on CBC. On September 17, 2012, CBC's late local newscasts were expanded to a full half-hour in major markets, including Calgary, Edmonton, the Maritimes, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. The majority of CBC stations now also air local or regional newscasts at weekends. In December 2014, CBC announced changes to its local news operations that took effect as of the 2015-16 television season. 90-minute evening newscasts were cut down to 60 or 30 minutes, with Charlottetown, Halifax, St. John's, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg cut down to an hour-long newscast, and Calgary, Edmonton, Fredericton, Montreal, Regina, and Windsor cut down to a single half-hour. On CBC North, Northbeat and Inuktitut-language Igalaaq each air for half an hour. The stations also began to air local, top-of-hour news updates during the afternoons and primetime, and, except on CBC North, air simulcasts of local CBC Radio One morning shows at 6:00 a.m. local time. The change came as part of a shift towards digital and mobile platforms for news output, along with a desire to build "a comprehensive, four-platform local news service — across the day and on demand" with less emphasis on evening newscasts. On March 18, 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the CBC suspended all local newscasts and replaced them with simulcasts of CBC News Network. The CBC stated in an employee memo that a lack of staff at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre (as of 2019, production control room operations for local newscasts were centralized at the Toronto-based facility) and "much stricter newsgathering protocols" were a factor, and publicized that this was done in order to pool all local resources towards CBC News Network as a "core news offering" for rolling coverage (which included CBC's local anchors appearing throughout the day). This once again excluded CBC North, which continued to air Northbeat and Igalaaq. Some of the CBC regions continued to produce short news segments on digital platforms. The decision faced criticism for reducing the amount of local coverage of the pandemic's impact—especially in markets (such as PEI, prompting complaints from Premier Dennis King) where the CBC is the only local source of news programming. On March 24, the CBC announced that it would begin to reinstate its local newscasts, including "an expanded 30-minute local news segment on CBC News Network" beginning March 25, and a goal to "make every effort to have all of the