A Good Question?

(Updated)

I was surprised to see this week that several prominent Conservatives floated the question of CBC funding. One survey asked whether the money Ottawa spends on CBC was "good"or"bad" value. It's a troubling question for anyone who supports public broadcasting. Small surveys by renegade politicians might not support the official party line, but when our office sent a questionnaire on support for the provincial public broadcasters TVO & TFO to candidates in the provincial election, the provincial Conservatives did not answer at all.

UPDATE: Last night we received a response from a single PC candidate, leader Tim Hudak, who sent a letter on Wednesday evening, just before he appeared on TVO's Agenda. Here's how he answered our ten questions:

Thank you for your survey about TVO and TFO and for the opportunity to tell you more about the change we’re proposing for Ontario families.
I have firsthand experience with TVO and the quality broadcasting you deliver. As you know, I have appeared on TVO programs many times, both before and after becoming Ontario PC Leader. I also enjoy watching TVO programming with my family.
In changebook, we’ve set three priorities: Change to put more money in your pocket, change to guarantee the services you need, and change to clean up government. These are difficult but important choices that we made only after listening to literally thousands of families from every corner of Ontario.
On October 6th, Ontario families will face a clear choice. They will choose four more years of Dalton McGuinty raising their taxes, wasting their money, and never standing up for the things we believe in; or they will choose change with an Ontario PC government.
To read more about the change we’re proposing for Ontario families, I encourage you to visit www.changebook.ca
Sincerely,
Tim Hudak

Liberal, NDP and Green party candidates have been supportive of funding for TVO and TFO. To quote a Green : "would love to see more of Ontario shown off". We agree. Just another reason to question your candidates before casting your vote.

Why Ottawa's museum workers need our support

About a month ago, four hundred employees who work at the Museum of Civilization and the War Museum in Ottawa went on strike.

Unless you live in Ottawa, you may not be aware of this. But we should be -- because the issues are remarkably similar to those at the centre of the CBC lockout in 2005 and those we continue to fight today.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada which represents the workers, says that only 6 out of 55 museum guides are permanent. Employees go from contract to contract and lose traction in seniority and wage advancement every time they do. Sound familiar?

Online comments to various news sites about the strike indicate that some members of the public may not take the museum workers’ issues seriously because they are seen to be transient – doing this work until they figure out their “real” future.

This is a really dangerous assumption to make, as anyone in our business knows. People in the culture industry are often taken less seriously than other workers because of the “glamorous” perception of this work and the availability of part-time cyclical work that tends to attract students. Of course, these views are exploited by managements who want to pay their workers less. And we’ve got to stop this, wherever and whenever it happens.

Then there’s the big issue of the public funding of our cultural sector. Last year, the Conservative government subjected the Museum of Civilization to the same “strategic review” that the CBC is undergoing this year. The Museum lost $400,000 in that process. The CBC stands to lose about $50 million.

The Museums’ CEO Victor Rabinovitch hasn’t been vocal about this cut – just like his brother, Robert Rabinovitch who as CEO of the CBC refused to ask the federal government for more money for the Corporation.

This is bigger than a single dispute in the nation’s capital. The strike highlights the need to pull all kinds of workers and citizens together to fight for the overall health of our culture industry. In fact, as I write this, I'm at a conference where people are discussing more unity among everyone in the broader knowledge industry -- which includes academics. That means working together to achieve collective agreements that make real careers possible, and proper funding for our cherished institutions so they can survive without undercutting their own employees.

The CBC cuts are sinking in

Today’s the day the impact is starting to sink in from one of the biggest round of job losses in the media in this country. It’s the day people at the public broadcaster have been dreading since CBC president Hubert Lacroix announced the cut in March. Now we know there’s going to be a total of 350 frontline CBC and Radio-Canada positions eliminated outside Quebec (the people represented by my union) and another roughly equal number lost in Quebec.

Let’s keep in mind what the 350 represents: 100 of those are contract employees who’ve been “non-renewed” (one of the most bizarre of the CBC expressions). Many of them worked on Steven and Chris or the Living shows on TV. They’re also reporters, researchers, producers and administrative support staff on programs throughout the CBC. For the most part, there were no grand announcements about them because, by definition, contract employment allows for simple termination.

158 are permanent employees who will receive redundancy notices and they have rights, including bumping in certain cases. But that won’t ease the shock. Anyone who’s ever received a “redundancy notice” never forgets what it feels like.

Another 73 people are taking a voluntary retirement incentive (VRIP), and their positions are being abolished. Among that list are Newsworld’s Don Newman, John McGrath, the radio legislative reporter based in Toronto, and Steve Finkelman, the radio political reporter in Edmonton, and one of the six who will retire this summer in that city. There is producer Mark Bulgutch, a thirty-year veteran and dean of TV news specials at the CBC. There are long-time network cameramen Mark Parkman and Richard Furlong who’ve been everywhere and shot it all. Because of the nature of the VRIP approach, these 73 people are among the CBC’s most experienced, knowledgeable and recognizable employees.

And then there are the many, many people affected by this cut who are just starting careers at CBC. It is the loss of these people, and the work that they’ve been doing, that makes me anxious for the future of the public broadcaster. We know that half of the people creating radio programming in Sudbury are losing their jobs, for example. These are keen young journalists who should have had the opportunity to become the veterans of the future. We know there are people being cut from Radio 2 in locations big and small who do the type of work that doesn’t get done by any other radio station.

Overall, we are experiencing a huge loss of talent, energy and commitment from the CBC. It is a loss for the media industry as a whole. And in this climate, it’s possible it will be gone forever.

Please comment with your own sense of the impact of the cuts.