Radio Canada International receives funding for one year (04/14/96)

Radio Canada International receives funding for one year

by Andrij Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps confirmed her January 25 pledge to save the country's Radio Canada International service, in an announcement made in Ottawa on March 21.

Ms. Copps announced she had found $16 million to keep the country's international short-wave and satellite broadcaster on the air. "The enormous outpouring of support for RCI, both within Canada and around the world has persuaded us that this is a vital choice for Canada," the minister said.

Although RCI has avoided the complete shutdown scheduled for March 31, it has apparently suffered a $500,000 cut to its funding, down from $16.5 million. It has also secured only a one-year reprieve, with no contractual or legislative commitment for the future.

Allan Familiant, RCI program director contacted by The Weekly, confirmed the cut, but gave assurances that they will be absorbed internally, without affecting programs.

As reported by Hugh Winsor of the Globe and Mail on March 22, the heritage minister faced a climate of cutbacks under Finance Minister Paul Martin's recently tabled budget and outright opposition from Perrin Beatty, president of the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, RCI's parent company.

According to Mr. Winsor's piece, Mr. Beatty argued against giving money to the "Montreal-based international service when [Mr. Beatty] couldn't afford a news bureau in Victoria [British Columbia], the capital of the third-largest province in the country."

Nevertheless, the hard-nosed Ms. Copps met with the CBC's board during the week of March 17, and extracted $8 million. The other half of the funding will be secured from the Heritage Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Defense Department and the Canadian International Development Agency.

According to the March 22 Globe report, Ms. Copps said "the interested departments would have to find a long-term funding solution."

Wojtek Gwiazda, a spokesman for a coalition of RCI employees and supporters contacted by The Weekly, said nobody should breathe a sigh of relief. "We're concerned about how close we came to disappearing; no one should underestimate how fragile our position remains," he said.

"The day before [Minister Copps made her announcement], the money wasn't there," Mr. Gwiazda added, "Copps was walking around with a tin cup, and the funding wasn't coming."

What saved RCI? "There was so much support, both from Canadians and from around the world, that the politicians in Ottawa could not ignore it," Mr. Gwiazda said.

"There is a persistent lack of understanding of the impact we do have and could have, both within the country and internationally. What [those seeking to cut costs] completely fail to grasp is that of 126 international broadcasters on the air, 101 are funded by governments and the rest by religious groups. There's a reason why countries have an international voice."

"The bottom line is that this is not the way to run an international radio service," the coalition spokesman said. "The government hasn't made a decision, it has simply deferred it."

"RCI should be put on a more stable base, with its own funding from the government," Mr. Gwiazda said. "The funding should be separate, apart from the CBC, apart from Defense; funding for RCI should be like Canada's contribution to the U.N. - a conscious commitment to an important aspect of its presence in the international arena."

Mr. Gwiazda's stand has support in RCI's executive. Mr. Familiant was quite blunt in his assessment of those, such as Reform Party critic Jim Abbott, who suggested the broadcaster earn revenue by carrying commercials.

"I don't want to close off any avenues, and am willing to consider any reasonable suggestion," the RCI program director said. "However, the most recent examples of countries trying commercials were in Russia, I believe, then China, and they weren't very successful. Even the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] tried it for a time before giving up on the idea."

"The thing you have to remember," Mr. Familiant added, "is that there 101 broadcasters out there, and they aren't idiots. Things are done in a certain way for a reason."

Elizbieta Olechowska, manager of the Russia, Ukraine and East European Section told The Weekly she was not "overly optimistic" about the latest development.

Referring to the date last year Mr. Beatty announced the imminent closure of RCI and issued pink slips to its 123 employees, Ms. Olechowska said, "If something serious is not done in the next few months, on December 12 [1996], we will get another round of layoff notices."

However, the section manager did confirm that the previous notices were officially rescinded on March 22. She also said Ms. Copps' action provided some hope. "We hope that the necessary political will is in existence, and we hope the government will take the necessary steps to ensure that RCI will be secured as a Canadian institution over the long term."

Ms. Olechowska also said she didn't think the cut sustained by the broadcaster would affect programming.

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