Over the past decade, CBC has had to meet great challenges that have dramatically affected its ambition on both national and regional scales. From 1994-1995 to 1997-1998, the corporation was subject to budget reductions totalling CAN$ 414 million, i.e. one third of its budget(7). Concerning these cutbacks, the Minister of Finance stated that: "strategies and mandates that were developed under radically different circumstances must be re-examined in light of today's technological possibilities and the evolution of both the audio-visual industry and the domestic market".
    As a consequence, the workforce was drastically reduced and new methods were introduced to rationalise the production capacity across the country. However, at the local and regional levels, no station was closed.
    As for the North, several projects were cancelled. For instance, in 1986 the Caplan-Sauvageau report of the Task Force had recommended that the "CBC establish an autonomous aboriginal service, as there are now distinct French and English services"(www.tvnc.ca). Unfortunately, the 1991 Broadcasting Act does not mandate the CBC to provide "Aboriginal programming". It just states that "programming that reflects the aboriginal cultures of Canada should be provided within the Canadian Broadcasting system as resources become available for the purpose". (www.crtc.gc.ca). In fact, CBC's obligation to produce (and distribute) Aboriginal programming falls under the requirement that the corporation provide programs that "reflect the multicultural and multiracial culture of Canada" (see pp. 8-9) and unfortunately, the recent cuts have left little room for manoeuvre.
    However, in spite of unfavourable conditions, the Northern Service was improved. Before 1995, there were only a few regional weekly pre-recorded programs on CBC North. Northerners had no choice but to turn to the South for daily news. If they lived in the Eastern Arctic, they got their news from Halifax, NS (and more recently from St John's, NF) and if they lived in the Western Arctic, they got their news from Vancouver. Eventually, in 1995, CBC North TV began a daily service on weekdays. Northern television news (NorthBeat and Igalaak) produced in Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit could be watched on CBC and TVNC (CBC is an associate member) that is to say in the North but also on some southern cable systems. According to Sylvie Audette, interviewed at CBC headquarters in Toronto, an "internal recycling" allowed this evolution: when CBC relocated into its brand new Toronto centre, the outdated audio-visual equipment was given to CBC North.
    Yet, if CBC North Radio is undoubtedly the "Voice of the North", TVNC is its face or rather its showcase. It is quite clear that TVNC is Canadian Arctic's public television station. With the creation of TVNC (funded by the federal government) and drastic cuts in its budgets, CBC has lost its leadership position in the North.

    One cannot deny that TVNC is a successful concept. Still, it has one major disadvantage: it is produced by Northern Aboriginal people (mainly Inuit) for Northern Aboriginal people with two consequences:

- it is closed in upon itself and does not promote Aboriginal culture among mainstream Canadian audiences (unlike Maori broadcasting in New Zealand) and,

- it tends to re-create on a smaller the scale the situations of cultural monopoly that led to its creation (Northern culture is identified with the largest Northern Aboriginal group: the Inuit).

    Five years after its creation, TVNC decided to forge ahead and to create a national Aboriginal network, a new format that would correct the aforesaid disadvantages. On June 5 1998, TVNC filed an application with the CRTC to operate a new Pan-Canadian channel to be called the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) that would take over from TVNC. The consortium's project was to provide a national voice for Aboriginal communities across the country with a full range of programs (news, documentaries, drama, sports ...) and to allow all Canadians (Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike) to see the world in a different perspective. This application contained full details on the programming, financial projections, technical specifications and structures. On November 12 1998, TVNC appeared before the CRTC at a public hearing to defend its application. Roman Bittman, a member of TVNC's Southern Advisory Group presented APTN's vision:

The one thing that will define APTN and differentiate it from other services is the programming. APTN will be programmed by and about aboriginal people. The majority of the programming will appeal to all Canadians. Like any general interest television service, APTN will provide a mix of all types of programming categories targeted to all age groups and interests. It will serve as a cultural bridge between the native and non-native communities, and as a conduit among Aboriginal people from coast to coast. The vast majority of the programming will be acquired from Aboriginal producers.

(CRTC hearing, 11/12/98, www.tvnc.ca)

    Finally, on February 22, 1999, the CRTC licensed APTN and approved the conditions laid out in the application. Besides, APTN was granted a class 1 and class 2 mandatory carriage status. In other words, all cable companies (except the very small ones: class 3) throughout the country as well as DTH (Direct-To-Home) satellite packages (totalling 7 million subscribers) are required to carry APTN as part of the basic service. As a consequence, 86% of APTN's revenues will come from subscribers fees (CAN$ 0.15 per month(8)).
    As for the North, which is still an underserved area, APTN will still carry the programs produced by TVNC's members and maintain its Yellowknife production centre as well as existing satellite uplinks in Iqaluit and Whitehorse. Moreover, thanks to new technologies, APTN will establish a north/south split feed (that will allow Northerners to continue to watch Northern-focused programming) in addition to the Eastern Time/Pacific Time split.
    The new southern production centre will be set up in Winnipeg (Manitoba) and will allow APTN to produce a full range of live programs such as sports and a daily national newscast.
    APTN will take the airwaves on September 1, 1999.

    In the late 1980s, a revolutionary technology called "digital sampling" made it possible to process motion pictures (video) and sounds (music, voice) as binary data, that is to say to describe a sinusoid (the analogical way to represent a audio-video signal) by means of a chain (digital train) using the digits "0" and "1".
    The main advantage of binary data over a sinusoidal signal is a better tolerance to compression, or to be more precise the limitation of the excursion (the space a signal takes up on a carrier frequency) by deleting redundant elements. This saving in space means significant money savings. Thanks to digital compression, a single frequency (e.g. a satellite transponder) can carry:

- several television channels in MPEG 2-MCPC (Motion Picture Expert Group 2-Multiple Channels Per Carrier),

- several radio channels in DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting)-MCPC and

- addressable data (e.g. e-mail) or interactive applications such as an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) at the same time (simulcast).

    This phenomenon (conveying different contents in the same container and thus creating a universal medium) is called "convergence". It paved the way for a special digital network, using satellites and/or fibre-optic cables, connecting individuals through services such as digital television, cellular phones or the Internet: the "Information Highway".
    The federal government's 1994 Order-in-Council on Convergence and the Information Highway states three objectives: first, to create jobs; second, to reinforce Canadian sovereignty and cultural identity; and third, to ensure universal access at affordable costs. Unlike television's introduction in the 1970s, there is a political will to correct the severe imbalance between the North and the rest of the country. Today, most Canadians are communicating by e-mail and actively "surfing the net" whereas there are Arctic Communities which still do not have basic telephone service.
    The arrival of the Information Highway in Northern communities will dramatically change business, information and the cultural environment. That is why it is essential that all Canadians should have access on an equal basis to the range of services delivered through the Highway, both as consumers and as providers. However, this goal can only be realised if Northern communities are given special attention because the North lacks the up-to-date infrastructures enjoyed in the rest of the country.
    Aboriginal broadcasters, the CRTC, federal and territorial governments as well as telecommunications companies are currently taking up a new challenge: building the Information Highway in the North so that Northerners can join their fellow citizens and participate in the design, ownership and production of communication services. Ken Kane, the first chairperson of TVNC, sums up their vision:

When I first heard about this new technology coming to the North, I realised that along with it would come a lot of change and a lot of impact for my people. That is why we got involved. To make sure that this time we got in on the ground floor: not to oppose it or to go against it, but to grow with it. To learn and to develop with it.

(www.tvnc.ca)

Conclusion : An Increasing Potential 

    The Inuit are a resilient people. Surviving in the face of the elements has been their everyday challenge for hundreds of years. Likewise, the fight they took up against the damaging effects of southern culture conveyed by television (television's arrival in Arctic Inuit communities in 1973 was likened to an atomic bomb that leaves the building intact but destroys the lives and souls of the people) demonstrates their tremendous adaptability within adversity. Twenty-six years after the first CBC satellite broadcastings in Rankin Inlet, we can assert that the upheaval caused by television's arrival was only the most obvious manifestation of an adaptation process that had begun with the first contacts between Inuit and Qablunait. Television catalysed the "cultural compromise" process and, within a very short period of time, the Inuit (and other Northern First Nations) were hurled into the modern Canadian society and a media system that seemed to deny their very existence.
    However, the Inuit reacted, combined their forces and turned the situation to their advantage. According to the Integration Model, as defined by Daniel Lerner, modern society enabled them to become "participant" and to voice their claims to political autonomy, land ownership, cultural distinctiveness and to an effective Aboriginal broadcasting policy which would allow them to counterbalance southern culture and preserve Inuktitut.
    As a result, throughout the 1980s and the development of Aboriginal television, the Inuit have established means to come out of their isolation and strengthen their culture thanks to a favourable environment fostered by Pierre Elliott Trudeau's multicultural policy. Since they were not equitably represented on mainstream Canadian television, the Inuit had to organise their own broadcasting production groups and secure an appropriate distribution system. With modern communications means, a Pan-Inuit consciousness emerged and allowed a political and cultural revival that culminated in April 1999 with the creation of Nunavut. Besides, the idea has gained ground: since the creation of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation in 1982, other First Nations have climbed onto the Aboriginal broadcasting bandwagon. In September 1999, Television Northern Canada will become a multilingual Pan-Canadian Native network (APTN) dedicated to all Canadian First Nations and available to all Canadians, a sort of third public broadcaster.
    Today, new stakes such as the Information Highways and on-line digital services are of vital importance for Native Canadians, especially in the North where technology can help isolated communities to open up and to take an active part in mainstream Canadian society (as the Maori in New Zealand) and in the Global Village. Building egalitarian communications networks in the North is an ambitious project but French geographer Jean Malaurie sees future in an optimistic light:

C'est toujours à travers les difficultés qu'un peuple se construit. Et, ici, des citoyens s'éveillent, une élite intellectuelle naît... Jeunes et moins jeunes déjà branchés sur l'Internet s'approprient toutes les nouvelles technologies pour prendre place sur la planète informatique. Prêts, tous, a prendre en mains leur destin et à bâtir le Nunavut sur ce que le passé portait en lui de meilleur.(9)

1. Extract from a letter by Shellene Moore, 1784 Aisley Avenue, Ottawa ON, K2C 1A6, to Ms. Laura Talbot-Allan, Secretary General, CRTC, National Capital Region, published on http://www.crtc.gc.ca (19 October 1998)

2. BET Corporate BET Holdings, Inc Profiles, http://www.msbet.com (WorldWide Web, 1999 )

3. Inukshuk (singular) means "likeness of a person" in Inuktitut. Inukshuit (plural) are made out of rock slabs and built into the shape of a person. They are used to channel caribou into areas where Inuit can easlily harvest them but also to serve as markers, or signposts to guide Inuit across the treeless tundra of the Canadian Arctic.

4. Geoffrey Stevens, "Breaking the Mould" in MacLean's vol. 111 no. 14 (Toronto, April 6, 1998) p. 24

5. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, A contre-courant: textes choisis 1939-1996, Les éditions internationales Alain Stanké (Montréal, 1996)

6. CRTC Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission-Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, http://www.crtc.gc.ca, (WorldWide Web,1999)

7. CBC-SRC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation-Société Radio-Canada, Annual Report 1996-1997, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Ottawa, 1998) p. 10

8. compared to CBC Newsworld (CAN$ 0.55), the Wheather Network (CAN$ 0.30) and CANAL + France ... (about CAN$ 45 per month)

9. Claude Goure, "Jean Malaurie: Je suis né chez les Inuits" in Notre temps (Paris, April, 1999) p. 85

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