The Yukon legislative assembly has unanimously supported a motion encouraging the federal government to ensure the CBC maintains its AM and analog TV service in the territory.

But the CBC maintains that AM broadcasting will be replaced by an enhanced FM service.

Last Wednesday's motion was brought forward by Patti McLeod, the Yukon Party MLA for Watson Lake.

"FM signals are unreliable, sometimes unavailable for days, and are not always received clearly,” she told the legislature.

"This is true in southeast Yukon, it is true outside Whitehorse, and it is true in many other parts of the North.

"The CBC is a national treasure. It must continue to survive; it must continue to serve the North; and it must continue to broadcast on the AM band.”

Kevin Barr, the NDP critic for Tourism and Culture, moved to amend the motion to include urging the government to restore adequate funding to the CBC.

"This motion ignores the (federal budget) cuts,” Barr said.

"This motion asks the Government of Canada to work to force the relocation of the tower to maintain a service without addressing the funding issue.”

The current AM transmitting tower used by the CBC is located in the Whistle Bend subdivision. Since the development of the subdivision began, there has been an understanding that the tower would need to be moved.

During question period last Tuesday, Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Brad Cathers said when the CBC's lease for the existing site was close to expiring in 2009, the corporation indicated it wished to end AM service.

Cathers said at that point, he, the City of Whitehorse and the Department of Community Services reached an agreement with the CBC to extend the lease for three more years.

This was to give the CBC more time to relocate the tower before development began in the subdivision, he said.

"At this point in time, we would certainly work (with) them to keep the tower at its current location as long as possible and to find another site, if they are willing to do what they should do and continue AM service to Yukon citizens,” he told the house last Tuesday.

Janice Stein, the managing director of CBC North, said in an interview Friday afternoon that the CBC has moved on from AM service.

Stein said new FM broadcasts will begin in June and there will be a three-month period where both the AM and FM bands are used.

"That three-month period will give us time to just see how the signal is going and see if there are any adjustments that need to be made,” she said.

At the end of the three months, the Whistle Bend tower will be decommissioned as per the city's request.

Stein said building a new AM tower would be "prohibitively expensive,” involving not only finding a new piece of land and constructing the new tower, but also extending hydro lines and laying extensive underground cables.

"Moving the tower is unrealistic, leaving the tower there would have been a possibility, but that was three years ago. We've moved far down the road now in creating the new FM service,” Stein told the Star.

"But to actually build a new AM tower, and the infrastructure, the extended hydro lines and the underlying cabling, it's just too much for the CBC to bear.

"It was too much for us to bear in 2009, and it's even more difficult now with the cut of the $115 million from the government from the parliamentary funding.”

Stein said some northern regions may not receive the new FM signal, but areas closer to Whitehorse that weren't receiving the AM signal, will get the new FM one.

"Some of those areas will continue to get it because CBC has 13 transmitters around the Yukon in small communities. The FM signal will rebroadcast through those AM transmitters around the territory so some people will lose it, but at this point we don't know who,” she said.

Stein said the CBC won't know exactly how the service will change until the new signal is tested.

Barr's amendment to include the funding issue in the motion was defeated by the Yukon Party.

Cathers said the crux of the motion tabled is to ensure CBC services in the Yukon remain at their current level.

"Whether or not that can be done within the CBC's existing budget or requires additional resources really is a matter for the federal government in scrutinizing and reviewing the budget to determine,” he said.

All parties did agree that the CBC provides a vital service in the territory, especially in remote areas.

Darius Elias, the interim leader of the Liberal party, said, "I think it is important for the CBC and the federal government to recognize that it's almost inconceivable for a lot of remote, isolated northern communities to not be able to access television and the AM 570 band.”

The disappearance of the over-the-air TV service means it will only be accessible by cable or satellite dish.