Ted Barris

It was one of the first phone calls I made when I arrived at a new job in Saskatoon in 1976. I dialed city hall and asked for the mayor’s office. I explained that I was new in town and wanted to meet with the man to discuss a media opportunity with him. His assistant took down my name and number and said the mayor would get back to me. A day or so later he phoned me back.

“Mayor Cliff Wright here,” he said. “How can I help you?”

“Thanks for returning my call, Mr. Mayor …”

“You can call me Cliff,” he said.

I explained that as a new radio producer of CFQC Radio (part of Baton Broadcasting, owned at the time by CTV) I’d been asked to approach him and offer him a weekly spot on our morning radio show, hosted by Wally Stambuck and Denny Carr. It was part of the station’s initiative to connect with community. Such was “the beginning of a beautiful relationship,” giving our CTV-owned radio station (and therefore its thousands of listeners) regular access to the chief administrator of the city.

It gave Mayor Wright the chance to speak about and answer phone-in questions on everything from potholes to policy, taxes to transit, and gossip to good news. If it wasn’t already, such current affairs programing confirmed our radio station as the voice of the community.

It’s not rocket science, but reflecting community to its citizens – delivering local news, weather, sports, analysis and commentary – has been the hallmark of successful broadcasting and publishing for a hundred years. It’s something that Mirko Bibic, and his fellow corporate executives at Bell Canada Enterprises don’t appear to understand.

Last Thursday Bibic announced BCE was cutting 4,800 jobs, or nine per cent of its CTV workforce, and selling 45 radio stations in its national network.

What does that mean? It means noon newscasts at all CTV stations (except Toronto) are gone. It means CTV newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. on weekends are gone. It means that “W5,” CTV’s flagship investigative journalism show, is gone (reduced to periodic documentary inserts). In my view, what it also means is that any suggestion by CTV that it still speaks for, about or with Canadians is not true.

Evidence the fact that in the same announcement, last Thursday, CEO Bibic proudly proclaimed that the cuts will save BCE $250 million a year. In other words, not only is BCE killing CTV’s journalistic presence, he’s just trying to save his own neck as benefactor to his corporation’s shareholders.

It’s all about saving profits, not about searching for the truth. Here’s the way B.C. Premier David Eby characterized the move.

“Bell (has) overseen the assembly of local media assets that are treasures to local communities. They bought them up like corporate vampires. They sucked the life out of them. They have overseen the ‘encrapification’ of local news, by laying off journalists. And now they say it’s no longer economically viable to run these local radio stations, to have investigative news, and they were allowed to do this.”

The premier further noted that last year alone, BCE chalked up $3 billion in commercial profits from those same broadcast outlets in B.C. He called it reprehensible, with all its MBAs, that Bell could not ensure that communities in his province could depend on accurate, impartial and reliable sources of local news, particularly in the face of so much disinformation on social media. He demanded that Bell be held accountable.

I agree. For far too long, corporate telecoms in Canada have whined about regulation and controls cramping their style. Every time their licences come up for review, private communication conglomerates complain that they can’t be expected to build infrastructure, hire professionals and broadcast for such low rates of return.

Those same conglomerates whimper that they can’t compete in a marketplace where public broadcasters (such as the CBC) are allowed to pursue ad revenue to enhance its investigative journalism, its cultural programing and its delivery of Canadian content from coast to coast to coast.

Well, sorry BCE and kin, in Canada we consider telecommunication a public service and access to Canadians important enough to be closely regulated. Hence, for 56 years, the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has protected access to that public resource and limited abuse with regulatory measures. It’s a fact of life in this country.

From that very moment, 50 years ago, when I invited the mayor of Saskatoon to speak and answer questions on our CTV station airwaves, I recognized the importance of local news delivery.

So, if BCE can’t comprehend that reality, I don’t think they belong in my community.