Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 23/00) - Canada's Global Television Network will open a Northern bureau within a year.

The bureau results from an $800-million deal finalized last July when Global acquired the television assets of Western Independent Communications.

While in Yellowknife last March, Global director David Asper said the Winnipeg-based company's vision was to be a presence in every Canadian capital.

The Northern beat will cover the Yukon Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

From his office in Toronto, Global's vice-president of news, Ken MacDonald, says the company intends to open a Yellowknife bureau in conjunction with the launch of the network's new national news program in September 2001.

"That's not us delaying it until then," adds MacDonald.

BCTV, another recent Global acquisition, remains a CTV affiliate until that date.

"In other words, that's the date we can get it on the air."

MacDonald cannot confirm an exact date of the official Yellowknife opening, but "it's part of our whole national news commitment," he says.

"This (Northern) bureau is part of that initiative. And it's part of all the planning we're doing right now to build the new national newscast and public affairs program, which will be coming out of Calgary."

Global is dedicated to hiring a Northerner, who will be trained at a southern bureau, for the job. At this point only one will be hired to cover Northern news, but that could change, says MacDonald.

The Northern bureau, filing stories to ITV in Edmonton, will provide regular contributions to the national newscast and local newscasts, says MacDonald.

"There may be features being done that could get on the local programs of individual local stations. Local programs will sometimes run features from another part of the country." Decisions regarding the Northern bureau, and the national newscast, will be firmed up over the next two or three months, adds MacDonald.

"We're starting to look for potential locations for this thing up there. We've been doing it through Internet and phone calls so far, only because we're not on the brink of launching it right now.

"We'll spend what we have to to get it done."