Canadian broadcast outlet Global News was impacted by layoffs this week, with a strong impact on jobs in Alberta.
Daily Hive has learned the impacts are being felt heavily in Alberta, with 13 staff let go in Calgary, eight in Edmonton, and three in Lethbridge. Other layoffs across the country will include one job in Vancouver and another 10 in Eastern Canada.
“At this time, we are unable to provide further information,” Global News’ parent company, Corus Entertainment, told Daily Hive when pressed for more details.
“As part of our ongoing evaluation of our business and continued enterprise efficiency reviews, we have made changes across the Global News network today, and as a result, certain roles have been impacted,” a Global News spokesperson said.
“Specific to Alberta, we’re transitioning our news production model to reflect what we’ve been doing in our eastern news stations since 2015 without cutting any local hours of programming,” they added.
Randy Kitt, director of media with Unifor, the union representing Corus Employees, said the layoffs were “heartbreaking.”
“It’s a sad state of affairs for media in Canada,” he said. “Knowing that their jobs are so desperately needed in this country right now and Corus simply can’t afford to keep them on.”
With files from Megan Devlin