Canada’s public broadcaster is feeling the heat after its president declined to rule out the possibility of holiday bonuses this year, hours after announcing massive layoffs.
On Monday night, Catherine Tait appeared on the CBC News flagship show, The National, and was asked whether executives would be getting rewarded this year despite the cuts.
“I’m going to presume no bonuses this year,” said host Adrienne Arsenault. “Can we establish that’s not happening this year?”
Tait responded: “It’s too early to say where we are for this year. We’ll be looking at that, like we do all our line items in the coming months.”
Her comments came after CBC and Radio-Canada said Monday that 600 jobs will be cut, and 200 vacancies won’t be replaced over the next year.
The broadcaster said the move to reduce English and French programming budgets would result in fewer renewals and acquisitions, new television series, episodes of existing shows and digital original series.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has vowed to strip CBC of public funding while maintaining Radio-Canada’s French-language services, called out Tait’s comments on Tuesday.
“Justin Trudeau’s hand-picked CBC boss is asked if she’ll keep paying bonuses while laying off rank-and-file workers ΓǪ just listen to her!” Poilievre posted on social media, along with a clip of the interview.
Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation earlier this year show the public broadcaster has awarded $99 million in bonuses between 2015 and 2022. That included $16 million last year.
Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill on Tuesday afternoon, NDP MP Peter Julian said the public broadcaster should not be giving out bonuses to its executives at this time.
“We also are quite surprised and shocked by the bonuses going to the executive at CBC at the same time as they’re cutting local positions,” Julian said.
“Our message very clearly to CBC is, they shouldn’t be putting executive bonuses above local journalism and above those local positions that have such an impact in communities right across the country.”
The federal Liberals have not weighed in on the issue of bonuses and have instead said it is something the public broadcaster should answer to.
While the planned cuts were announced on Monday, the public broadcaster has not yet moved forward with laying off employees.
Instead, it said the cuts would happen over the next year as the Crown corporation faces a budget shortfall of $125 million for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
The federal government had announced in its spring budget this year that it would cut spending across departments and agencies by three per cent by the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
But some jobs and programming could be saved from the chopping block,Tait told The Canadian Press on Monday, should the broadcaster’s revenues or funding improve.
“We play an outsized role as a vehicle of cultural production and creative production in the country, and so if we are going to play that outsized role, we’re going to need an adjustment in our funding,” Tait said.
“Whether that comes from advertising or government investment, we will take it where we get it.”
But as the public broadcaster vies for more funding,Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland didn’t weigh in on whether Ottawa will exempt it from across-the-board budget cuts.
Freeland told reporters on Tuesday morning that the CBC and Radio-Canada cuts were “very sad news.”
But when asked whether it was an option to exempt the public broadcaster from overall spending cuts, Freeland skirted the question.
“Our government strongly supports Radio-Canada and CBC,” she said in French. “We will continue to be there.”
On Tuesday, CBC and Radio-Canada made a presentation at the CRTC’s ongoing hearing on modernizing the regulatory framework for broadcasters.
The federal regulator’s consultation is being held in response to the Online Streaming Act, formerly known as Bill C-11, which requires digital platforms to contribute to and promote Canadian content.
Representatives from the public broadcaster told commission panellists that CBC spent more than $900 million on Canadian content last year, but that without financial support, “domestic production of virtually all genres of Canadian programming is not sustainable, given the size of our market.”
Asked what the company is doing to protect journalism as it moves ahead with its announced cuts, CBC executive vice-president Barbara Williams said the broadcaster is crafting a plan to “work differently” and more efficiently, but that the specifics are not yet clear.
“We have not figured out all the details of this,” she said.
“But we are looking to protect local, we are looking to protect news, we have a key investment in the kinds of shows that we have in our prime time. We have a strong and loyal audience to radio, we have a young, diverse audience that’s looking for us on digital.”
Williams added CBC is committed to preserving content serving Indigenous communities, especially in the North, amid the cuts.
Representatives urged the CRTC to mandate an initial contribution from online streamers to support the Canadian content system — a proposal the regulator is considering to help level the playing field with local companies that are already required to support Canadian content.
Williams said if some of that money is set aside to subsidize local news programming for struggling media outlets, the fund should also be accessible to CBC and Radio-Canada.
Under separate legislation governing tech giants’ use of Canadian media content, the federal government recently struck a deal with Google to provide up to $100 million a year to news organizations whose content is featured on their sites.
Draft regulations laid out in the Online News Act, which will regulate the deal, show that CBC/Radio-Canada currently stands to collect the largest share because it employs one-third of the journalistic workforce in Canada.
However, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge hinted last week that the federal government is open to limiting how much money the public broadcaster gets.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2023.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
