The first big round of Canadian Television Fund deadlines is over, the fall pickups are ordered and the next round of budget cuts is set to launch its latest ‘transformation’ within weeks – but the cbc will hit its crests and crevasses without Phyllis Platt from now on.

Except when she’s consulting. Although Platt will work with CBC Television vp Harold Redekopp over the next months, she was set to end her stay on staff April 28, after seven years as executive director of arts and entertainment at English tv, and more than 20 years in all with the pubcaster. She says she has no idea when a replacement will be named.

As head of arts and entertainment since 1993, Platt was responsible for a daunting portfolio including all movies, miniseries, drama series, and children’s, arts, music, science and variety programming.

Other than to allow that her departmental budget was ‘hefty,’ she did not say how much money she had to spend. She did say the past few years have seen ‘a tremendous increase in our dealings with the independent production community, partly as a result of the introduction of the Canadian Television Fund, of course. We do business with literally hundreds of companies, and that has been great because the creativity you can draw on from across the country has enriched the cbc tremendously….And there’s no question that will continue. We are partners with the independent community in a very, very significant way.’

Platt says cbc commissioned almost exactly the same percentage of dramatic programming from the indie sector in fiscal ’99/00 as it did in fiscal ’98/99, when about 93% came from out-of-house. This compares with a 75% level from independents in ’94/95.

In other business-with-indies, Platt says negotiators for cbc and the cftpa producers association will finally present a draft Terms of Trade Agreement to the cftpa board at the Banff Television Festival in June. The agreement will stipulate how the cbc should acquire and use independently produced content according to fair business practices.

As for the overall future of Canadian tv, Platt says the crtc’s move last summer to drop minimum program spending requirements for ctv, Global and tva makes the cbc’s role more important.

‘I would like to think so because, obviously, that’s the business we’re in [quality Canadian programming]. I think the pressures on the private sector are different pressures. Their first priority is the bottom line, understandably. So it’s very hard to say what will happen [to programming quality this fall]. But just judging from the activity at the [Canadian Television] Fund this year, they’re certainly still in there playing.’

Given her long tenure and broad authority over English programming, Platt gained admirers and detractors within independent prodcos. On the upside, she points to innumerable strong programs and series launched since ’93, including Da Vinci’s Inquest, Straight Up, Twitch City, Drop the Beat, The Newsroom, Made In Canada, The Arrow, Million Dollar Babies, Wind At My Back and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Platt’s cbc resume shows considerable depth. From her 1979 start as a radio researcher in Montreal, she moved through several posts, including: exec producer of tv news in Montreal, director of tv in Quebec, chief of staff for network tv, and the penultimate role of director of network programming.

In two decades at the cbc, Platt says she’s met a long list of ‘smart, interesting people.’ And of the arts and entertainment years, she says, ‘Other specific kinds of accomplishments, I think, [include] Canadianizing the primetime schedule in the fall of 1996 when I was also network program director…there was a sense of common purpose, everyone working together to make it happen.’

But 1996 was also traumatic as the federal government’s ‘program review’ agenda saw budgets ‘compressed’ in all sectors. cbc slashed 2,500 jobs and burned $400 million off its budget. Says Platt: ‘At a time like that when you know that kind of change may have an impact on revenues…we took what I’d like to think of as a courageous step, despite all odds, and making [the Canadianized schedule] happen felt like a real victory.’

Now the cbc is poised for another, smaller round of cuts, with 173 jobs and $23 million in budget to disappear by summer. The very philosophy of the place is evolving, as senior management contemplates adding more commercial-free zones, hints at increasing sponsored programming, and may boost revenue by renting trucks and equipment from coast to coast.