CBC broadcaster Tom Roberts, based in La Ronge, Sask., is the host of Keewatin Country. (CBC)

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has changed its mind about closing one-person northern bureaus in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

In March, CBC said budget cuts would force it to close bureaus in La Ronge, Sask., and Thompson, Man.

In Saskatchewan, that would have meant listeners in the province's north would no longer have been able to listen to Keewatin Country, the daily one-hour radio show hosted by Tom Roberts.

The Thompson bureau hosts local morning and noon shows and provides the link to what's happening in Manitoba's far north.

Now, according to CBC Saskatchewan's acting managing director Debbie Carpentier, the northern bureaus will remain on the airwaves after all.

Announcement of closings sparked protests

The public broadcaster's financial outlook has not changed, but the corporation has found ways of cost-cutting elsewhere that will allow the bureaus to stay open, she said.

"They were able to make the decision to reinvest in La Ronge," she said. "Thompson is in the same situation. It's not going to close either."

The news came as a relief to Roberts.

"It's like something being lifted from your shoulders," he said. "Now you can start planning on what you want to do and what you want the radio show to do."

When the closings were announced in March, protesters appeared outside the CBC in Winnipeg.

At the Saskatchewan legislature, MLA Buckley Belanger urged Northern Affairs Minister June Draude to write to federal Heritage Minister James Moore. Belanger said he had asked Moore to reverse the decision to end Keewatin Country, which he called CBC Saskatchewan's only aboriginal program.