The CBC notified 18 people in Toronto, St. John’s, Winnipeg and Edmonton today that their positions were being made redundant.

The bulk of the job losses are the result of budget cuts, according to the Corporation. Ten permanent staff members were given notice at the Toronto Production Centre: two stagehands, two senior clerks, a resource coordinator, a wardrobe coordinator, an assistant costume designer, a set decorator, a TV technician and a senior lighting technician. Today’s redundancy notices at the TPC come on top of the seven voluntary layoff packages negotiated with staff there earlier this month.

Three members in radio are also affected by today’s notices: a producer in Toronto and a producer and a host in Edmonton were told their positions were being made redundant.

Finally, two shows on the digital station, Country Canada, are being cancelled, affecting a total of five employees. The shows are Food Chain in St. John’s and CountryWide in Winnipeg. The station is apparently struggling with low subscriptions.

“This is very disheartening,” says Arnold Amber, the CBC Branch President of the Canadian Media Guild. “There seems to be a growing tendency toward layoffs at the CBC this year, with about 50 announced in the last few weeks alone. The question is, when will it stop? We are challenging the CBC to find other ways out of its presumed financial difficulties.”

The Guild, which only got word of the impending job cuts on Friday (February 25), is working to ensure that the rights of all of the affected members under the collective agreement are respected.

For more information, call the Guild (guild@interlog.com) at 416-591-5333 or 1-800-465-4149.