OTTAWA — CBC’s president and CEO urged the government on Monday to include the pubcaster in any efforts to help ailing over-the-air networks, while repeating calls for stable, long-term funding.

‘I didn’t come here to ask for additional money, but to remind you that although I have a different mandate [than the private networks], our business model doesn’t work either,’ Hubert Lacroix said during an appearance before parliament’s Heritage committee, which is studying the conventional TV business.

The business model hasn’t been working for several years, he said, but the current economic crisis ‘has accelerated what was already a steady decline in the value of television advertising.’

Lacroix stated the CBC needs to access fee-for-carriage, if implemented, and other programs such as the CRTC’s new Local Programming Improvement Fund.

‘Don’t exclude us from these initiatives just because we get public money,’ he said. ‘Ad revenues are dropping in the 2008/09 year and we’re trying to make sure we can find a long-term solution.’ CBC anticipates a $171 million shortfall for 2009/10, which prompted the recent cuts to 800 jobs and the sell-off of some assets.

Along with fee-for-carriage and the LPIF, Lacroix renewed calls for a memorandum of understanding with Canadians that would ensure stable, long-term public funding for the CBC in exchange for delivering agreed-upon programming and services.

The CBC’s mandate, derived from the Broadcasting Act, requires ‘an incredible range of programming and services to Canadians across the country, across six time zones, in two official languages,’ he noted.

Lacroix also tried to assure the politicians that the public broadcaster remains committed to the regions. For example, although spending on regional services represents 38% of the pubcaster’s total budget, the regions bore only 20% of the total cuts, he noted. Cuts to the regions included radio staff in the Maritimes and Ontario.

‘I am not here to threaten to pull out of the regions,’ he said.