Source : Ottawa Citizen

CBC President Robert Rabinovitch has asked the federal government for a multimillion-dollar long-term boost in funding for the corporation, but is backtracking from previous statements that he wants a fixed increase of $100 million a year.

Mr. Rabinovitch will meet shortly with federal Heritage Minister Liza Frulla to discuss the CBC's request, but neither side will reveal how much the taxpayer-funded broadcaster is asking for.

Four key CBC executives due to appear today before the federal Heritage committee are expected to say that Mr. Rabinovitch was misunderstood in November when he told the same committee, and later journalists, that he needed $100 million. The bulk of that increase, he said, would be used for network programming produced out of Toronto and Montreal and not to fund cash-starved local and regional CBC shows.

A subsequent letter writing campaign organized by the lobby group, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, generated thousands of e-mails to Prime Minister Paul Martin and MPs across the country. The campaign appears to have irritated the Prime Minister's Office and likely concerned MPs in parts of the country where the CBC is the sole broadcaster.

In a letter sent in late January to Friends spokesman Ian Morrison, CBC vice-president of communications, William Chambers, said Mr. Rabinovitch had been misinterpreted and urged Friends post a clarification on its website "in the interest of transparency and accuracy."

Mr. Chambers said in his letter the $100 million and other figures used by the CBC president "was an answer to a question from the committee and then from a journalist, not a request to the government for funding."

In his response yesterday, Mr. Morrison asked Mr. Chambers why the CBC had made no attempt to correct news reports of Mr. Rabinovitch's November remarks, correct the same impression the CBC president had left with members of the Heritage committee, or correct a letter Friends sent in early December to Ms. Frulla objecting to the apparent plan to spend so little on regional and local services.

In his letter, Mr. Chambers says all "new operating funding" the CBC is seeking from the government will be spent at the local and regional level.

The CBC's base funding from government is $873 million. The broadcaster made $282 million in advertising revenue and program sales during the last financial year, plus another $227 million in other revenue from property and other non-programming sales.

The CBC caused a national protest and angered many MPs five years ago after cutting local and regional services in response to massive cuts to its budget by the Chretien government.

The CBC has lost more than 200,000 viewers to its local and regional TV supper hour programming since the cuts.

© Ottawa Citizen

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