Ontario’s public broadcaster announced today that it is cutting approximately two million dollars out of its budget, resulting in the elimination of up to 40 positions across the organization.

Three programs will be affected. As of the end of the current season, the popular Saturday Night at the Movies and Allan Gregg in Conversation will be eliminated. Big Ideas will also cease to exist as a stand-alone program, although from time to time a similar lecture-style episode will be done within the flagship current affairs program The Agenda With Steve Paikin.

The positions targeted for elimination are in management and non-unionized roles, as well as the CMG and CEP bargaining units. There are a number of employees who are eligible to take retirement, and some vacant positions will be eliminated, so the number of involuntary departures should be somewhat lower.

Although the company has said that it plans to communicate directly with affected employees before the end of this week, the Guild’s collective agreement requires discussions to ensure an “orderly and equitable layoff procedure”. It’s possible that some employees who receive a redundancy notice may not in fact be laid off in the end. We will be meeting with the company on Thursday to go through the details of the planned reductions; your Guild representatives will work hard to ensure that the employer follows all the rules. We’ll keep you posted throughout the process.

If you have any questions, please contact Gregg Thurlbeck or CMG staff rep Keith Maskell at keith@cmg.ca.