FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1969 Gas Sales Pay Off For B.C. Hydro i i illion in- Sun Veitoria Bureau He said the $88.4 milli VICTORIA — BS. Hydro| cludes flood control benefits and made a profit of.34 per cent on | additional downstream power Westcoast Gets Order Another Gas jon Co. Ltd. has contracted tural j million cubic feet of na % addition a or United States customer, E Westcoast Transmiss Westcoast Transmission Company aye Dea a 24 per cent increase in net profit for the t si cannes ended Dec. 31 over the same period in the Pp year. Farnin _ THE PUBLIC PAYS. The above headlines appeared in the Vancouver press during the past week. Top one announces new profits for - e.c. Hydro amounting to 34 percent for sales of natural gas over the Previous year. Middle headline announces the newest deal by _ Westcoast Transmission to sell another 150 million cubic feet of gas to the U.S. a day at firesale prices. The bottom head, which appeared __ $00n after, announced that Westcoast’s net profits jumped 24 percent ~ inthe last three months of 1968. VOL. 30, NO. 7 By MAURICE RUSH PUBLIC ROOKED ON GAS RATES A deal announced last week by Westcoast Transmission would sell another 150 million cubic feet of B.C. natural gas a day to the U.S. for just over 32¢ per thousand, while many homeowners pay B.C. Hydro as much as three times that amount for their own gas. Extra large gas bills received from B.C. Hydro over the last few days by consumers, covering the cold spell in December and January, underscores the scandalous situation now exist ing. The public is subjected to a two-way squeeze: They are forced to pay higher rates to subsidize the cheap export of gas to the U.S.; and they are being charged rates which are amongst the highest in Canada so that B.C. Hydro can make a large profit from its natural gas operations. It’s bad enough that we should be exporting our gas to the U.S. in ever-growing quantities at fire sale prices so that they can build their industries and service their cities on the basis of our “West Berlin provocation ‘can endanger world peace’ “The Canadian government, in the interests of thé peace of “the world, must at once speak out against the latest provocations _ being organized by the West new president of West Germany - German government in West is therefore nothing but a Berlin,’ says a statement issued provocation which could result Monday by the Central Execu- in the gravest consequences to tive of the Communist Party of peace. It is of a piece with the Canada. NATO war manoeuvres on the _ “There is not a shred of legal Czechoslovak border. justification for the contention “The ex-Nazi revenge seekers _ that West Berlin is part of the who dominate the government of German Democratic Republic,”’ says the statement. “The effort to use West Berlin as the site for the election of a ' West German federal republic. _ The division of the city, which _ Was placed under joint allied 0Ccupation at the end of the war, is the sole responsibility of the Western powers which crassly lated the solemn agreements gotiated at Potsdam in 1945. whole city of Berlin is well in the territory. of the the German Federal Republic are not acting on their own. We cannot ignore the reports that the Nixon administration intends to pursue a sharper, and therefore more dangerous line in Europe, nor the serious Soviet charges that the Wilson government is assisting the West Germans to acquire nuclear weapons. “But we are absolutely certain that the Canadian people, together with the peoples of all countries, are determined that they are not going to be dragged into world war for the third time in the 20th century by West German militarism. “The Canadian government should lose no time in making this abundantly clear by demanding that the plan for a West German parliamentary meeting in Berlin be abandoned at once. “This dangerous crisis, is further fresh proof of the necessity of Canada. disen- tangling itself without delay from the North Atlantic military allianee,”’ concludes the Com- munist Party statement. cheap fuel. It’s bad enough that this resource is not being utilized to create new industries in B.C., and is being used instead to make a few new millionaires like Frank M. McMahon. But what rubs salt in the wound is when B.C. Hydro could announce, as it did gleefully this week, that because of the high rates being charged to con- sumers the company made a profit of 34 percent on its gas sales during the last fiscal year. ANSWERS WANTED What is the explanation for the giant spread between what consumers in the Lower Main- land pay for gas to B.C. Hydro and the 32¢ U.S. companies pay Westcoast Transmission for the gas? The public deserves and demands an explanation. It’s almost impossible for an The election of T.C. Douglas in the Nanaimo-Cowichan-The _ Islands byelection Monday by an over- whelming majority was a victory for Canadian labor and demo- cratic forces. It was also a stinging repudiation of the federal Liberal government, which sent every available cabinet member into the riding to help defeat the NDP national leader. It shows that some of the “mania” is coming out of Trudeaumania. ordinary citizen to get the facts from B.C. Hydro. Attempts by the PT to find out what the Van- couver rates are and how they are arrived at led down a blind alley of ‘‘sliding scales’’ and other “special factors.” However, in checking the latest gas bill of a member of the PT staff we found that he was paying $23 for 209 thermal units. A thermal unit is 100 cubic feet of gas. A little arithmetic showed that he was paying ll¢ a thermal unit or $1.10 for a thousand cubic feet - the same quantity for which the U.S. will pay 32.4¢ in the latest deal! We know that B.C, Hydro buys the gas from Westcoast Trans- mission, and that the latest figure we have available is that B.C. Hydro paid 38.4¢ a thousand cubic feet in 1965. This means that B.C. Hydro has been paying Westcoast Transmission and its U.S.-dominated Board of Direc- tors, more than the U.S. does. That, however, does not explain the spread between the price Hydro pays and what the homeowners and consumers are forced to pay. BUSINESS FAVORED Part of the unfair rates charged to consumers is accounted for by a schedule of rates which is aimed at subsidizing big industry. A sliding scale which sees consumers pay as much as $1.00 for 300 cubic feet and industry which pays as little as 65¢ for a thousand cubic feet is totally dis- criminatory against the public and in favor of big business. The public should demand not only a full public airing of natural gas rates, but they should also demand an end to the wholesale giveaway of B.C.’s natural gas to the U.S. The 150 million cubic feet a day Westcoast Transmission contracted to sell the U.S. El See GAS RATES, pg. 12