Senator Urges More Funding for 60-minute CBC Newscast

Senator Percy Downe says he welcomes the return of Compass as a one-hour suppertime TV newscast but CBC head office needs to provide additional funding for the expanded newscast.

He said that in 2000 the locally produced P.E.I. early evening news broadcast was reduced from a one-hour program to a 30-minute segment, which resulted in corresponding budget and human resource cuts.

"Now that the program has been returned to its full 60-minute length, more resources need to be allocated to Prince Edward Island," the P.E.I. Senator said. "The issue that the CBC station in Charlottetown currently employs significantly fewer staff members than it did a decade ago must be addressed."

Although there is an argument which will be advanced that new technology requires less people to run the news program, there is still a need for additional journalists, producers and support staff to produce a quality news program for 60 minutes, Downe said.