Saucier resigns early from CBC Board by Chris Cobb

by Chris Cobb

Guylaine Saucier, chairwoman of the CBC board of directors, quietly resigned on Monday, leaving Prime Minister Jean Chrétien with the first major cultural vacancy of his new mandate.

Saucier said in a statement to staff that she is quitting before the end of her five-year term to devote more time to her job as chairwoman of the Toronto Stock Exchange's committee on corporate governance. She will leave the CBC on Dec. 8, three months before her term expires.

The chair, president and board of the CBC are appointed by the prime minister. CBC watchers are now anxiously waiting to see whether Chrétien's new majority government will pursue a patronage-as-usual policy. All members of the current CBC board are Liberal loyalists.

Saucier had a fractious relationship with former CBC president Perrin Beatty and is said to be getting on no better with current president Robert Rabinovitch.

Critics say that clashes are inevitable, irrespective of who holds the two CBC jobs, because both are appointed by the prime minister and both feel they should be boss.

Ian Morrison, spokesman for the pro-CBC lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said it's time for the prime minister to back off and allow the CBC board to appoint its own [president].

"There is a built in conflict with the current system," Morrison said yesterday.

"If the board was allowed to choose its own [president], they would choose on a merit basis and be more inclined to find the type of person who would normally be chosen to run a billion-dollar corporation."

At the very least, added Morrison, the Prime Minister's Office should work closely with Rabinovitch and senior members of the CBC board before appointing a chairperson.

"The ongoing tension is not good for the CBC," he said. "The CBC needs a chair who sees it as their job to be a team player and to help the president to do his job."

But Pierre Juneau, who held both jobs simultaneously until his term ended in 1989, said the chair's position should be scrapped.

"The government has the authority to appoint the president and chairman," said Juneau, "and that can only lead to trouble because they both feel they have the authority to run the place.

"One of them has to lose. It can only work if the chairman is prepared to be only a figurehead and that's never likely to happen."

The position of CBC chair was created in 1991 by the Mulroney government with the appointment of veteran broadcaster Patrick Watson to the new position. Watson's relationship with then-CBC president Gerard Veilleux also deteriorated.

In a normal corporate arrangement, the president is an employee charged with running the company, while the role of the chair is to represent the interests of shareholders.

Any new appointment is destined to create another conflict, said Juneau.

"I know Rabinovitch well," he said.

"He is a very capable and experienced person.

"He's obviously going to run the place."

Megan Williams, national director of the cultural lobby group, Canadian Conference of the Arts, is canvassing members for ideas on who should become the next CBC chair.

"It's a thorny problem," said Williams.

"The chair of the board was not intended to micro-manage the CBC but a lot of that seems to have gone lately.

"We need a strong cultural nationalist capable of understanding the CBC's complex budgeting process but finding the right person isn't going to be easy."

Saucier was not available for comment.

© Ottawa Citizen