For Immediate Release -Tuesday, July 26, 2016 –

Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM), the leading professional organization representing Canadian musicians, announce plans to reestablish its lobbying efforts demanding the re-opening of CBC’s regional music departments.  Delegates attending CFM’s recent Canadian Conference tabled the motion and voted unanimously to instruct their elected officials to immediately undertake these actions.

CBC management eliminated its regional music departments in direct response to funding shortfalls enacted by the previous Conservative government. The aggressive measures saw a mass layoff of recording personnel and a closure of music facilities in St. John’s, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and Edmonton.

“These essential music departments offered a multitude of services including radio drama as well as other arts programming,” explained AFM Vice-President from Canada Alan Willaert.  “These departments operated very modestly and efficiently in spite of sometimes being staffed by as few as two persons, a producer and an engineer”.

“Prior to these cuts, musicians in my jurisdiction, representing all musical genres, earned a collective total of $100 to $200K per annum from their CBC employment,” stated Doug Kuss, Secretary-Treasurer of the Calgary Local. “It’s simply unacceptable that the current annual payroll in the Calgary area now sits well below $25K”.

Mr. Willaert went on to say “The CFM has an expectation that the CBC will utilize the infusion of the improved funding provided by the current federal government to correct the injustices made to the professional musicians, producers and engineers directly affected by these cuts.  In doing so CBC will fulfill its mandate, to all regions of the country, in an equitable manner”.

The Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM) is the Canadian National office of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM).  The CFM provides vital resources to Canadian musicians at all stages of their careers, on any platform, from live concert to recorded performance, broadcast and film scoring. The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) is comprised of 200 Local offices across the United States and Canada, collectively representing a membership of approximately 80,000 professional musicians across the United States and Canada. The AFM/CFM has been representing the interests of U.S. and Canadian musicians for 120 years, as the representative of professional musicians in a broad range of collective bargaining and legislative actions.  Just recently, the AFM celebrated its 100th Convention from June 20 – 24, 2016.

For more information please visit us at www.cfmusicians.org | CFM on Twitter | CFM on Facebook.

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MEDIA CONTACT:   Victoria Lord, Office: 416-484-9047 / victoria@vlpr.com