Source: Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore says he was disappointed the CBC abruptly cancelled a Monday meeting with him, but he still hopes to meet with the broadcaster in the coming days.

Moore said Monday's scheduled meeting with the CBC's board of directors had been confirmed early last week, but late Friday the broadcaster wanted to move it to Tuesday instead. With his schedule already set, Moore said that was not possible.

"I was disappointed that they changed things like that," Moore told Canwest News Service in a brief telephone interview Monday evening.

Relations between the government and the CBC have been tense as the broadcaster prepares to complete its budget plan for the coming fiscal year. The CBC is in the middle of a two-day planning session to adopt its 2009-10 budget.

CBC president Hubert Lacroix has warned that the corporation might have to cut jobs and programming if it can't make up for an advertising shortfall of as much as $65 million. The CBC receives an annual public subsidy of slightly more than $1 billion.

On Sunday, Moore appeared on the popular French-language CBC talk show Tout le Monde en Parle and criticized the public broadcaster for airing American TV shows such as Wheel of Fortune, while it considers cutting Canadian content.

The CBC reportedly cancelled Monday's meeting to avoid a perception that the federal minister might be in a position to influence the independent broadcaster's strategic planning.

Moore said the CBC decided that it wanted to meet him Tuesday instead of Monday, but he said he did not know why the corporation wanted to change the day.

"You'll have to ask them," Moore said. "Ever since I was appointed minister of Canadian Heritage I had an open invitation to come and speak with the full board anytime I wanted. I said OK, why not Monday in Toronto? They said yes on March 10 and everything was firmed up right up until late Friday afternoon."

A CBC spokesman did not return a request for comment early Monday evening.

Moore said he hoped the meeting would take place "in the very near future" in Ottawa. He said he could not reschedule the meeting for Tuesday because he had already planned a full day in Calgary, with a full slate of meetings and announcements.

Speaking to the French CBC on Sunday night, Moore made it clear he was not pleased with the possibility that the broadcaster might be forced to air more American programming to cope with falling advertising sales.

"The reason that taxpayers provide a subsidy to the CBC is to give each Canadian, in every part of the country and in both official languages, the opportunity to see news, stories and dramas," Moore told the program. "Frankly, I can tell you I don't like it when I see the CBC cancelling Canadian content, and we see Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune."

As the CBC board meeting continued Monday, speculation emerged that it might have to consider the possibility of selling advertising on its radio service, which has always been ad-free.

On Monday, Moore said he did not want to comment on speculative reports about what the CBC board might be considering, but then said: "I don't think ads on CBC radio are what the listeners want."

Moore said that goes against CBC "tradition" and would hurt private radio, which is also competing for scarce advertising dollars.

The CRTC does not allow ads on CBC radio.

"I don't believe it would be in the overall interest of all of the broadcast industry, the private sector, or the public sector to have the CBC running ads on their (radio) stations," said Moore.

© Ottawa Citizen