Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 29/00) - The resolution of the takeover battle between two Canadian communications corporations, CanWest Global Communications and Shaw Communications, might mean Yellowknife will have its first-ever private television news bureau.

In an $800-million deal, Global acquired the television assets, nine TV stations, from Western Independent Communications, (WIC), including CITV-TV in Edmonton.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The CRTC hearings will take place in Vancouver beginning April 25, with a decision expected sometime in June or July. "The ITV signal covers the Northwest Territories. It makes sense to establish a bureau (in Yellowknife)," said Global director David Asper. He added that Global's original vision, when the company was founded in 1975, involved a presence in every Canadian capital.

Global, based in Winnipeg, Man., holds communications assets world-wide.

"We want to reflect the totality of the nation. We hope to bring the North of Canada to the south of Canada through a regular news diet and a weekly national current affairs program. It's important that part of that content come from the North," said Asper about Global's new national plan.

If the deal is approved, Global will spend $1 million over five years to establish and equip the bureau, train a local reporter and maintain the operation.

According to CRTC regulations, Global must provide tangible benefits to Canadian broadcasting, which is 10 per cent of the value of the WIC transaction. Totalling $84 million, this is the largest benefits package offered in the history of Canadian television.

These funds will be distributed in the areas of program production, marketing and related cultural and educational fields, and includes the $1 million ear-marked for the Yellowknife bureau.

"We'll move almost immediately to make it (the Yellowknife bureau) widely known," Asper said.

Yellowknife stories would be filed through the ITV newsroom in Edmonton to the national Global Television Network, with ITV resources available to be deployed to the North should they be necessary, said Asper.

Asper hesitated to provide details on the scope, frequency and type of Northern coverage Global hopes to provide. He said the North is largely unknown to the communications giant but added once they have their person in place, that person would "tell us what they need." This person, he emphasized, would be hired locally, would not necessarily be experienced in television news, and would be offered a six-month paid internship in a Global newsroom in western Canada.

"This is a permanent office," said Asper. "The question mark is how big will the office be."

Global is also currently working out programming initiatives with the new Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.