Source : Toronto Star

The only thing that really matters in broadcasting is program content; all the rest is housekeeping

Robert MacLaren Fowler, chair of The Royal Commission on Canadian Broadcasting, March 1957

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One might wonder if, after today, when Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper names his cabinet, the new Heritage Minister will sweep out CBC.

After all, the rumoured candidate is Heritage critic Bev Oda, a veteran broadcaster and CRTC commissioner, with close ties to the private industry. Indeed, like Sarmite (Sam) Bulte, the Liberal MP who lost in Parkdale-High Park, Oda's prior campaign contributions have come from industry bigwigs who, in 2004, held a $250-a-pop fundraiser for her. (The details for 2005 are not yet in.)

Anyway, it would appear that, out of financial necessity, CBC has already become a virtual broom closet, with employees jammed together so that the public broadcaster's real estate holdings might be leveraged for revenue generation.

Some 60 staffers are now attached to Michel Saint-Cyr, president of CBC's real estate division, charged with managing CBC property so that profits are diverted into programming.

It's doubtful that MacLaren had the real estate business in mind back in 1957, let alone a separate merchandising division headed up by yet another president, Rene Bourdages. He has 40 staffers making the most out of CBC's brand with everything from CDs to T-shirts.

Still, since its creation in 2000 under current CBC president and chief executive officer Robert Rabinovitch, the real estate division has generated or freed up $53 million. Not exactly small change. But, averaged out per year, it would not cover a full season of a drama series such as Da Vinci's City Hall.

At the same time, the real estate division has been credited - or blamed - for cramming CBC workers into call centre-like workspaces in Edmonton and Ottawa, where staffers are confined to 30 square feet per person in open newsrooms.

The thing is, broadcasting is not telemarketing. Journalists work with computers, recording and editing equipment as well as telephones. They need to be able to communicate with each other, their sources, listen to their soundtracks and hear themselves think.

No wonder that, last week, the results of a health survey, co-sponsored by CBC and its unions and completed last June by a majority of its 9,000 employees, revealed that almost half of the respondents "are considered to be at high risk of psychological distress."

Conducted by Laval University, the survey was done because health costs were spiralling. Covering even managerial staffers, it "identified the principal risk factors for the majority of employees that can lead to burnout and depression." That includes all the classic symptoms of bad management.

And all this before last year's eight-week lockout. Imagine what would be uncovered today, in the angry aftermath which many staffers say has never been dealt with. The survey was also conducted before CBC faced the prospect of a potentially axe-wielding Conservative government. (Not that Liberals were generous, mind you.)

Anyway, last week, Toronto staffers received an internal memo announcing that CBC had hired the "international consultancy firm" DEGW to redesign the downtown Canadian Broadcasting Centre so that chunks of it might be leased out.

"The resulting overall vision and principles for the redesign of our Toronto workspace will be applied first to any changes required to accommodate potential new tenants, and then to other moves as they occur," said the memo co-signed by Saint-Cyr, as well as CBC-TV executive vice-president Richard Stursberg and CBC Radio vice-president Jane Chalmers.

"Part of the revenue earned from the additional rental will be used on a one-time basis to fund whatever building enhancements are identified. Once that's done, the ongoing flow of income will be reinvested in programming."

"I think they're under enormous financial stress. No question," says Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild, CBC's biggest union. "But at a certain point, it's a false economy. It's going to cost more. You've got to evaluate what employees need rather than going for the lowest common denominator."

Counters corporate spokesperson Jason MacDonald: "Taxpayers invest a lot of money in CBC - and they deserve to know that they're getting value in return, that their money is being used wisely, efficiently and effectively."

Meanwhile in Vancouver, CBC is building a new property alongside a condominium.

"We're not selling condos," insists MacDonald. "The site is being developed. There is a residential tower going up as part of it. But the CBC building is being independently built. We have our own developer and designer, and it's being developed with broadcasting in mind."

Rabinovitch, who created these divisions in order to deal with the broadcaster's very real financial problems, is winning praise from CBC's board.

Trouble is, squeezed from above, he's in turn squeezing those below: the programmers.

"This is Rabinovitch's legacy: He is obsessed with revenue generation," says Lareau. "Can you blame him in this climate? No. But I wish he'd be half as obsessed with programming as he is with revenue generation."

© Toronto Star