|
Decision
|
|
Ottawa, 2 August 1988
|
|
Decision CRTC 88-485
|
|
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
|
|
Prince Rupert, British Columbia -873749600
|
|
Following the 10 March 1988 Public Hearing in Prince Rupert, the Commission denies the application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to amend the broadcasting licence for CFPR Prince Rupert, by changing the program source from programs received from studios in Prince Rupert to programs received from CBYG-FM Prince George (AM network), British Columbia.
|
This application constitutes a further element of the Corporation's British Columbia Radio Improvement Plan (the B.C. Plan) (see Public Notice CRTC 1988-124 of today's date).
|
As outlined in its application, the Corporation's intention was to sell its properties in Prince Rupert and transform the existing operation in that city from an originating station to a two-person contributing bureau that would feed stories and news items to a new storefront production bureau in Prince George. The existing CFPR station would have been converted into a rebroadcaster of programming from the Prince George station. The Commission addresses the Corporation's plan to establish the Prince George storefront bureau in Decision CRTC 88-486, issued today.
|
|
The CBC has operated CFPR Prince Rupert since the 1940s. At present, the station employs a staff of 14 and originates 28 hours of programming each week made up of weekday morning and afternoon shows, a Saturday morning program that is broadcast throughout the province, and newscasts. Its service area encompasses the northwest portion of the province, including the North Coast and the Queen Charlotte Islands. There are few other broadcasting services available in Prince Rupert and surrounding communities.
|
|
At the hearing, the CBC explained that it had chosen to shift the principal base of its radio operations in northern British Columbia to Prince George because of the "dramatic growth and development" which that city has experienced in recent decades. According to the Corporation, Prince George, as "the hub city of northern B.C.", is "the logical base for the CBC's radio activities in northern B.C., the place from which we can best serve the whole northern half of the province".
|
|
According to the CBC, the downsizing of the Prince Rupert operation and upgrading of the Prince George facility would constitute a logical reallocation of funds to serve the most people in British Columbia and correct imbalances in the Corporation's provincial coverage.
|
|
Under the Corporation's B.C. Plan, coverage of the entire northwest area would be accomplished primarily by two reporters, with help from a number of freelance community stringers.
|
|
The CBC stated that the level of regional service it could provide to the entire province, including the northwest, would rise dramatically as a result of its proposed changes. As for coverage of Prince Rupert and surrounding areas, the Corporation explained:
|
|
It doesn't mean no local information at all, but it does mean placing that local coverage into a larger, regional context. This regional, provincial and national perspective, as opposed to a purely local one, is at the heart of the CBC's role as the public broadcaster. It's what we -and only we -can do, while private stations like CHTK here in Prince Rupert and CFTK in Terrace, provide the local element.
|
|
The CBC acknowledged that its proposed changes would "have an impact on the level of local service offered" to those within reach of CFPR and its rebroadcasting transmitters. It also recognized that, because people in northwestern British Columbia "live in one of the most remote parts of the country ... CBC radio is even more essential to them than it is to other British Columbians". It was the CBC's contention, however, that with the proposed changes, "the northwest will actually be less isolated than it is now, more plugged in to the rest of the province".
|
|
Interventions
|
|
This aspect of the Corporation's British Columbia Radio Improvement Plan generated the most interventions: over 100, of which all but two opposed the CBC's proposal to amend the licence of CFPR and transform its operation to that of a two-person contributing bureau.
|
|
Those opposing this application included federal, provincial, municipal and district political representatives from throughout the northwest; labour groups such as the United Fishermen and Allied Workers (local 31) and Amalgamated Shoreworkers' and Clerks' (local 1674 C.L.C.); the North Coast Tribal Council; arts organizations; the Prince Rupert Old Age Pensioners Organization (Branch 182); and numerous individuals from various communities currently served by CFPR. Twenty-four of these interveners appeared to present their opposing interventions at the Prince Rupert hearing, and one appeared at the 7 March Victoria hearing.
|
|
Many of these interveners were of the opinion that CFPR is an important tie that links those people of northwestern British Columbia who are spread out amongst many small communities and who depend on the local news and programming of the station as one of the few unifying forces in the area and a contributor to the quality of life in the region. Others stated that a fundamental premise of the CBC's application, namely that northwestern British Columbia shares common interests with the Cariboo region centered in Prince George, is incorrect. Some interveners expressed concern that current listeners to CFPR will suffer a significant loss in quality of service and that the Prince Rupert area audience should not suffer such a loss of service for the sake of areas which are already better served in terms of the number of radio outlets available.
|
|
According to the Northwest Citizens' Committee to Keep CFPR, which submitted a petition with 4,531 signatures, there are significant geographic, demographic, sociological and economic differences between the northwest and the Prince George area. The Committee pointed out that "principally because of the lack of transportation and the extreme distance, when northwest residents have business, medical or other reasons to leave the northwest, they go to Vancouver, and not Prince George".
|
|
Similar points were raised in the intervention by Chris Hebb, a Vancouver broadcaster, who stated that "British Columbia's two main regions are not North and South. They are Coast and Interior". He wrote:
|
|
The industrial base in every coastal community, outside of the major communities of Vancouver and Victoria, is dependent on fishing and logging. The industrial base of every Interior community is logging, mining, tourism and farming. (Communities on the Coast and in the Interior) do not have common transport routes, workplaces or unions. How, then, can an Interior signal from Prince George hope to speak for the citizens of the Coast?
|
|
... Prince Rupert is the accepted centre for a wide network of outposts that may not represent a huge population, but do represent a way of life. It is the meeting place and nerve centre for a distinctly Coastal culture. It is to the North Coast what Vancouver is to the South, it is something that Prince George could never be ... a voice, a credible voice. (Original emphasis)
|
|
The Kitimat-Terrace and District Labour Council likened the Corporation's plan to shift its base of operations from Prince Rupert to Prince George "to shifting operations from Newfoundland to Halifax or Thunder Bay to Toronto and decreeing that common cultures prevail".
|
|
In response to the opposing interventions, the CBC argued that "the positive aspects of this plan outweigh its negative ones" in that "adequate, comprehensive, regional and provincial coverage, stories from elsewhere in the north and from the rest of the province ... will actually improve under the (B.C.) Plan". The Corporation stated that it recognized the "special needs of the northwest for up-to-date survival information and community messages" and gave its undertaking to "retain these services in their present forms". It stated further:
|
|
We neither under-estimated nor over-estimated the geographical and historical factors which distinguish and define the North Coast, but given our limited resources and our need to cover the entire northern portion of the province more fully and effectively, there is no question that Prince George is the most appropriate base of operations, supplemented and supported by a contributing bureau in Prince Rupert.
|
|
Conclusion
|
|
CFPR Prince Rupert presently produces regional and local programming relevant to residents of Prince Rupert as well as those living in villages and towns throughout the northwest, along the North Coast and on the Queen Charlotte Islands. In many of these remote communities, CFPR is the only radio service available. The numerous interventions filed by residents and groups residing or based in this area were almost unanimous in stating that the present nature of the programming on CFPR plays an important role in uniting the people of these communities with their distant and often isolated neighbours. These interveners argued persuasively that, by reducing its staff from 14 to 2, the CBC would be unable to reflect adequately and cover effectively this vast area. The interveners also clearly and eloquently demonstrated that historical, geographic, social and economic developments have made the northwest a "sub-region" of British Columbia unto itself, one that is unique and significantly different from the northern Interior "sub-region" centered around Prince George.
|
|
In the Commission's view, the proposed transformation of CFPR into a two-person contributing bureau represents a negative application of the Corporation's storefront concept. Should the Corporation be permitted to eliminate entirely its programming originating at CFPR, residents of the northwest part of British Columbia would lose an important and valued service and be deprived of programs which, due in large part to their source, reflect the unique interests, concerns and demands of the many listeners residing in the more remote and underserved communities in the area.
|
|
Accordingly, the Commission denies the CBC's application to amend the broadcasting licence of CFPR Prince Rupert by changing the program source to CBYG-FM Prince George. The Commission expects the CBC to continue to originate programming at the Prince Rupert station. It is the Commission's opinion that the level of such programming should be commensurate with the size of the area being served and with the level of service currently offered or proposed by the CBC in other areas of the province.
|
|
At the same time, the Commission recognizes that it is the Corporation's plan to redeploy some members of its CFPR staff. Nevertheless, it expects the CBC to maintain a level of staffing which will be sufficient to ensure the provision of an adequate amount of locally-originating programming. In terms of an appropriate level of staffing and programming, the Commission notes that the CBC intends to staff its Prince George and Kelowna storefront production bureaus with four persons each in order to produce a three-hour weekday morning program from each of these locations.
|
|
The Commission also notes the Corporation's plan to sell its properties in Prince Rupert and apply the proceeds to cover certain of the costs associated with its British Columbia Radio Improvement Plan.
|
|
Fernand Bélisle
Secretary General
|
|
|