Canadian Media Guild details where cuts at CBC will happen
The Canadian Media Guild said 130 jobs it represents will be lost from news operations.
Photo courtesy of Alex Midgal
By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor
The Canadian Media Guild has detailed where job cuts for its members will be felt at the CBC. It said the cuts will mean less diversity of voices and compel the CBC to prioritize easier, “sure bet” stories over more complex stories since the public broadcaster still has to fill the same airtime as before the cuts.
Here are some the major changes coming to CBC according to CMG:
- 130 CMG jobs will be lost from news operations, including 85 producers, associate producers, hosts and reporters and 45 videographers, editors and audio recorders.
- The jobs will be lost in St. John’s; Labrador City, NL; Winnipeg; Regina; Cape Breton, NS; Calgary; Fredericton; Edmonton; Halifax; Vancouver; Charlottetown; Whitehorse; Ottawa; Yellowknife; Toronto; Iqaluit; London, Ont.; Inuvik, YT; Windsor, Ont.; Kuujjuaq, Que.; Thunder Bay, Ont. and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.
- The merger of the Calgary and Edmonton weekend news shows will result in five job cuts in Calgary and three in Edmonton.
- Thunder Bay will lose its afternoon radio program, Voyage North, and be replaced by a regional show produced in Sudbury.
- The public broadcaster’s last radio field sound technicians are being cut this year.
- Although The Globe and Mail reported that CBC did not reduce the hours of The Sunday Edition national radio program from three to two hours due to budgetary restrictions, the CMG listed it as one the major cuts. It added the show will also lose some producers.
- Plans to expand with a new station in London, Ont., have been scrapped.
- It’s not clear if Windsor, Ont., will still have a local television news program, but the station is losing its last four dedicated camera operators.
- North Late Night has been cancelled.
- 35 jobs were lost as a result of CBC losing the broadcast rights for Hockey Night in Canada.
CMG's figures do not represent cuts that could be felt in other regions, such as parts of Quebec and Moncton, which are represented by other unions.
J-Source also rounded up some of the other cuts that have been reported:
- Montreal media blogger Steve Faguy wrote that 10 jobs will be affected and five people were let go from CBC Montreal. News director Mary-Jo Barr, À Propos producer Sophie Laurent and arts reporter Pierre Landry will be let go while retirees Ivan Slobod and Radio Noon producer Sally Caudwell jobs will not be replaced.
- Enquête is losing three journalists and one producer from a team of 20 reporters and researchers “making it one of the most visible victims in Quebec,” the Globe reported.
- Six jobs were cut at CBC Northwest Territories.
- The Vancouver Sun reported five unionized jobs and four managerial positions were let go from CBC Vancouver. A total of 25 job cuts were made in B.C. and Alberta, which are treated as one region for the public broadcaster, and another eight vacant jobs will not be filled.
- The Ottawa Citizen reported six jobs were cut at CBC Ottawa, including four jobs in the newsroom and a web developer position. The Bandwidth program hosted by Amanda Putz will be cut.
- 11 jobs will be lost at CBC in Halifax, the Chronicle Herald reported.
- CBC reported six jobs would be cut from CBC Saskatchewan.
Related content on J-Source:
- Toronto Star, union compromise on digital hires
- Frosty relations on Parliament Hill
- The importance of public broadcasting
Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.