Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Two CBC staffers in Victoria lose jobs due to budget cuts

Two longtime CBC Victoria staffers were told Thursday that their jobs will be eliminated due to budget cuts.
Amanda Heffelfinger
Victoria CBC staffer Amanda Heffelfinger will lose her job.

Two longtime CBC Victoria staffers were told Thursday that their jobs will be eliminated due to budget cuts.

This is the first time the Victoria station has had to issue redundancy notices to staff in the past few years of cuts and layoffs, said station manager Peter Hutchinson.

“The positions account for about 18 per cent of staff,” Hutchinson said.

More than 240 CBC staffers across the country were told their jobs would be cut in the latest round of layoffs by the public broadcaster. In late March, CBC announced a five-year plan to eliminate 1,500 positions in an effort to save $15 million a year.

The affected positions in Victoria are held by Kelly Nakatsuka and Amanda Heffelfinger. Nakatsuka, 40, is an associate producer and technician who also co-hosts the afternoon radio show All Points West.

“I’m a little bit stunned,” said Nakatsuka, who has worked for CBC in Victoria since 2008 and in Vancouver for six years before that. “It’s sad. I mean, not just for me, as a job, but I’ve been a CBC fan my whole life. To watch the cuts impact the workload and the quality of work, to see the bigger picture is hard.”

Nakatsuka recalled his mother saying listening to renowned broadcasters Michael Enright and Peter Gzowski while living in northern Alberta was a lifesaver.

“It’s part of our cultural fabric and identity, especially for those in smaller communities,” said Nakatsuka, who is taking a few days off to digest the news.

Heffelfinger, 51, has worked in administration for the station since 2002. She said she was called into Hutchinson’s office around 9 a.m. today and told her job was deemed redundant.

“He said it’s not personal. The corporation just has less and less money,” Heffelfinger said. “I asked, ‘Are we talking days or weeks until the job goes away?’ and I was told it could be months.”

Heffelfinger described the mood in the small, tight-knit Victoria station as “extremely sad and subdued” as news spread of the cuts.

“The afternoon show is losing an integral member. I think they’re just devastated,” she said.

Heffelfinger and Nakatsuka could have the opportunity to continue working for CBC. Once the dust settles, any vacant positions across the country are open to union members based on seniority.

“I’m not sure what I’ll do, maybe go back to school or start my own business,” Heffelfinger said.

Michael Tymchuk, acting president of the Canadian Media Guild local CBC union, said the cuts will have a big impact on the small Victoria team.

“It’s going to be very odd. We’re going to have to figure out how to do things differently,” he said, noting the local station managed until now to “dodge a bullet” in recent cuts and even expand.

He said he’d heard from colleagues that Western Canada was hit particularly hard in this recent round.

Former All Points West Host Jo-Ann Roberts said she was devastated to hear about the local job losses. In December, she retired after 35 years with the CBC and announced she would campaign to stop more cuts at the public broadcaster.

“So many Victorians fought hard to get a station here. Now to watch it being dismantled is a real blow,” Roberts said. “These cuts will be deeply felt in Victoria. ... They mean fewer stories and will be especially felt by anyone who cares about local arts and culture.”

spetrescu@timescolonist.com