Few Native hired by CBC on Prairies

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CBC would have to add 15 Native people to its permanent staff in Alberta to reflect the number of qualified Natives in the provincial work force, says a spokesman for the Crown

corporation.

There are but two permanent employees in Wild Rose Country, said CBC spokesman Richard Chambers.

While the Native work force in Alberta is pegged at 3.1 per cent, there are only .4 per cent Natives on permanent staff with CBC.

There is one permanent Aboriginal person working in Edmonton (.3 per cent) while Natives make up 2.6 per cent of the city's labor force. Eight would have to be hired to bring the

number to an equitable level.

Those holding contracts with CBC aren't recorded in the figures. That includes Saskatchewan Indian Carol Adams, Calgary co-host on Newsworld, CBC's new all-news channel and

Edmonton TV reporter Clayton Blood, said Chambers.

"In that sense, it's unfair to judge the CBC by numbers alone," he said. "It's certainly not the total picture."

The Canadian Human Rights Commission lodged a discrimination complaint against CBC after it was unable to convince the corporation to agree to joint review of its employment

practices.

Statistics indicate too few Native, disabled and visible minorities are working at CBC, according to the commission.

Chambers said the corporation has a plan underway to increase the percentage of the people from those groups working at CBC.

Since December, 10 additional Aboriginal people have been hired by CBC to bring the number on permanent staff across Canada to 89 (.7 per cent) out of 10,300 employees.

"Progress is being made," he said. "That's not bad when we're in a situation of downsizing."

Chambers said Statistics Canada figures indicate 2.1 per cent of the Canadian work force was Native at the end of 1988.

The target is to have 149 natives on permanent staff by the end of next year.

Seven natives have found permanent work with CBC in Saskatchewan. They comprise 1.7 per cent of the CBC work force while 4.4 per cent of the work force in the province is

Native.

Manitoba has the worst record of the Prairie provinces, according to figures.

While 5.2 per cent of the province's work force is Native, only one person (.2 per cent) has been hired. Twenty-five would have to be hired to reflect the Aboriginal population in the

work force.

The number of permanent employees in each of the Prairie provinces isn't available, he said.

The CBC also wants to increase the number of Aboriginal people in technical and semi-professional jobs, said Chambers.

"We want to get them into writing jobs, into office jobs, into the technical aspects of producing programs, sound people, lighting people, staging people," he said.

Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia will be "high priority, hiring areas for the semi-professional and technical jobs we have."

Programs are also being developed to encourage the hiring and promotion of Aboriginal people in all occupation categories throughout the CBC.

When hiring and choosing between candidates " the benefit of the doubt" will go to Natives, the disabled, women and visible minorities, said Cambers.

The candidate need not be equal in qualifications but only in potential to do the job, he said.

"This is the only way we're going to be able to increase and reach the targets assigned to us," Chambers said. "We're very committed to this whole exercise.

"What we have to do in the CBC is we've got to act. We don't have to study the situation any more," he said.

"We can't afford to provide them (the commission) with all the numbers and documentation they require at this time," Chambers said.