cuts: $27.8 million this year, rising to $69.6 million in 2013-14 and $115 million by 2014-15. In the short term, the broadcaster also has to find another $25 million immediately to pay for severance costs.
“We’re not going to get lost in the bad news. We’ve been handed a number and it’s going to mean a very different broadcaster,” Lacroix added.
That difference will include fewer TV programs, more repeats in prime time, advertising on its radio stations and the disappearance of Radio Canada International from short-wave radio and satellite.
Kirstine Stewart, vice-president of English services, said $43 million worth of programming will have to be cut, but details won’t be finalized until May 10 when the CBC announces its fall lineup.
The CBC hopes to raise the $50 million in new revenue by allowing advertising on its two national music networks, CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique — though to do so requires approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Communications. The remaining $150 million will be reached through staff and program cuts and efficiencies. CBC Radio One and Première Chaîne will remain advertisement free.
Marc-philippe Laurin, president of the CBC branch of the Canadian Media Guild — which represents members across Canada outside of Quebec — said his members are already “stretched thin.”
“Today (members) find themselves losing more friends and more colleagues, by the hundreds. Some of them are angry, some of them are demoralized,” Laurin said. Of the 475 immediate job cuts, the media guild expects about 275 to come from its members, with employees expected to be gone by the end of the summer, Laurin said. Other changes include: The CBC will sell properties and lease space where possible, hoping to reduce its overall footprint by 800,000 square feet by 2017.
It will speed up the shutdown of analogue television transmitters, which serves 1.7 per cent of Canadians on July 31.
Radio Canada International will become solely an Internet service no longer available to short-wave radio and satellite users. The service will also end its news service and shut down its Russian and Brazilian services.
The launch of radio stations in Waterloo, London, Saskatoon and Kamloops will be delayed by a few months. In-house documentary filmmaking will be reduced with a greater reliance on the independent producers to provide content. Despite the cuts, the broadcaster still hopes to secure broadcast rights to the Olympics. The CBC and Bell Media — whose bid for broadcast rights of the London 2012 Olympics has been rejected by the International Olympic Committee — still plans to re-bid, Lacroix noted. “In this environment, you realize we are going to be smart with the dollars we use when we bid on properties whether they’re Olympic rights and any other rights. The IOC has to realize the environment in which the CBC and Radio Canada are bidding,” he said. Nearly10,000 people are currently employed full time at the CBC.