CBC calls for stable, multi-year funding

Appearing before the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, CBC brass called for increased, stable five-year funding. On October 28, CBC president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch repeated a similar message before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Below is an excerpt from his presentation. We are here today because you have asked us about the impact of yet another cut to our funding. Let me say from the outset that the simple answer to the question is that the impact of this reduction will inevitably be on our programming. On programming across all of our services: television, radio, specialty services and new media. This $10 million reduction was apportioned in the following manner: $3.5 million to English television, $3 million to French television, $0.5 million to French radio, $0.5 million to English radio, and $2.5 million to corporate components of the corporation. ...While the impact of these reductions is on our programming, this will not be immediately visible because we had some advance warning and were therefore able to plan. As well, we were able to limit the inevitable effects on our workforce. But this reduction cannot be seen in isolation, and when seen in a broader context, it has a much more significant impact. As you are well aware, in the 2003 budget the Canadian Television Fund was reduced by $50 million over two years. With reduced funding to independent producers, broadcasters, including CBC/Radio-Canada, had to increase their own commitments to productions through enhanced licence fees and equity investments, or see many projects simply die. ...The value of CBC’s pension plan, like other employers’ pension plans, is affected by changes in interest rates and the stock market. As a result, the contribution holiday that both the corporation and its employees have enjoyed since January 2000 will come to an end in January 2004. This means that the corporation faces an additional $43 million per year expenditure that for the last several years has been going into enhancing our programming and our services. I don’t want to be misunderstood, we are not complaining or wishing to shirk our responsibilities in this regard, but an additional $10 million reduction to our appropriations in this context clearly has a compounding effect. ...This year, the war in Iraq, multiple provincial elections, natural catastrophes such as the forest fires in the West, the Eastern North America blackout, and Hurricane Juan have put a greater strain on our services than anticipated. But these are not the types of events we can ignore or give short shrift...Our appropriations in constant 2003 dollars are $319 million lower now than in 1990. Yet, as you know we provide more services on more platforms. The cost of doing business is also consistently on the rise. For example, according to the CTF, in 2001 it cost on average $990 000 to produce one hour of high quality Canadian drama. In 2003, the average cost of production has risen substantially to $1.1 million. ...Moving forward, we anticipate additional savings. For example, a number of ongoing technology projects - once fully implemented in the next couple of years - will yield over $7 million in annualized savings. In all, generated savings will help to offset some of the rising costs of doing business. We estimate that, beyond the funding received from government, CBC must absorb annually $12 million in salary commitments, inflationary pressures such as increased rights fees, and so on. This is new money that we need to find every year. It is within this total context of decreasing real appropriations, increasing costs of doing business, increasing commitments for pension plan payments that the additional cut of $10 million is a bitter pill to swallow. This lack of stability and predictability in our funding levels reduces our ability to create programming and to consistently increase our services and the value of these services to Canadians. I believe that you, this committee, have already deciphered the solution. In chapter six of Our Cultural Sovereignty, your recommendation 6.1 states, and I am quoting: "The committee recommends that Parliament provide the CBC with increased and stable multi-year funding (3 to 5 years) so that it may adequately fulfill its mandate as expressed in the Broadcasting Act."

CBC calls for stable, multi-year funding

News | 10/31/2003 5:00 am EST

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