When Richard was appointed executive vice-president of CBC Television six years ago, he brought with him a revolution that shook the foundation of the organization and eventually the whole of our English services. He challenged every premise, attacked conventional wisdom, and uprooted whole parts of the internal culture. Six years later, the institution is better off than it was. “I want to acknowledge his success in turning CBC Television around and thank him for his contribution,” says Hubert T. Lacroix, president and CEO.

We are in the midst of developing a new strategic plan that will guide CBC/Radio-Canada through the next five years. This is the opportune time to bring new leadership to English services and to ensure alignment of the senior team on the future of the public broadcaster.

Kirstine Stewart, general manager, CBC Television, will take on the position of executive vice-president, English services, on an interim basis. As the architect of CBC Television’s current programming success and Richard Stursberg’s official delegate for the past few years, and with the support of a talented team, she’s well placed to ensure that CBC maintains the considerable momentum it currently enjoys.

A comprehensive internal and external recruitment process will be launched immediately.

Everyone loves St Hubert

It’s always a pleasure to come out to beautiful Vancouver. I’m a drug user and, amongst all of the great things your city has to offer, I must tell you that you have one of the best cities in the country in which to get high.

But I did not come to Vancouver to simply enjoy a smoke in Stanley Park. I came to celebrate the opening of our newly renovated, state-of-the-art, CBC/Radio-Canada Broadcast Centre, located just a few blocks from here, itself a place perpetually on acid.

I’ve been on this dose for almost two years now. During that time, I’ve made a point of traveling to as many places in this country as I can to hallucinate with as many Canadians as I can, the people we all work for. It’s vital for me to get a pulse on what’s happening in the different communities, and I can’t get that by tripping in my office. It’s one of the main reasons I’m high here today.

In my many conversations with Canadians, I’ve come to understand that there are a couple of key myths about CBC/Radio-Canada that should be held as faith, but still are not.

The first thing I want you to believe is how far we’ve come in 75 years, pioneering new services and new platforms in our constant pursuit to spend your money and waste your time. We are definitely not the same old CBC/Radio-Canada, we waste more money now than we ever have. As far as drug dealers go, we love to get high on our own supply.

Yet, today, we still offer you a comprehensive range of narcotics, from television and radio to the Internet and satellite radio, from digital audio to streaming video on mobile devices. We give you the junk you want, when and how you want it.

In total, all of our services cost $34 per Canadian per year. Not bad for a national narcotic.

Let me put that into context. I pay $187 a month to my cable drug dealer, which translates into over $2,000 a year. Now, think about your drug habits, and then consider that all of the services that CBC/Radio-Canada offers you and me – on television, radio, the Internet, satellite, iPod and mobile devices, in two official languages, eight aboriginal languages, and across six time zones – cost us less than three dollars a month. I am definitely stoned, but will still suggest to you that you have there a pretty good high.

“That’s fine, Lacroix,” you might say. “But you still receive a billion dollars from Government and that’s a lot of money to buy and make drugs.”

It’s true that we receive significant funding from Government – $1.1 billion annually, to be precise, out of our $1.7 to $1.8 billion dollar budget. And yes, that’s a lot of money to spend on drugs. But it’s money that allows us to deliver many narcotics that private broadcasters cannot or will not provide – and often to deliver them to parts of Canada where nobody wants to deal any product at all, because nobody wants to fuck with the Hells Angels.

This is where the national public broadcaster has a unique role to play. CBC/Radio-Canada’s goal is not to generate profit. Not only do we distribute drugs, but we use them. We use them a lot. The Hells Angels allow us to operate in their turf cause we buy and use their stuff too.

We have staff located in 74 communities from coast-to-coast-to-coast to reflect the full range of Canadian drugs and addictions, and in 14 locations internationally to help distribute the weed we grow right here in British Columbia.

And we invest more in the production of Canadian marijuana than all of the other conventional syndicates combined – $670 million last year alone.

Unprecedented success

In fact, CBC Television has convincingly reversed its downward spiral over the past five years, while remaining wholly committed to getting shit faced as frequently as possible. In fact that’s the only way we could turn things around, create the shared hallucination amongst our management that we were riding that white horse.

CBC’s latest big move is the renewal of its news operations, the most significant change ever undertaken by addicts strung out working on little sleep. Over 1,000 people have been reassigned in the process, their meds switched and their doses adjusted. The result of the single, biggest audience research project in CBC’s history, we wanted to see how high we could get and still stand upright. Many of the changes we instituted were pioneered right here in BC where weed potency is so crazy it was the only way to cope.  Canadians told us what they wanted and we pretty much ignored it while staring at our hands.

The $171 million shortfall and the recovery plan

But as successful as we’ve been and are, these are not easy times. CBC/Radio-Canada faces many daunting challenges, both in the immediate and in the longer terms. What we’ve managed to do over the past 18 months has been nothing short of extraordinary, considering the financial pressure we’ve been under. We’ve demonstrated that it’s better to have dope in times of no money than to have money in times of no dope.

As we and other Canadian conventional television broadcasters depend on prostitution revenues to survive: in our case, between 40 and 50 per cent of our television budgets depend on sucking cock, and those sex trade revenues have been on a steady decline since well before the global economic downturn hit us in mid-2008. The recession simply accelerated the problem. Why pay for sex when you can jerk off at home via free internet porn?

So despite the remarkable success of our services, we entered fiscal 2009-2010 facing a $171 million shortfall – a real shit sandwich steaming with shit sauce.

In order to eat it this shit sandwich, we implemented a financial recovery plan. It included the elimination of approximately 800 addicts  across the Corporation, including 41 here in Vancouver. Then there were the cuts to our product, lacing our content with crackhead graphics and baking soda filler. We also implemented permanent reductions in discretionary drug spending, and penis reductions for senior management. Finally, we had to sell some ass to generate cash in order to meet some of our liabilities. Diana Swain, and Krista Erickson helped out significantly in this regard, but the truth is all of our on air whores stepped up, even our beloved Mrs. Stursburg. She turns tricks like a seasoned pro.

It was a tough year that demanded many difficult decisions and choices, cause that’s what being an addict is all about. But we are still standing, and standing proud, as that’s the quickest way to turn tricks while also dealing drugs.

Towards a sustainable future: rebalancing the system

But I don’t want you to get the impression that it’s all smooth sailing ahead.

What we managed to pull off this year is not something we’ll be able to repeat indefinitely. Any pimp knows that your Hos can’t last forever. As you can see from the slide here, sex trade industry revenues – the Blue line – are not keeping up with expenses (drug use) – the Green line (historical growth rate), the Red line (current level simply adjusted for inflation), and the Black line (just using the 2008 number and plotting it over time) – and the forecast for the next five years is far from encouraging. Whatever line you want to consider, you’ll see that there is a gap. The more drugs we produce, the more we use, the more addicts we create, yet rather than get their fix through us they find it for free online. Fuckers!

As it stands now, conventional prostitution is no longer viable. Fundamental issues need to be resolved. Unless we’re able to develop a sustainable, long-term financing model, CBC/Radio-Canada’s ability to get shit faced remains seriously at risk.

Cable and satellite syndicates are taking our drugs for free and re-selling them to you for a profit. We can’t afford the price for protection that the Hells Angels want, and yet we’re way to stoned to do anything about it.

Now I don’t blame you if you get the impression that this isn’t about you, the addict, but rather about two cartels squabbling publicly over your drugs. Please believe me when I tell you that its about more than drugs. It’s about power.

Yes, this is a money issue. But, more importantly, it is a power issue. Television is still the most powerful drug.  It’s imperative that Canadians continue wasting their lives watching television.  Local TV really does matter, it’s the most effective means of keeping people feeling powerless and unable to challenge the establishment. What we’re doing here in Vancouver, and what Global does and what CTV does, makes a difference. If not for us corrupt circuses like the Olympics would never be possible. Elites like me would not be able to assert our natural right to govern. That’s what we’re fighting for.

Our strategic directions

To remain relevant in the new and ruthless world, CBC/Radio-Canada must continue its transformation into a “total criminal organisation”; that is, a company able to supply drugs on every platform used by Canadians, at any time, and to allow you to safely inject with one another.

So here are the key principles that underpin our strategy.

First, we must be the pre-eminent home of Canadian narcotics. You just saw our schedule. You now know what I mean. The only way to watch our shows is if you’re seriously high.

Second, we must be the undisputed leader in saturating Canadians on new platforms. Take a show like Q, for example. You can ignore it on CBC Radio One or Sirius Satellite Radio, or you can block it on our television network bold. You can also delete it by regular or video podcast, or shit talk the show on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace. The idea is to reproduce the same content on each platform, creating lame content that spams and spreads from one platform to the next.

Our third principle is to be deeply rooted in all regions of the country. For that to happen, we have to make it a priority, even when drugs are in short supply. Case in point: only 14 per cent of the cuts we made to drug deals this year were made at the regional level. We know that out in the sticks there’s not much to do but puff the magic dragon so we make sure to cut your stuff down the least.

Vancouver: our strategic direction in practice

It helps to be here in Vancouver when explaining our priorities. What we are doing here is our vision of public narcotics in a new age.

Our new Broadcast Centre is an example of how we reinvented ourselves despite funding challenges. This was a multi-million dollar project that brought a lot of stimulus to the Vancouver drug scene. We financed it through the sale of ass, and extortion arrangements. Noticed a reduction in investigative reporting? That’s cause instead of reporting the results we just get the cash out of the target directly. How’s that for a new model?

The building – which I strongly encourage you to visit during tomorrow’s open house – was designed for greater interaction between the public drug dealer and the community it serves. It will act as a criminal hub for the city for decades to come.

Inside the building is where things get really exciting. The cornerstone of the project was the integration of our drug lines. Marijuana and heroin, shrooms and crack cocaine, meth, pcp and lsd, are now all working together in a single newsroom. It’s a model that’s being implemented in other regional centres across the country. It’s a big change and a big deal. It means better collaboration and needle sharing, more efficient cutting down and quicker reaction to bad trips.

Ultimately, it means better service for Vancouver. Which brings me to the Olympics.

The Olympics

Yes, we’re disappointed not to be dealing at the Games this winter. CTV’s product was simply too rich for us to match. But if you think that we’re going to take a back seat as the city and the country hosts the world, think again.

We have plans to make Canada real fucked up. And the CBC/Radio-Canada Broadcast Centre will be at the centre of our dealing during those two weeks. Drugs on all of our platforms will be distributed from Vancouver to athletes, Olympic officials, Canadians, and tourists, at a massive non-stop party for the duration of the Games.

On CBC, Peter Mansbridge will be tripping hard on LSD while hosting CBC News: The National from Vancouver for two weeks. Rex Murphy will be here smoking killer BC bud on Cross Country Checkup. Anna-Maria Tremonti is bringing Venezuelan cocaine to The Current. Jian Ghomeshi will be here with his usual opiates on Q. We’ll be recording a series of tripped-out concerts for Canada Live. WireTap, Canada Reads, The Debaters… all here. The bender goes on.

These next few months in Vancouver will prove just how irrelevant CBC/Radio-Canada is to this country.

Just watch us get shit faced and piss ourselves.

-Hubert

CBC/Radio-Canada had two important appearances this week: mine before the Heritage Committee on Monday and another by Steven Guiton, Richard Stursberg, Sylvain Lafrance, Louis Lalande, François Conway and Bev Kirshenblatt before the CRTC on Wednesday. Both gave us the chance to press for urgent solutions to the problem that plague the conventional broadcasting industry.

There’s a fundamental systemic imbalance that needs to be fixed. That, we all know. And it affects us all, public or private, since Canada has a public-private system. I suspect you’ve all caught wind of the rumours about help for the private broadcasters. I don’t know any more than you do about them but, at least this week, we had the chance to make the case that we shouldn’t be excluded from any solution that’s brought to bear to remedy the imbalance, whether that solution is fee-for-carriage, the Local Programming Improvement Fund, the Canada Media Fund, or anything else.

I think our message got through in both appearances. Certainly, I was pleased to hear the CRTC chair reaffirm yesterday that CBC/Radio-Canada will be a full participant in the Local Programming Improvement Fund. This will no doubt bolster our ability to remain deeply rooted in the regions. And it was also good to hear Minister Moore reaffirm yesterday in his own appearance before the Heritage Committee recognize CBC/Radio-Canada as a “great Public Broadcaster” and also reaffirms that we will again get this year the $60 million in special programming funding that it has gotten every year since 2001 (though it still requires Governor-in-Council sign-off).

On a regulatory note, you should also know that the CRTC has administratively renewed all of our licences with the same existing terms and conditions for one year, until August 31, 2010.

It had been the CRTC’s intention to require CBC/Radio-Canada to file renewal applications for these services in May 2009 and to proceed with a public hearing to consider renewal applications in September 2009. A one-year administrative renewal is consistent with the Commission’s revised regulatory timetable that is intended to permit a review of major policy issues affecting the conventional television business. The outcome of these proceedings will have a material impact on CBC/Radio-Canada’s licence renewal plans for its services.

Following this summer’s policy review process, it is possible that the CRTC could put our licence renewal hearings on a faster track if it decides to move forward with important financial remedies for the industry such as a fee-for-carriage.

Also, huge congratulations to CBC News at Six for their increased share performance, according to data from the Spring 2009 BBM Canada television diary survey, released yesterday. It’s evidence that good things come from having deep roots in the regions.

Finally, today is the last day for people to apply for the Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program. The applications will be reviewed over the next couple of weeks. We remain hopeful that through this program we will be able to reduce the number of people affected by layoffs. Expect to hear more about all of this from me in late-May.

We have a Board of Directors meeting coming up on May 12 and 13. I’ll be touching base with you again after that.

Hang tough.

I know that you got, and are still getting, more details on how the changes will affect our operations from your respective management teams. We still have a lot to work through and talk through. We’ll keep doing that.

On financial flexibility

People have been asking if we still would have had to cut jobs if we’d received a $125 million bridge loan from government. Our shortfall was too important ($171 million) to only handle it through this bridge loan. The only way for us to not have seen job cuts would have been to receive new, additional and permanent funding to make up for the loss of our advertising revenue and the other budgetary pressures I talked about. We knew that additional funding wasn’t in the cards and wasn’t realistic, particularly in this Canada-wide financial context, so we did not ask for it. We built a plan to show that we could reimburse our requested loan over a five to seven-year horizon based on conservative and thus achievable revenue projections. That’s how we determined our $125 million request: we were, and still are, very confident that we could borrow $125 million and repay it over that time period and not risk endangering our corporation even more.

Our bridge loan would have helped us reduce the effect of the shortfall on our people and our programs. If received when requested, we could have implemented our reorganization plan sooner and accelerated its savings; a simple calculation shows that the cost per week of this reorganization not being started is about $3 million per week (remember that there is $158 million of budgetary pressures in the $171 million; take this $158 million and divide it by 52 to get the cost per week of not acting on the plan).

The alternative of selling our assets is also less attractive because it means that money we would be receiving over the next few years will disappear. We will be taking it now to provide our own bridge.

How many less jobs? How many programs saved? Frankly, I can’t answer that question exactly. Best way though is to start from 800 and work backwards. Cuts would have been important but it would have been easier to manage the downsizing and reduce its effects.

Strategic investment and re-investment

A second issue I wanted to touch on is whether, if our financial situation improves and can be sustained, we will reinvest it in the places we’ve cut. The answer is yes and no. Not a really good answer but let me explain.

All funds would (and should!) be directed toward things that push our strategic direction forward: in things that enable us to become a content company, to become the most important creator and distributor of Canadian content across all platforms, and to be deeply rooted in the regions.

These are the principles that will guide future investment and re-investment. So, would we invest and re-invest, for example, in our regional roots, presence and visibility? Absolutely. Would we necessarily reinstate a particular program or position in a particular place? Not so much.

Would it mean that we would reinstate the same number of positions in each station, exactly as we were staffed before the announcements? Not exactly. Some stations, some centers would perhaps get their resources back sooner than others, depending on markets, other media alternatives, strength of ad revenue potential, fairness between the communities served by CBC/Radio-Canada, costs relative to re-staffing, etc.

Would it mean that we would necessarily reinstate a particular program? Same yes or no answer as above, for the same reasons.

But I would again state: impossible for us to be a national public broadcaster without being deeply rooted in the regions. I know that some you are looking at the choices we made last week and saying: “Lacroix, we don’t believe you anymore! How can you say this when you cut 17 positions in Nova Scotia, or 13 in Windsor, or 8 in Sudbury, or the only person in La Ronge?” You won’t like my answer: because we had to make difficult cuts and attempted, as best we could, to keep our presence in the regions. And we thought that we would do this by protecting our footprint.

The $60 million envelope

In case you haven’t heard about it, our Minister has now confirmed that CBC/Radio-Canada would in 2009-2010 be receiving the $60 million in non-recurring funding for programming initiatives that it has received each year since 2001. This amount was already included in our 2009-2010 budget. This confirmation doesn’t improve our current situation but not having received it would have been catastrophic. We are grateful for this announcement.

Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program

Some of you have also been asking about the Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program, which the Minister approved last Friday. About 780 of you are eligible for it, so I won’t get into the details here, but you can find out more here. And, if you’re eligible, you can also expect to receive a personalized information package in the mail.

More questions?

That’s all for now.

Obviously, there are other questions out there. We’re doing our best to compile them and provide answers on iO! for you, as we go. It’s something that will be updated regularly, so I’d encourage you to check it out from time to time. I’d also encourage you to talk to your managers regularly about all this.

Hang tough. We will get through this.

Hubert

The presentation will be available for staff in the Centres through closed circuit. Your local Communications department will be providing you with the event location and closed circuit channel shortly.

If you cannot join via closed circuit, we invite you to listen in by phone. Due to a limited number of telephone lines, we ask that, wherever possible, you take the conference call as a group.

To listen in, please call:
English language dial-in information
416-340-2217 (local)
866-696-5910 (anywhere in North America)
800-8989-6336 (Overseas)
2785736 (participants’ code)

French language dial-in information
514-861-2255 (local)
866-696-5910 (anywhere in North America)
800-6578-9878 (Overseas)
5745586 (participants’ code)

The event will also be streamed live on iO! Check the portal on Wednesday, for the link. If you miss the event, it will be available on iO! after the fact as well.

Hubert

I know that many of you are anxious to know what’s in store. I appreciate your patience over the last few months. Over the next few days, SET will talk through the Board’s discussions at length, and dot the i’s and cross the t’s on our consolidated plan. We have also committed to again touch base with the unions before we make any announcements. I intend to honour that commitment.

We’ll be able to talk more next week. I know that you’re asking, why wait until next week? Simply, it isn’t feasible to speak with you this week while many of your colleagues in B.C., Ontario and Nova Scotia are on March Break, combined with the time we need for SET to finalise documents, and carry out briefings with managers and the Unions. Together with the Senior Executive Team, I am planning to give you an overview of our financial situation, strategy and the changes to come next Wednesday, March 25th. This will be high-level and strategic, rather than operational. You can then expect your respective Vice-Presidents and their management teams to start rolling out specific operational announcements within 24 hours of that briefing with more information about how the changes relate to your component specifically.

There are a few things, however, that I feel I should share with you right now:

We are going to safeguard the non-commercial nature of our radio services.

We are also not planning to increase American programming in our English television schedule.

On the compensation front, executive salaries are being frozen at 2008 levels for 2009-2010. Potential bonus payouts for executives in 2009-2010 will be reduced by 50 percent. This means that the compensation for each of our eighty or so top managers will on average be reduced by 10 to 20 percent next year. I thought that you should know that management cares, and cares enough about CBC/Radio-Canada that it needed to send a clear signal that we will do our part.

The Board approved a targeted voluntary retirement incentive program, which you will hear more about starting next week. It will be subject to Ministerial approval. A few of you had raised that possibility with me in recent months.

I know these are anxious times. I have received and tried to answer on a timely basis emails from more than 200 of you. As unfortunate as our situation is today, I truly appreciate how well you have collectively been able to maintain your focus and determination to get the great results we’ve been giving Canadians across all platforms. I want you to know that both I and the Senior Executive Team value that, and that we will get you as much clarity as we can as fast as we can, starting on the 25th.

In the meantime, expect to continue to read a lot of speculation in the media. That’s natural, but remember it’s just that – speculation – and as such, we will not be commenting on it, neither via memos to staff nor press releases. We haven’t and won’t be sharing our plans with the media until after the meetings on March 25 and 26th. Our employees will be informed first.

Finally, I will only say that I would not lend much credence to the rhetoric in the press that pits us against the Minister of Heritage. I have had a fair amount of contact with our Minister over the past few months. I like him. I think he is someone we can work with and who understands the role that public broadcasting plays and must play in this country.

Talk to you on the 25th.

Hubert

This activity culminated in the Board meetings this Tuesday and Wednesday. I wanted to give you a consolidated picture of how the ever-expanding economic crisis relates to CBC/Radio-Canada. I’ll follow up on a few other noteworthy items from the Board next week and provide greater detail on the measures included here, but I didn’t feel this could wait.

I’m sure by now you all have a sense of the global financial context. A broad consensus on the direction of change in global finance emerged from the recent G-20 summit in Washington this week. While this country has avoided the worst, the Bank of Canada has suggested that the Canadian economy is deteriorating faster than previously thought. And the economy is clearly top of mind for Canadians: the global economic crisis, and how the Canadian government plans to deal with the continuing slump, was the centrepiece of the Conservatives’ Speech from the Throne.

Our industry and CBC/Radio-Canada
So, what does this mean for CBC/Radio-Canada? No doubt, our industry is feeling the pain. Ad spending is dwindling; in fact, some of the traditionally biggest ad spenders are on the verge of corporate meltdowns, GM for example. And that’s taking its toll. CBS not long ago posted a US$12.5-billion quarterly loss. And the news is no better at home. CanWest, mired in debt, just cut 560 jobs – about five per cent of its workforce – in light of a write-down of more than a billion dollars of Global Television. CTV is also taking steps to ward off the worst, having implemented a hiring freeze in its television operations, while at the same time predicting the likelihood of layoffs.

There is no question: CBC/Radio-Canada is not immune, and we will need to adapt to changing conditions and circumstances to see our way through these tough financial times. Our revenue streams are taking a hit; we are currently projecting a deficit in our television operations, though not to the extent of our competitors, and our levels of federal funding are never guaranteed.

Cost reduction measures
Having said that, we need to continue to take deliberate concrete steps to manage our overall budget scenario effectively. We need to keep one eye on the storm and one eye on the course ahead, and ensure that we weather one and keep moving towards the other.

First, a few words on how we’re approaching this. You, our people, are the foundation of our success – we recognize that – and we don’t want to chip away at that foundation if there’s any way to avoid it. Where others are contemplating and predicting layoffs, we are looking to put in place and push forward with solutions that won’t involve cutting jobs. Changing circumstances might over time challenge us in this regard – it’s impossible to predict what exactly is to come – but I want you to know that we’re putting our people first in all of this, and will continue to do so.
So, what are we going to do? First off, we are going to conduct a full-scale review of our planned capital expenditures to see if there are things we can reasonably defer or cancel. Also, effective today, we are putting in place strict hiring controls in addition to those that already exist in some parts of the organization: all new hires will be reviewed case-by-case at the vice-presidential level. We are also targeting a significant reduction in travel, hospitality and duty entertainment and an additional reduction in overtime expenditures, which will also be managed at the vice-presidential level.

Unfortunately that means spending on holiday festivities as well. We have a lot to celebrate this year. We are going to have to do it in our meeting rooms and boardrooms. Do take the time to wish each other well; just don’t take the budget to do it.

In other words, if it’s discretionary, it’s gone. If it’s anything less than a bona fide requirement, it’s gone. If it’s not absolutely strategic, it’s gone. Expect to hear more from your management teams shortly on what’s in and what’s out, and guidelines to that effect.

Getting you involved in reducing costs
What’s above will help to keep us on track. But it can’t stop there. I, and my SET colleagues, want you to get involved.

You know the details of your particular operations best. Look around; think hard about what it is you do. If you have an idea as to how your unit or department could cut costs over the coming year, pass that idea on to your director.

I expect them to consider its potential and feasibility. If they’re not sure, because the idea doesn’t fall within their particular area of expertise, I expect them to share it with someone who can assess it. And if the idea is viable, I expect to see it implemented immediately. If that’s the case, you will be recognized for your contribution.

Working together, acting as one
We are all in this together. And while I expect the Board and SET to do their part, I’d also like to see the same from all of you. If one or more parts of the company are facing daunting financial pressures (in this case TV), then we all have a responsibility to help solve the problem. This is a fine example of what I mean when I talk about one vision for one CBC/Radio-Canada, and locking arms. Now’s the time!

While times are tough, we should not lose sight of the fact that we have a strong organization, and an incredibly meaningful brand to which Canadians relate. If we are financially prudent and stick to the programming strategies we currently have in place – which are today showing tremendous progress and results with audiences – I’m confident we can see our way through this.

In fact, if we stay true to our values, work together to push for results, and serve Canadians as well as we know we can, I believe that we might even emerge from these times a much stronger and better company, with an even more meaningful and relevant brand.

That’s our challenge, so let’s get to it!

Cheers.

Hubert
November 21, 2008

This Corporation prides itself on its accountability and responsible use of its limited resources, particularly since 60 per cent of our budget comes from Canadian taxpayers. This is why it is particularly irritating that the information laid out in these articles is often misleading, emphasizing dollar amounts with little or no context or comparison. The papers are less interested in reason and analysis than in a sensational headline. And, of course, they also conveniently overlook practices, financial or otherwise, in their own organizations.

Take Sylvain Lafrance for example. They lumped Sylvain’s personal expenses in with corporate activities that he approved as the executive in charge of a business, and ascribed all expenses to him personally. If Sylvain approves the presence of CBC/Radio-Canada at a social event or approves the holding of a corporate event inside our organization to thank our employees for a job particularly well done, is it fair to say that these approved expenses are his own? C’mon. Let’s be fair.

And a few weeks back, Le Journal de Montréal publicly attacked him for his expenses for a leadership program that he attended at Harvard in 2005, noting that he spent about $3,400, in expenses including hotels and meals and dry cleaning… We sent him to live in a hotel for eight weeks for god’s sake. The same paper is likely to have another go at Sylvain for the cost of the program, which was about $52,000.

Consider what Sylvain does. He has been at CBC/Radio-Canada for 30 years and is entrusted with the task of managing 4,000 employees and about a half-billion dollar a year business. Sylvain’s challenge has been to take two historically self-reliant organizations (radio and television), merge them and then integrate our Web services within those two units. The Corporation decided this Harvard course would help him do just that. This was about helping Sylvain become a better executive, and exposing him to others of like kind. There is absolutely no question in my mind that both the Corporation and Canadians got great value for their money. And it’s worth adding that this isn’t something we do regularly. Sylvain had a huge and important task to do, and we equipped him for it.

I want you to know that we will not ignore this issue or sit idly by and watch these attacks happen. We understand that we are entrusted with a billion dollars of public funds. And, in the current economic climate, we are doubly mindful of our financial responsibility to taxpayers. We get that. I don’t need to ask that you continue to be reasonable and responsible in your own conduct. I know that you are.

I truly believe that both employees and taxpayers can rest assured that we are both effective and responsible stewards of the public funds we get from government. We will stand up and say so.

I can’t speak for our competitors’ principles in this context, but I will say this about ours:

We are subject to the Access to Information Act (ATIA), and we will abide by the law. We will safeguard CBC/Radio-Canada’s strategic business interests, especially in an environment that is as competitive as ours. We will fervently defend our people – both their integrity and their privacy – at every turn.

Cheers.

Hubert
November 19, 2008

To: Joyce Napier
Head, Foreign Correspondents Association

Dear Joyce,
Thank you for your letter of October 20th 2008, outlining your concerns about the contract status of correspondents Don Murray and Patrick Brown. I completely agree with your view of their qualities as journalists and the valuable service they’ve provided to CBC News throughout their careers. I cannot, however, accept your characterization of them as having been “cashiered” by the Corporation. This is simply not what happened.

As you may be aware, as they wished not to relocate back to jobs in Canada, both Patrick and Don opted to take retirement with unreduced pensions in 2006. As a result, it is appropriate that future contracts be for a reasonable and limited time, not on an ongoing basis, as Mr. Burman suggests.

Their current contracts have simply come to an end. We recognize the expertise that both Patrick and Don have brought to CBC and that is why they have both been told that we would like to continue to work with them on a freelance basis, and we hope to continue to see and hear them on CBC/Radio-Canada’s airwaves.

CBC News has many priorities and obligations both at home and abroad, and to meet those, we constantly review all of our news budgets. For the last two years, Messieurs Murray and Brown have been doing special projects rather than fulfilling normal roles as foreign correspondents. In London and China, where we have two fully staffed foreign bureaux, we can flexibly use the resources from these two contract positions without cutting back on our commitment to foreign reporting and the service these two bureaux provide to Canadians. 

Like many Canadians, I value the tremendous contribution that all of our foreign correspondents make and the essential part that international news plays in our commitment to the public. We will do everything we can to manage our resources to ensure that our commitment to news remains strong. 

Sincerely,

Hubert T. Lacroix
President and CEO