About ten years ago I had an office in the basement of CBC Vancouver. I had been co-producing a television series about cars called Driver’s Seat and our production office was located within the broadcaster’s building at Hamilton and West Georgia Streets. Both the hours and the schedule were normally quite long, so it was easier being inside, it just made sense.
There have always been battles over government funding for CBC, not unlike battles everywhere when it comes to public television – PBS is another good example. But toward the end of my days within the bowels of ‘Mother Corp.’, as it is so ineloquently called, the cuts to CBC’s budgets had gone from surgical slices to out and out butchery. I won’t weigh-in on which camp – for or against the cuts – that I fall into, but suffice to say the public outcry against the cuts was NOT as vociferous as those within the CBC might have hoped for.
The reason…? Well, the answers are many and varied and would likely take up an entire website to address. At the core was — still is — the issue of distinctly Canadian programming, specifically drama. (more…)