CBC News announced late last week that it plans to ‘dramatically increase resources’ devoted to covering local and national television news originating in Alberta, generally in the province and especially in Calgary and Edmonton. Newsgathering resources are to be doubled with the addition of about 25 new assignments for local television journalists.

‘There are important stories that need to be told throughout Canada,’ says CBC News publisher John Cruickshank. ‘Calgary and Edmonton are now among the most dynamic cities in the country [and] we want our news coverage to reflect that reality. As we said last year, our plan is to put more ‘feet on the street’ to maximize our television news gathering and production resources locally in these important areas.’

In related news, CBC also announced that the two hours of programming for CBC Newsworld which are currently produced from Calgary will now be handled out of Toronto.