CBC cuts threaten Canadian culture, ‘redundant’ employee writes

With more cuts coming to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, few people understand the impact these budget slashes will have better than the people they are impacting.

With several hundred people set to lose their jobs in the coming years, everything from the CBC's services in Northern Canada to the documentary department and suppertime news shows will be reduced, faded out or killed entirely.

Among those losing their jobs is Marie Wadden, an author and former professor who has been a producer for CBC Radio and CBC Television in Newfoundland and Labrador for the past 37 years.

This past weekend, Wadden published a moving account of the end of her career in The Telegram, suggesting the cuts will end the public broadcaster's ability to provide a national presence.

"I like to think our job was to knit the country together for CBC radio listeners. My counterparts in other locations are concerned because they know more cuts are coming," Wadden wrote.

CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix unveiled the network's "shifting priorities" last week, which will move the network toward a focus on digital services and result in staff reductions, in-house production cuts and fewer and shorter evening news programs.

According to Lacroix, the shifted focus will come through limiting their investment in radio and television.

"You’re going to see an investment in mobility that’s going to rise as the investment in perhaps television ... is reduced,” he said, per CBC News.

By 2020, the Crown Corporation is expected to have between 1,000 and 1,500 fewer employees than it does today. Some of those reductions will come through retirement and attrition. But positions are also being declared redundant and phased out.

The plan will also see news coverage reduced in some markets from 90 minutes a night to 30 or 60 minutes, cutbacks to the number of documentaries the CBC produces, closed offices and a reduced real estate presence of about two million square feet.

Wadden, who says her position was declared redundant a little more than a year before she planned to retire, says Canadian culture will be severely impacted by the lack of creativity the new CBC will be able to foster.

In her essay, Wadden recalls fondly the days early in her career when the CBC St. John's studio was the home of creative work, where the popular show "Here and Now" was recorded and stars such as Mary Walsh and Cathy Jones got their start.

That time, she says, is over. And not just in St. John's.

Wadden isn't alone in her concern. The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting continue to rally behind a petition that calls for the government to build up the CBC, not tear it down.

Emmy-winning television producer Peter Raymont also feels the path for CBC shouldn't lie in reducing content, but embracing the role of creating art and improving culture.

"There is a perception that most Canadians don’t really care about public broadcasting and care even less about watching Arts programming on the CBC – especially those who vote Conservative," Raymont wrote in a Globe and Mail column.

"Empirical data disproves this myth. Polls by respected independent public opinion research company Canadian Media Research show that 80 per cent of Conservative supporters think CBC TV is important to Canadian culture. And 70 per cent of those CBC supporters, regardless of their political leanings, support the idea of the CBC having a channel dedicated to arts and culture."

Even the biggest names on the CBC roster appear specifically concerned about the impact the cuts will have to culture and long-form journalism. Everyone from national news anchor Peter Mansbridge and radio host Anna Maria Tremonti to environmental documentarian David Suzuki and foreign news correspondent Nahlah Ayed signed a letter to Lacroix calling for the protection of the CBC's documentary department.

"CBC Television, to be true to its core mandate, needs more long-form journalism and legacy programming — not less," the letter states.

This isn't the first round of cuts and cutbacks the CBC has faced, and until keystone CBC personalities like those named above start seeing their jobs disappear, the impact will go generally unnoticed by the casual viewer and listener. Cuts will keep slicing pieces off around the edges of the CBC and large, precise wedges will occasionally disappear.

The culture of creativity that Wadden so strongly fears for will continue to evaporate. And then one day, it will be gone entirely.

And then there will be no reason to keep the CBC at all.