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The CBC archives is a unique depository of local TV and film. In the vaults of the CBC building at Hamilton and Georgia Streets are an estimated 35,000 cans of 16-millimetre film, and 30,000 videotapes.

“It’s the largest collection of film in Canada outside of the Ottawa/Montreal/Toronto triangle,” said retired CBC archivist Colin Preston. “There’s nothing in the Prairies (like it), there’s nothing in the Maritimes. We’re it.”

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But the future of the archive is in doubt, because CBC is going through a digitization process. Material from across the country is to be shipped to CBC’s English headquarters in Toronto, where someone will decide whether it’s worth keeping. If they don’t, it may be tossed.

“I believe that at least 40 per cent, even half that collection won’t even make it out the door, it’ll go right to the dumpster because it doesn’t fit their criteria,” said Preston.

“(CBC has said) we’re only going to digitize stuff that is saleable, complete programs that we can use again. So all these bits and pieces (such as interviews not attached to programs may get thrown out). It’s like a giant mosaic that’s incomplete.