Music

CBC plans sale of all buildings and properties across Canada

by Jesse Locke

The ongoing budget cuts to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation may result in some drastic action with the sale of all buildings, properties, and production facilities across the country. This would include the Toronto headquarters, Montreal studio, and the recently renovated and expanded Vancouver studio.

According to a statement issued by the Canadian Media Guild (CMG), a union representing CBC employees, the sale was announced earlier this week at a staff town hall meeting. The union is understandably troubled, with a quote from CBC Branch President for the CMG Marc-Philippe Laurin outlining their concerns.

“The decision to close down production centres is of great concern for our members as it should be for all Canadians, and seriously jeopardizes the CBC’s ability to do meaningful production in the future,” said Laurin. “Our members believe the public broadcaster can’t only be a distributor, it has to also be a producer. This plan threatens the ongoing legacy of award- winning documentaries, drama and other quality production at CBC and Radio Canada.”

VanCity Buzz summarizes the slashes that have led to this alleged plan: More than 2,800 jobs have been eliminated since 2008, and there are plans to cut another 1,600 by 2020. In the past year, the CBC cut 1,400 positions including 244 from its national newsrooms. Yet the cruellest cut may be the CBC losing its rights to cover the NHL in Canada.

Reports of the property sale have not been confirmed by the CBC, and The Toronto Star reports that media relations manager Alexandra Fortier has refuted the claim, instead stating that the public broadcaster will stick to its original plan of selling only 50 per cent of CBC property. Ian Morrison, a spokesperson for the public interest group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, also says he has not heard of the sale,
comparing it to “burning the furniture to heat the home.”

CMG National President Carmel Smyth is baffled by the fire sale plan as well. In the midst of a national election, he notes that three of the four federal parties have promised to increase CBC funding.

“It makes no sense to plan this now,” says Smyth. “Just today the Liberal party committed to increasing CBC funding by $150 million. In recent months the Green Party committed to an increase of $285-million, while the NDP says it will reverse the $115-million budget cut. Why rush into such an irreversible decision now?”