The United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR) is taking a cautious approach to supporting local television.
On April 25, UCPR council decided to defer any decision to provide financial assistance to TVC-22 Clarence-Rockland to the 2025 budget preparation process.
Renée Gratton, the General Director of the not-for-profit community television station appeared before council and explained how she is attempting to regenerate the station’s activities and programming.
“The future for TVC 22 after all these years is quite bleak. We don’t know if we’re going to survive,” she said.
Gratton said the station needs $100,000 just for new equipment.
To ensure sustained funding and programming, Gratton is proposing the establishment of an information and communication technology platform in cooperation with the UCPR and its municipalities. She described the platform as a “living lab.” Gratton requested UCPR council adopt a resolution in support of TVC-22 and become a sponsoring member at a cost of $5,000. She then requested the UCPR allocate $40,000 in the 2025 budget for TVC-22 to acquire new equipment.
Gratton said she is also visiting the councils of all eight municipalities in the UCPR seeking support for TVC-22. She said the request already made to Clarence-Rockland equals 84 cents per resident.
Casselman Mayor Geneviève Lajoie questioned if local government should be funding media.
“If the counties were to fund the media, could that be seen as unethical?” she asked.
Gratton said it would be unethical if the UCPR tried to influence TVC-22’s coverage to be favourable to the UCPR if it was a sponsor of the station. Gratton said the station is now receiving federal funding through the government’s Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) program.
“We have very strict guidelines on dos and don’ts,” Gratton said, in reference to impartiality.
“If we are funding an organization, we would expect our information to be communicated,” responded Lajoie.
She said she feels there would be a bias on the part of TVC-22 if it was receiving UCPR funding. Lajoie said she would prefer the UCPR to instead pay for its public service announcements and advertising. She also said the station is more focused on Clarence-Rockland than Casselman.
Clarence-Rockland Mayor Mario Zanth said Lajoie had a good point. He said TVC-22 is not necessarily a news organization but is instead community television.
Zanth said the UCPR needs to better promote its initiatives but rather than giving $40,000 to the television station, he would like to see specific promotions of UCPR projects such as the new Prescott and Russell Residence. He also suggested the station may need to rebrand for a wider Prescott-Russell audience and remarked that many people have dropped cable television, which is how TVC-22 is transmitted.
Gratton said the station is in the process of rebranding as Studio TVC-22 to appeal to a wider, regional audience.
Zanth said he did not want to set a precedent for other organizations by granting the request to TVC-22, but instead recommended council address it when preparing the 2025 budget.
Following the meeting, Zanth said Clarence-Rockland council has not yet agreed to contribute any funds to TVC-22 but has issued a letter of support for the community television station.
