Questions & Answers following the June 26 town hall > Last updated on 03/07/2014 Below are answers to a number of questions that were submitted during the June 26 employee town hall meeting announcing CBC/Radio-Canada’s new strategy, A space for us all. Questions have been compiled by themes and some contain answers provided during the meeting. The Q&As included here now are just the beginning, and more will be posted over time as further details about the strategy become available. You are invited to continue sending in your questions to questions@cbc.ca or questions@radio-canada.ca. However, if you have specific questions about your region or department, please refer to your manager for more information. Q1. If you don’t have any specific, concrete numbers about how this will impact us, why are you sharing the strategy? We want to know what departments will be impacted and by how many people, as well as how many of the reductions will be covered by attrition. If you can’t tell us now, when will we know? A1. The strategy is a plan, not a blueprint. Realizing the strategy will be an ongoing process that will unfold over the next five years. It is important that all of us can understand the direction, as we will all be going through the transformation together. The reality is, we’re not financially sustainable. The plan aims to avoid having to keep resizing the public broadcaster year after year. We know this will require us to be smaller, and we wanted to be as transparent as possible about the scale of this transformation. In terms of immediate numbers, we do know that about 1/3 of the money and positions will be cut in the next 12-15 months. As plans are operationalized, business leaders will meet with employees to detail the impact on each department. Q2. Why aren’t you pressuring the government more publicly, such as in committee? Why aren’t we making public service announcements? Why aren’t you lobbying harder? Couldn’t you even try? A2. This strategy will help ensure that we have the space to deliver on our mandate with the funds that we have. The Government has repeatedly made it clear that, in their view, CBC/Radio-Canada has enough money to deliver on our mandate. The Minister made a statement following the June 26 announcement, stating: "CBC/Radio Canada receives significant taxpayer funds to assist the broadcaster in meeting its mandate under the Broadcasting Act, to the tune of over a billion dollars per year. While CBC/Radio-Canada must adapt to changing technology, demographics, audience preferences and competition for advertising dollars, our Government believes CBC/Radio-Canada can and should do so within its existing budget." You can read the full statement here. We take every opportunity we can to inform the Government how we are fulfilling our mandate and demonstrate the value for money that we deliver. The President also uses public forums (e.g., his May 5 speech to the Canadian Club of Montreal) to address Canadians directly about our financial situation and its implications for our future. Q3. You’re doing all this dismantling but you really don’t have any guarantees that we won’t face further cuts. What are your plans to ensure stable funding? A3. Our key message to government has always been to obtain stable funding that allows for long-term planning. However, what is clear about this environment is that there are no guarantees. The implementation of this strategy will mean that we are working within our means but also having - in effect - our own reserve for priority investments and to which we can turn to as and when we need to. Q4. Mobile service is fallible and in a major emergency, can go down. Likewise for the internet. Aren’t we taking a serious risk by not staying diverse in our services? A4. You’re right that there would be a danger in putting all our eggs in one basket. We won’t be doing that. What we will be doing is strengthening our ability to deliver more content digitally and via mobile, while maintaining our broadcasting capacity in radio and television. This is an evolution, not a sudden jump, and we have the tools we need to reach Canadians across all platforms.

Q5. How will the public broadcaster serve people in Canada who, by location, lack of infrastructure or financial circumstances, don’t have access to digital or mobile? 5A. Again, the shift will be more of an evolution than a jump. We must be rooted in the present to support conventional services and the audiences and revenues they currently attract, while stepping into the future to anticipate the migration of audiences and revenue. We expect that conventional services will still be an important source of audiences and revenues in 2020, but that there will be a significant shift to mobile and digital platforms in terms of resources, audiences and revenues. Q6. How are local stations supposed to deliver digital content? Where are they supposed to get the resources for that? 6A. We will be changing to meet the needs and habits of our audience. As needs arise throughout the transition, we will ensure that training and the necessary resources are available for our teams to meet their needs. Q7. Will managers still be receiving bonuses in upcoming years? A7. We are keeping incentive-based compensation for managers for two reasons: First, to provide an accountability framework to drive the successful achievement of the Corporation’s annual objectives; and second, to ensure that our compensation packages remain competitive enough to continue to attract, recruit and retain our people. Q8. Exactly what real estate will we be selling, approximately how much do you anticipate it will bring in, and where will the proceeds go? A8. The plan aims to make us sustainable, long term. This involves aligning resources to support the vision. We are in the content business, not the infrastructure or real estate business. The current infrastructure was established at a different time, with different market factors and with a different view of service offerings. Downsizing of real estate is a continuation of our 2015 strategy. Our goal now is that by 2020 CBC/Radio-Canada will have reduced its real estate presence by half, representing approximately two million square feet. In addition to exiting our role as landlord, which comes with expenses in utilities and maintenance, we will be continuing to look at ways to be economical with our space, and downsize so that we are working in the space that we need, not holding onto spaces that we may have used in the past and which now sit empty. This will be a long-term transition, and we do not have specific numbers at this time. A good example is Halifax, where we had two buildings, each with a significant amount of unused space. We will soon be moving into one building, a rented property, and have reduced our space by more than half while maintaining our presence. This will help us reduce our operating costs - and generate savings that we will be able to re-invest in content. This is the kind of model we will follow. Q9. What is the commitment and plan to ensure employees and managers can work in a positive environment following such an announcement; and how are we going to ensure respect and dignity is given to those leaving and staying in stations and departments across the country? A9. We fully understand that the announcement was difficult to hear for many, as changes of this magnitude are hard to digest. It will take time and reflection to absorb what the changes will mean. In the meantime, we encourage staff to talk to their managers, keep engaged and asking questions via questions@cbc.ca, and make use of the many resources available for coping with change, such as those delivered through the Employee Assistance Program. In the meantime, we will do our utmost to keep staff informed about what is happening during this process through iO! and wider staff communications. Q10. What is the specific timeline and structure of your digital-news training for employees, and where can we find this plan? If no plan has been developed, when will it be available? A10. In the strategy we announced that we will be transitioning - over time - to meet the needs and habits of our audience. As exact needs arise, training will be planned and provided.

Through our learning and development team, we have already been offering organizational development support by aligning strategy, roles and processes to a focus on digital. But focusing on skills development isn't enough. We are also looking at the environment people work in and the degree to which staff and editorial leaders are aligned around shared programming goals, understand CBC/Radio-Canada's contribution, and their own roles - and the ways these are expressed on a daily basis to support the organization's digital strategy. We are offering support from a holistic perspective to enable change, so it connects to how employees see their daily job. Q11. Some staff stated that they felt unappreciated by the apex of the organization in the manner in which this strategy was communicated – both in the timing and in the lack of detail. What will be done to ensure that staff are better informed as we go through the process of implementing the strategy over the next five years? A11. If some staff feel as though they have been let down, that was certainly not the intention. CBC/Radio-Canada’s people are our most precious resource. During the town hall, it was heard loud and clear that you want more communications, more information, more time to soak it all in. We know we didn’t get to all your questions. Message received. We will act on that. The plan was released to employees via an email from Corporate Communications at approximately 11 a.m., one hour before the town hall. All of the information was made available on io! at that time, for viewing by employees. Prior to that, briefings were organized for managers and Union leaders to give them the tools to communicate with employees. In the days, weeks and months ahead we will make every effort to ensure the plan is well communicated, and that employees have a chance to have their questions heard and answered. New answer added 02/07/2014 Q12. Does the strategy affect our conditions of licence? A12. The Strategy has been designed to ensure that there is no impact on our conditions of license. New answer added 02/07/2014 Q13. Can Canadians still look forward to enjoying Radio 2 and ICI Musique? A13. The focus on music will be to continue to connect Canadian artists with Canadians and, for the duration of the plan, Radio 2 and ICI Musique will remain national services with distinct market strategies to maximize audience and revenue opportunities until digital consumption reaches a tipping point. New answer added 03/07/2014 Q14. When will we find out which supper-time broadcast will be 30 and which will be 60? A14. This strategy is going to be achieved over time, in many stages and with further consideration. Given that is the case, specific decisions about the length of newscasts in each market have yet to be made by the networks. As soon as those details are available, they’ll be shared with staff and the communities impacted by the decisions. New answer added 03/07/2014 Q15. How will CBC work to attract and keep younger / new workers with skills in these fields amongst layoffs that will again ensure that employees with the longest seniority are kept employed, regardless of their abilities to work in digital spaces? A15. Structure follows strategy. As the strategy takes shape, there is the need to challenge and rethink the organization design to ensure that the structure, roles, people, processes and reward systems support and enable the overall plan. The needs assessment phase will start in July 2014 and will be completed in the first year of the strategy. Getting there will require careful steps, balancing the needs of a new CBC/Radio-Canada with the impact these changes will have on people. We have and will continue to have the greatest respect for the ongoing contribution of our established employees. The balancing act will be to respect and continue to draw on the experience, expertise of these employees, while finding and attracting the skills we will need to face the future. As part of A space for us all, we will also be opening ourselves up to increased collaboration and partnerships to enhance our knowledge and skill base.

New answer added 03/07/2014 Q16. If we’re going to be be financially sustainable with this new focus on digital and mobile, why does it require such a significant reduction in staff over the next five years? A16. The reality is that we are not financially sustainable. A space for us all lays out the direction we need to take (modernize; increase focus on content; boost connection with Canadians), while also make the decisions necessary to be financially sustainable in the long term. The changes in direction we are proposing go hand in hand with the reductions in spending and people resources we’ll need in 2020. New answer added 03/07/2014 Q17. If 300 people are retiring a year, then in five years, that equals 1,500 people. Does that mean there will be no layoffs? A17. Business plans across the Corporation will need to be finalized to fully understand how these changes will impact our workforce overall. However it is clear that there will be layoffs in addition to employees who leave through attrition.