Montreal: If a management plan calling for a major break with the past is implemented at Radio-Quebec, virtually all of the network’s in-house production will be eliminated by the 1996/97 fall season and permanent staff levels slashed from the current 580 to under 300.

In a radical reorientation proposal outlined in a 25-page report on Radio-Quebec’s future, a government-appointed advisory committee says the network should terminate all generalist programming and adopt a strictly educational mandate, comparable to tvontario, pbs in the u.s. or La Cinq in France.

If the report’s recommendations are not implemented quickly, advisory committee chair and Radio-Quebec president Jean Fortier says the ‘technically bankrupt’ broadcaster will be ‘in real peril.’

The biggest stumbling block to the plan is the network’s legally binding collective agreements with its three unions.

Fortier says the network would save $18 million a year as a result of the layoffs and the transfer of 85% of its production to the private sector.

Of the $18 million, about $10 million would be redirected to private-sector programming, while the balance, $8 million, would be used to repay a loan to finance the cost of reorganization.

The goal is to implement the administrative and programming changes for the 1996/97 fall season, says Fortier, at which time the committee suggests Radio-Quebec change its name to Tele-Quebec, ‘le reseau du savoir.’

It seems certain the unions representing general workers, technicians and directors won’t co-operate.

Jacques Poulin, a spokesman for sert, the Radio-Quebec technicians union, says employees plan to vigorously oppose the plan with possible strike action and pressure demonstrations directed at provincial and federal politicians.

Poulin says the advisory committee recommendations are a sell-out to private-sector interests. If implemented, he says, the plan will turn Radio-Quebec into a hybrid of ‘Telefilm (Canada) and Canal D (the new documentary channel).’

Fortier says employees are likely to be offered salary compensation for up to two years, and some production staff may be reassigned to the private sector where a portion of their salaries will be paid by either Radio-Quebec or with Manpower retraining funds.

Under the new plan, almost 90% of direct program spending at Radio-Quebec, about $30 million, will go for programs from the independent sector, and $5 million will be set aside for selective in-house productions.

The advisory committee pointed to potential new sources of revenue for the cash-strapped broadcaster, including a proposal to make corporate sponsorship investments in educational programs qualify as Manpower training exemptions.

The committee also recommended the creation of a $25 million a year programming fund sourced from existing budgets of various Quebec government departments, including Education, Manpower, and Science and Technology.

In strictly technical terms, Fortier says Radio-Quebec is bankrupt and ‘there is no margin to maneuver’ which would allow the broadcaster to back off on its redundancy plans.

Fortier, who presided over huge staff cutbacks at Television Quatre Saisons in 1992 and ’93, says Radio-Quebec expects its $55 million allocation from government will remain stable, with an additional $12 million to $15 million a year in independent revenues stemming from advertising, program sales and other commercial activities.

The projected layoffs of 300 permanent staffers includes 111 permanent and more than 50 part-time job cuts announced earlier in May.

The advisory committee members are Fortier, Bernard Benoist, Alban D’Amours, Francis Pelletier, Louise Spickler and Robert Thivierge. LRB