Michel Saint-Cyr, President of the CBC’s Real Estate Division has resigned.
The move comes as the CBC is trying to sell assets to finance the majority of a $171 million shortfall. CBC President Hubert Lacroix said on Friday that Saint-Cyr “created some one quarter billion dollars in value on a 10-year horizon…” by “monetizing” under-used assets.
Others, such as the President of the Canadian Media Guild, Lise Lareau are less charitable. “The impact of the Real Estate grip on CBC decision-making and the mantra of “monetizing” the public broadcaster’s space cannot be underestimated,” Lareau wrote on her blog.
“Desks were measured with a view to squashing as many people as possible into some newly leased space,” she added.
Lareau also said the real estate division precipitated the layoffs of 80 set and costume designers in Toronto, and that the success of the division served to mask the CBC’s financial crisis. “Here we are eight years after the creation of the Real Estate Power, with a $171M shortfall that Real Estate can’t fix, 800 layoffs on the horizon, and an unleased partly empty building in Toronto,” she wrote.
The impact of the resignation on financing CBC’s shortfall is unclear.
|
3 Comments » | Email This Post |
| Executives, Real Estate | Posted at 10:55 am (27 Apr 2009) |
