(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he’s “furious” with BCE Inc., Canada’s largest telecommunications firm, over its decision to cut jobs and programs in its media division.
BCE announced Thursday that it’s eliminating 9% of jobs this year, about 4,800 positions. The cuts will heavily impact its broadcasting unit, with layoffs and canceled news shows at its television stations. The Quebec-based company is also selling 45 of its 103 regional radio stations.
Trudeau said the cuts are deeply frustrating to him at a time when the government is trying to help local journalism.
“This is a garbage decision by a corporation that should know better,” Trudeau said in response to reporters’ questions Friday.
“Over the past years, corporate Canada — and there are many culprits on this — have abdicated their responsibility towards the communities that they have always made very good profits off of.”
BCE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trudeau’s remarks.
When announcing the cuts on Thursday, BCE put some of the blame on the government. The company is pulling back on capital spending and slowing down the building of its fiberoptic network, a decision it attributed to federal policies such as a regulatory decision last year that will force BCE to open up its broadband networks to smaller rivals at fixed rates.
“We need to take additional measures in response to increasingly unsupportive federal government and regulatory decisions, legacy business declines and a macroeconomic environment with higher interest rates and continued inflation,” BCE said. It’s aiming to save as much as C$200 million ($149 million) this year with the staff reductions.
News Legislation
Trudeau’s government has sought to provide money to Canadian news outlets through legislation such as the Online News Act, which tries to force Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. to pay them for content. Meta declined, instead prohibiting users on Facebook in Canada from posting links to news articles. Alphabet’s Google negotiated payments in the range of C$100 million.
“We’ve seen over the past years, journalistic outlets — radio stations, small community newspapers — bought up by corporate entities who then lay off journalists,” Trudeau said. “This is the erosion not just of journalism, of quality local journalism, at a time where people need it more than ever given misinformation and disinformation. But it’s eroding our very democracy.”
Read More: Zuckerberg’s Fight With Trudeau Batters Canadian Media Outlets
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge — who oversees the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which regulates the broadcast sector — said the government has allowed media consolidation on “the promise that they would deliver on news content.”
“They’re backing away from that,” she told reporters Thursday.
She also said the CRTC had already given BCE about C$40 million ($29.7 million) in licensing fee relief, and warned that regulatory changes will be coming soon with updated legislation on the broadcasting sector.
The CRTC said in an emailed statement that it is examining whether BCE is in compliance with its license obligations.
BCE’s media division owns BNN Bloomberg Television, which has a news content partnership with Bloomberg LP.
--With assistance from Thomas Seal.
(Updates with CRTC comment in 14th paragraph)
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