While producers in Quebec condemn Pierre Karl Péladeau’s move to dismantle the Canadian Television Fund, the province’s largest communications union is applauding.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique — which represents some 7,000 employees at TVA, Quebecor-owned Videotron and Radio-Canada — sided with Quebecor and echoed its president’s controversial remark that independent TV producers are coddled by the government.

‘The idea behind the CTF was to create a viable industry that’s sustainable in the long term. But that hasn’t happened. These so-called private producers are completely subsidized,’ said Michel Bibeau, spokesperson for SCFP, in an interview with Playback Daily.

The SCFP believes CTF must adapt to the multi-channel universe. ‘The Quebec audience has fragmented to the Internet, to digital TV, to cell phones. But people working in other platforms don’t have access to CTF money. That needs to change,’ he adds.

And yet the union does not support Péladeau’s proposal to create a new private fund.

Péladeau said Monday he will pump $109 million over the next three years into a new stream operated by his Quebecor Fund, all content from which will be produced, broadcast and distributed by Quebecor outlets such as TVA and Videotron.

‘We don’t think that one private fund managed by a single corporation is in the public interest,’ says Bibeau.

The idea also has Quebec producers up in arms and is ‘insulting’ to the community, according to Claire Samson, the head of APFTQ, who alleges that Péladeau ‘wants to create a monopoly. Everything will go through Quebecor and its multi platforms.’

The APFTQ is calling on the federal government to reject Péladeau’s proposal and force Videotron and Shaw Communications to resume their payments to CTF. Both cable companies recently pulled their support amid complaints that CTF is not effective.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, Heritage Minster Bev Oda told a parliamentary committee that she will write to the companies and ask them to pay up, though she said forcing the matter was up to the CRTC.

Oda has been under fire for moving too slowly to fix the CTF situation, and NDP Heritage Critic Charlie Angus (Timmins James Bay) says her letter is too little, too late.

‘It’s hardly a dramatic step to take. I would have assumed a letter would have been sent weeks ago. But there’s been silence,’ says Angus. ‘In every other sector, the message this government is giving is that they are in charge. But when it comes to CTF, they will have us believe that Oda has no influence at all on these companies who are in defiance of the CRTC.’

‘I think she should step down,’ he added. Calls to Heritage for further comment were not returned.

After Oda passed the buck to the CRTC, its newly named chairman appeared to hand it right back and, in a statement released Tuesday afternoon, he expressed confidence that ‘Shaw and Quebecor will heed the Minister’s call and resume monthly payments.’

‘The CRTC is prepared to work with the CTF board of directors, Quebecor and Shaw to resolve the matters in contention,’ wrote Konrad von Finckenstein.

In a related story, Péladeau filed a defamation suit in Quebec Superior Court on Monday, alleging that Radio-Canada VP Sylvain Lafrance damaged his reputation and that of his company when he told Le Devoir newspaper that Péladeau was ‘behaving like a hooligan’ by withholding payments from CTF.

CBC president Robert Rabinovitch is also named as a defendant in the suit for allegedly not taking action to counter the damage done by Lafrance, who allegedly repeated his comment on a Radio-Canada radio show.