The news keeps getting worse and worse for those of us that have been loyal CTV Saskatoon viewers for years. We could watch “our people” morning, noon and night. On Feb. 8, Bell Canada announced it was eliminating 4,800 jobs in the country. Bell Media is a piece of that pie, with a teeny-weeny piece of it being CTV Saskatoon. I was told three positions were cut in Saskatoon in Bell’s media division. While every job loss is horrible, a huge part of the story is the amount of programming that was eliminated. The bleeding had started a few months ago. That’s when CTV Saskatoon had to off-load its morning show, late-night news and weekend news. Our morning show was amalgamated with the one in Regina. Amalgamated is the wrong word. The majority — and I mean THE majority — of the show comes out of a Regina studio. The weekend news, which was also coming to us from Regina in recent times, is now gone. Nothing, zilch on Saturdays, Sundays and stat holidays. I didn’t know news takes a break when the clock strikes midnight on Friday.

On the Saturday evening when I checked, the news had been replaced by a show called Children Ruin Everything. Kind of like Bell — Bell Ruins Everything. The late-night news — 11:30 p.m. — from Monday to Friday will continue to come from Regina. The noon news has been chopped right off the on-screen guide. We will have a Saskatoon based newscast from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday to Friday. That is five hours a week from a Saskatoon studio. That’s it. Given that, CTV has decided to go with one anchor on the 6 o’clock news. Chantel Saunders will remain in the big chair, while Jeremy Dodge has been reassigned to the Regina-based morning show. Dodge is an outstanding news reader. In the morning show credits, he is listed as a reporter, or maybe it said Saskatoon reporter. Either way, it seemed plain wrong.

I can say without bias that Dodge is much better on-air than the two Regina hosts. That said, it is not the fault of the Regina broadcasters that they were thrust into the limelight in Saskatoon, the largest and most cultured city in the province. CTV Saskatoon dropped sports from its menu a number of years ago. There is now only a smidgeon of coverage of the Blades, Hilltops, Rush, Rattlers, USask sports, and everything else. That decision was surely made someplace else. Let me guess where. In summary, there is no noon news, there is no weekend news, the morning show is based in Regina, and the late-night news comes from Regina. As mentioned, most decisions are not made locally. We can blame $500,000-a-year Quebec-based bean counters. Rest assured, they will get their annual bonuses and stock options. Among those who couldn’t duck the Paul Bunyan-sized axe nationally were National News Ottawa bureau chief Joyce Napier, chief international correspondent Paul Workman, senior political correspondent Glen McGregor, London news bureau correspondent Daniele Hamamdjian and Los Angeles bureau chief Tom Walters.

It has also been reported that Alberta bureau chief Bill Fortier, Montreal reporter Vanessa Lee, and Winnipeg bureau chief Jill Macyshon have lost their jobs. That group did amazing work. They were the faces of national news in our country. Workman, Lee and Walters were among my favourites. I suppose if you can fire Lisa LaFlamme, no one is safe. In Saskatoon terms, it is like losing Chantel Saunders and Jeff Rogstad. I have a special place in my heart for Lisa Ford. I once worked with Keenan Sorokan, who has developed into an A1 reporter. Matt Young and Laurie Woodward have become TV friends.

Thankfully, it appears as though we haven’t lost reporters here. These folks are really good. Please don’t think this column is being written to criticize those in television in Saskatoon. Cutbacks and changes are not just a CTV thing. It is unfair to say they are. CKOM, for example, shuffled the deck when Brent Loucks retired and when David Kirton successfully ran for city council. My belief is their salaries were taken off the books. With all the news reading duties, shared between Regina and Saskatoon, their number of reporters has remained thin. I wanted to say as thin as a supermodel, but that would be an exaggeration. The StarPhoenix, my employer for 33 years, has been whittled to almost nothing. That is not the fault or reflection of the dozen or so journalists left. Print is basically dead in the daily format.

There was a time when the StarPhoenix was “the source” for news in Saskatoon. Other outlets were chasing our stories. Now, Postmedia continues to chase its tail with layoffs and the sale of assets. The StarPhoenix building will get them a pretty penny to keep their payments to New York hedge fund sharks up to date. CBC is arguably the best source for news in the province. Sadly, some say it is not credible because it is federally funded and thus the reporters work for Justin Trudeau. I get why people feel that way, but they are wrong when it comes to day-to-day reporting. When elected, Pierre Poilievre says he will defund the CBC. I am guessing he will cut it in half, and give jobs to convoy crazies. Sadly, people are going to get their “news” from sites they agree with politically. The divide between left and right has been growing at an alarming rate in Canada and United States since Donald Trump put on a Make America Great Again hat in 2015.

I will miss the old CTV — I will forever call it CFQC — when we had the noon show and weekend newscasts in Saskatoon. The morning show was produced in Saskatoon, and the late-night news was delivered from a studio here. There was a sports department. These were our people, on the air at all times of day, every day and night of the week from Monday to Friday. And on weekends too. Those days are gone. It makes me sad.

-Cam Hutchinson