Hubert Lacroix spoke yesterday at the Canadian Media Guild’s biannual convention. It marked the first time that a CBC/Radio-Canada President and CEO spoke at a CMG convention.
Lacroix said poor communication between the senior executives and guild representatives underscored an urgent need to rebuild a proper relationship. Lacroix’s said his mission since he joined the CBC 18 months ago has been to build a greater level of respect and transparency at every level of the organization.
Lacroix called for a “paradigm shift” (yes, he actually said “paradigm shift”) in thinking to incorporate more pride and positivity. He added that he knew the job was hard because the same executives are in the same place as they were during the 2005 lockout. He also highlighted that each member of his senior management team had been fully briefed on the importance of the CBC/CMG relationship, and “failure is not an option” to them.
Lacroix also spoke of the changing media environment, particularly of the BBC’s move to up their budget for their web services from $200 million to $800 million US annually. He used this as a pointed example; “[Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC] is going to take almost one-half our total annual budget for CBC/Radio-Canada and invest it in Web services and Web-related initiatives,” Lacroix told delegates, pointing to the challenge of working in an industry that is constantly requiring us to rethink our existing strategies. “How can we keep being relevant in this environment if we can’t talk? If our own labour and management team can’t change this, no one can.”
Lacroix has also started up a key initiative, “Challenge Us!”, which brings together 65 CBC employees from all levels and all areas of the country, in order to examine the employee/employer relationship and change it to a healthy and productive one. He recognized the inputs from key members of the Canadian Media Guild, and finished by once again reiterating that failure was not an option, and that the relationship must improve from both sides.
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| Executives, Human Resources, Labour/CBC Unions | Posted at 12:48 pm (26 May 2008) |
At a conference for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television last Thursday, Hubert Lacroix pointed out that the CBC can not accurately plan its programming on 12 month cycles, and requires a seven year funding plan. The full text of the speech is available here.
He also reiterated that the CBC needs an extra 215 million dollars to maintain quality programming, or $40.00 per capita rather than $33.00 per capita. These requests are based on the February 28 report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
Other highlights of the speech were the fact that he plans to strengthen relations between management and the CBC union, and the fact that the CBC is reliant on ratings and advertising revenue in order to stay viable. The funding increases would help offset some of that reliance.
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| Executives, Financial, Programming | Posted at 11:06 am (26 May 2008) |
CBC president Hubert T. Lacroix spoke to Parliament’s Heritage Committee Thursday afternoon. I was recording the speech on my computer as it streamed but, uh, I ran out of hard disk space. <sigh> 
