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As Bell Media blamed regulators and policymakers for its determination to announce a recent spherical of layoffs Thursday, federal and provincial politicians accused the corporate of unnecessarily killing off native journalism.
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge decried the corporate for breaking its promise to spend money on information after it was granted greater than $40 million in annual regulatory aid.
That’s the identical quantity the corporate stated its information division, which incorporates CTV Information and BNN Bloomberg, is shedding yearly.
Dealing with $40 million in annual working losses, Bell Media is chopping 4,800 jobs. That comes amid across-the-board cuts at mum or dad firm BCE Inc., which has an working income totaling $6.7 billion, up from $6.44 billion a yr earlier.
“They aren’t going bankrupt. They’re nonetheless making billions of {dollars}. They’re nonetheless a really worthwhile firm,” St-Onge stated Thursday on Parliament Hill.
“They usually nonetheless have the capability and the means to carry their finish of the discount, which is to ship information experiences.”
READ MORE: ‘Not a viable business anymore’: Bell Media selling 45 radio stations amid layoffs
St-Onge stated the federal government has labored to assist the information trade, and sooner or later corporations must chip in, too.
The Liberals’ replace to broadcasting legislation, the On-line Streaming Act, got here into impact final April. It abolished sure licensing charges, which St-Onge stated will save the corporate some $40 million a yr.
Bell Media can also be anticipated to obtain cash due to the Liberals’ On-line Information Act, which got here into impact late final yr.
Broadcasters are anticipated to obtain $30 million by means of a aspect deal the federal government struck with Google.
It agreed to pay information retailers $100 a yr to keep away from being regulated underneath the brand new legislation, which requires tech giants to compensate information producers for content material that’s shared on their platforms, and from which they financially profit.
Nonetheless, Bell Media is blaming its cuts on the federal authorities, saying Ottawa took too lengthy to supply aid for media corporations.
It additionally blames the Canadian Radio-television Fee, saying the regulator is simply too sluggish to react to a “disaster that’s instant.”
The CRTC is predicted to launch remaining laws aimed toward serving to the information trade within the coming months. Till then, St-Onge stated, “we want all people to carry sturdy.”
Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, a former journalist, stated Thursday that the layoffs are “atrocious” and it’s “onerous seeing journalists being handled as rounding errors in what I feel are wholesome revenue margins.”
And British Columbia Premier David Eby stated Bell Media has “overseen the ‘en-crap-ification’ of native information”
He stated the layoffs — together with the sale of 45 of the corporate’s 113 regional radio stations — is “catastrophic.”
“Bell and companies like Bell have overseen the meeting of native media belongings which might be treasures to native communities. They purchased them up. Like company vampires, they sucked the life out of them, shedding journalists,” Eby stated Thursday.
In an age of disinformation, individuals depend on the work of journalists and native information stations for unbiased and balanced info. Nevertheless, large media corporations purchase up native retailers and shortly after liquify them.
(1/2) pic.twitter.com/YLX54DNlwF
— David Eby (@Dave_Eby) February 8, 2024
The federal NDP stated this could function a wake-up name for Ottawa and its relationship with companies.
“The federal authorities wants to begin displaying management, first off, and any funding that’s going to Bell or another company wants to return with the important thing ensures when it comes to jobs and sustaining skilled journalism,” NDP Home chief Peter Julian stated.
When St-Onge was pressed on the cuts by the Bloc Québécois throughout query interval, she acknowledged in French that the Liberal authorities wouldn’t be giving any extra money to billionaire corporations.
Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre responded to the cuts on Thursday by putting blame on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He stated excessive taxes, burdensome crimson tape and an uncompetitive enterprise surroundings “is driving our jobs and our cash in a foreign country to international nations which might be prospering at our expense.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 8, 2024.
— With recordsdata from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa and Sammy Hudes in Toronto.
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