Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to revisit my March 30 exchange with the parliamentary secretary concerning cutbacks at the CBC.
At that time, I was very concerned and upset, as were my constituents, about the planned cuts to CBC Radio. We have a small but dedicated CBC contingent in Labrador who do remarkable work with limited resources covering a vast and diverse region. The cutbacks as initially planned would have threatened our only local program, Labrador Morning.
In the days that followed the announcement, the outpouring of support and emotion from CBC Radio listeners in Labrador was remarkable. People told their own stories of how important the CBC service is to them and to their communities.
This was about the same time as a pair of snowmobile travellers in northern Labrador became stranded. They took refuge in a cabin and decided not to press on in a dangerous storm. They made that potentially lifesaving decision because they knew a ground search and rescue team was looking for them. They had heard about it listening to Labrador Morning on a battery radio.
I know that the financial crunch at CBC is not of the CBC's own making. There are external forces at work, including the failure of the Conservative government to support our public broadcaster. The CBC has been forced to make very unpleasant decisions.
At the same time, I must give credit to the CBC, to managers at all levels, who heard the concerns in Labrador and recognized the important place the CBC has in our region. Like other areas of northern and remote Canada, CBC is the only local broadcast outlet covering the entire region. The CBC took our concerns to heart and reversed the planned cutbacks in Labrador. I thank the broadcaster for the dialogue that it had with listeners and community leaders in my constituency.
However, this good news is tempered by the reality that cuts are still coming. In other parts of the province, jobs and service will be lost. I think in particular of CBC Corner Brook, which serves southern Labrador and western Newfoundland. Cuts there will hurt my constituents.
There will still be significant losses throughout Atlantic Canada, as well as in northern Ontario and other rural and remote regions. This, despite the statutory mandate of the CBC to reflect all of Canada's regional diversity.
At the national level, the future of programs like Politics is up in the air. This is unfortunate at a time when we need more quality coverage of public affairs, not less.
Worse still, the finance minister has left open the possibility that Canadian Heritage assets might be part of the next Conservative fire sale of public property. That could include the CBC. I certainly hope that is not the case. However, given the hostility that seems to exist between the governing Conservatives and the CBC, one is never sure.
I would once again invite the government to assure this House and all Canadians that the government will support the CBC, not gut it or sell it.