Vancouver is losing one of its television supper-hour newscasts with 47 people losing their jobs at Citytv as Bell Globemedia prepares to take over CHUM Ltd. in a $1.7-billion deal.
 
They're among 281 job cuts across the country by CHUM, including 17 at A-Channel in Victoria.

Citytv's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts in Vancouver are gone, as is the breakfast show in Victoria.
  
Security guards were brought in to escort workers out of the building in Vancouver, and news camera operators to their trucks while they cleared out their personal items.

Camera operator Richard Paris is one of 47 Citytv workers losing their jobs. (CBC)

"It's a shock," said veteran cameraman Richard Paris. "We've all worked these things in the past, we've all been through it behind the camera, but when it happens to you, it hits you like a ton of bricks."

This is the second time the Vancouver TV station has changed hands recently. Five years ago, CHUM bought it from CanWest Global.

The employees were told the layoffs had nothing to do with the Bell Globemedia takeover, with managers blaming the cuts on poor ratings.

Citytv in Vancouver is about to become part of Bell Globemedia.

Bell Globemedia owns the CTV network — including the CTV station in Vancouver — and the Globe and Mail newspaper.

CHUM owns the two B.C. television stations plus five B.C. radio stations. So far, radio staff have not been affected.

However, the corporate  changes are not finished. Bell Globemedia says it plans to sell off the Victoria TV station.

The CHUM-Bell Globemedia deal is subject to the approval of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.