Saucier

top CBC

While the public broadcasting debate continues across the country, from public and industry voices decrying the cbc or pleading for its continued health, members of the film and television industry are almost unanimously laying out welcome mats for new cbc president Perrin Beatty and new chair Guylaine Saucier.

Producers, broadcasters and industry consultants are, for the most part, calling the appointments everything from excellent to promising.

Michael McCabe, president and ceo of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, says, ‘I think the appointment of Perrin Beatty by the government is a stroke of genius. They found someone, most importantly, who is not from the cbc culture, someone who will accept that a new corporation has to be recreated for the year 2000 and beyond.’

Barri Cohen, cochair of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, says McCabe’s point about an outsider is valid, but she has some reservations.

‘I can agree with that,’ says Cohen, ‘but there is a danger there, too, which is that when you don’t understand the culture and philosophy of an institution, you can do some damage to its soulÉand it’s questionable whether a minister who worked under Mulroney in the ’90s understands the soul of the cbc.’

Derek MacGillivray, president of Ironstar Communications, Toronto, calls the appointment a breath of fresh air. ‘It’s a surprise politically for the Liberals to do this, but it may turn out to be a very astute move on the part of Chretien and the Liberal Cabinet. We need someone with a kind of conservative view of things.’

Ian Morrison, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, says, ‘We welcome it.’ Morrison has faith in what he calls Beatty’s knowledge of the country and believes ‘he is sensitive to the kind of role the cbc plays.’

Wayne Skene, former regional director of CBC Vancouver and author of the book Fade To Black: A Requiem for the cbc, reacted to the Beatty appointment with ‘indifference.’

‘I can’t see that it matters who they appoint. I feel sorry for someone who goes in there with any creative, managerial ambitions to turn the corporation around.’

There are some dissenting voices, however, which come anonymously from the production community. They remember the former Conservative communications minister as the leader of a department that did not protect the cbc from heavy cuts.

Career politician

Beatty, a career Tory politician, headed the doc for the Mulroney government from 1991 to 1993, when $100 million in cuts to the cbc (which he will now implement) were announced.

From the inside, David Pears, cbc’s head of drama development for Western Canada, says he’s glad an appointment was made so quickly.

‘How Mr. Beatty will function here, we have no idea. But it’s nice to have someone who has been very much in the public eye and has the weight of his experience as a cabinet minister behind him.

‘But I do find it ironic that a member of the former Conservative government that was out to do us in has been appointed by the Liberal government to take on this task.’

Atlantis Communications coo Kevin Shea says the posting bodes well for the cbc because Beatty not only knows the ins and outs of Ottawa, but also understands the mechanics of developing cultural policy.

Shea sees Beatty’s number one priority as building a strong management team around him as soon as possible.

‘The real challenge is coming to grips, I would say in the next six months, with how he plans on reorienting this very important cultural ship, and I think the first thing he has to look at is ensuring he has the right people around him.’

McCabe agrees, adding he hopes there are some significant changes internally – and that they come quickly.

Beatty has no immediate plans for staff changes, since it will take a while to assess the situation internally. ‘I’m not coming in with a plan to put in a whole new team,’ he says.

Since the announcement of the new president March 31, Beatty’s reputation as a nice guy has been a popular topic for the media, and yet everyone knows, with $350 million in cuts to administer in the next three years, he will undoubtedly make some enemies.

Beatty says of his difficult role, ‘there are no more easy decisions to be made,’ and he sees his popularity as having ‘peaked last Saturday.’

At the heart of most industry concern is how Beatty will reshape the much-troubled public broadcaster.

While he won’t discuss policy changes or targeted sacrifices, he says distribution technologies, foreign sales and regional programming are on the table for review.

Foreign sales is an area where Beatty expects to see a more aggressive approach than in the past, looking to hook up new and old cbc programming with broadcasters around the world.

Beatty won’t commit to protecting regional studios, but he will commit to protecting ‘programming coming out the regions.’

On the issue of distribution, he says: ‘Your tv set cares not whether it receives a program from a videotape, off-air, from a laser disc, from cable, from fiber-optic phone line, and nor does the viewer. The only issue is: what is the content?

‘I believe we should measure our mandate not service-by-service and saying that every service should be all things to all people, but rather looking at the corporation as a whole,’ he concludes.

Certain changes are inevitable, says Shea, such as an increase in cbc’s coproduction activities. ‘If there’s a recipe for how they can get more and better programming, it’s obviously through more and differentiated partnerships with the independent production sector and other broadcasters outside Canada.’

Ottawa-based consultant Richard Paradis, who released a government-commissioned report on international public television in November, says Saucier is the one to watch, not Beatty.

‘She has got a reputation for being a very good business woman, and it’s even more indicative (of change) that she’s there. The hard decisions are going to come from the chairman. (Beatty) is going to be a nice pillow.’

Paradis says Saucier will be applying a modern business approach to the cbc, which in turn will mean a more aggressive board than in past years.

‘I think the board is going to have less of a philosophical job than it had in the past. It’s been all about strategic repositioning. Well, let’s look back on just what repositioning has left us.’

Favored in Ottawa

Paradis’ report is now with a parliamentary committee, and while he has no indication whether it will be favored, he has heard some of the recommendations are favored in Ottawa. Up for consideration are cutbacks for cbc Ottawa headquarters and sports programming, as well as a redirection away from commercial shows and toward public-interest programs.

The future of cbc programming is up in the air. Beatty sees a need for public broadcaster programming that reflects Canada culturally, but is he prepared to bypass the commercial programming route altogether? ‘No, we’ve got to pay the hydro bills. I think the aim is not to become puristsÉbut to live in the real world.’

Echoing a popular criticism of the cbc, Paradis says the broadcaster has forgotten its public audience. About 65% of support letters during fundraising for the pbs Plattsburgh station comes from Canadians, a statistic Paradis says speaks volumes. ‘If you have grassroots support for you there is a hell of a difference. I think it’s the only way the cbc is going to survive.’

It is generally agreed in the industry that the Beatty/Saucier appointments demonstrate government support for public broadcasting.

McCabe says while that may be true, ‘what (the government) isn’t a supporter of is a public broadcaster that developed a culture internally that wanted to stay rooted firmly in the past.’

with files from Leo Rice-Barker in Montreal and Joanne Morgan in Vancouver.