Season’s Greetings Season's Breetings to all our friends Federation of Russian Canadians New Year’s Eve Banquet and Dance 600 Campbell Ave., Supper 7 p.m. Dance 9 p.m. $25 couple, $13 single Tickets in advance fee ‘A ° ° E Season’s Greetings 4 for a peaceful world a) Join us for humanity, ‘s peace and progress : PENTICTON CLUB : COMMUNIST PART a ° Oo REETINGS! to our members, friends and supporters ‘Let’s move B.C. left in 1979’ © °. ° eo ° e} Be one Fin a B.C. Provincial Committee Communist Party of Canada 684-1451 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 20, 1978—Page 12 € 254-3430 Y OF CANADA °: “a a2 (PROVINCIAL NOTES Royal Jubilee doctors protest hospital layoffs VICTORIA — Two- hundred doctors at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH) have taken large ads in Victoria dailies to protest cutbacks in the hospital’s funding which the doctor’s say has seriously endangered patient care ser- vices at the hospital. “The medical profession of Royal Jubilee Hospital has resolved that the public should be made aware of a deteriorating level in patient care which has resulted from government measures of cost control,’’ an ad run by the doc- tors in last Tuesday’s Victoria Times stated, ‘‘We appeal to the minister of health to make money available immediately — without prejudice for future planning and in consultation with hospital authorities — to have sufficient staff at the hospital to restore the excellent and uniform standard of care that the citizens of Victoria have enjoyed in the past.”’ The ad campaign was spark- ed by the laying off of 66 nurses at RJH to meet budget requirements. The layoffs have thrown hospital procedures in- to a spin and have angered hospital workers which have taken job actions in protest. “Responsible and reliable senior nurses are unhappy because they can’t get staff re- quired to maintain effective patient care,’’ RJH chief of medical staff, Dr. Barney Bar- nard said last week, ‘‘Special teams of nurses built up on a service have been broken up; there are increasing errors made in medication, increased occurence of absenteeism from sickness, and a reluctance and even refusals to work excessive overtime.”’ At a press conference in Vic- toria Monday Barnard said that the doctors do not want “to wait for the same thing here that happened at the Van- couver General Hospital to happen here before decisive ac- tion is taken.’’ The hospital’s financial crisis has shut down some departments on weekends and has resulted in an acute shor- tage of beds. About 200 long term care patients are presently occupying beds needed for emergency and acute care pa- tients. About 993 cases slated for surgery had to be cancelled and rescheduled during 1978 \ due to lack of staff. SCOTTY NEISH.. UFAWU rejects decision to cut Tsitika watershed. VANCOUVER — The United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union has rejected the report of the Tsitika Plann- ing Committee and its recom- - mendation that the virgin Tsitika forest on northern Van- couver Island be opened for logging. The union and Vancouver Island environmental grops have opposed the logging of the Tsitika valley pointing out that it is one of the last virgin forests of Douglas fir remain- ing in B.C. and that it is an im- portant watershed and sanc- tuary for wildlife on the nor- thern end of Vancouver Island. A planning committee was established by the provincial’ government earlier this year to consider lifting the previously established moratorium on development in the valley, but the committee came “under criticism for its failure to allow, meaningful public debate of the issue. UFAWU representative on the planning committee, Elgin “‘Scotty’’ Neish, stated in a report issued November 16 that the committee failed in its two major areas of responsibility: “to develop an inventory of the resource users in the Tsitika watershed, and to formulate prescriptions to protect these resource values.’’ The logging companies have placed the value of the timber in the Tsitika valley at $585 million, Neish said, but there are no statistics to show the value of other resource users of the area. **Not only does the Commit- . charges that Tsitika report biased in favor of’ logging companies. tee abrogate its responsibility in this important area,’’ he said, ‘‘But it goes one step fur- ther and states that the costs of getting the logs out shall be the criteria for providing protec- — tion to the other resource values.’’ : Neish said that the bias i favour of the logging com- panies ‘‘is obvious throughout the report.”’ Neish said that as a commer- cial fisherman he had witness- ed the results of the logging methods on other river estuaries on Vancouver Island,_ but his opinions were ignored J by the pro-logging company " committee. Shell announces — plans to increase B.C. coal exports VANCOUVER — A new round of investment, exploita- tion and sellout of B.C.’s coal resources was indicated this week in a major speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade by William Daniel, president of Shell Canada. 5 According to the president of the multinational oil com- pany, Shell will pump at least $11 million into B.C. next year — | looking towards a vast expan- sion of the coal export market in the 1980's. **Shell’s current focus is on our Line Creek properties in the Fernie area,’’ Daniel said, “Over $1 million has been spent in preliminary explora- tion and evaluation.”’ If ‘‘satisfactory sales con- — tracts’? can be established Daniels said, Shell will invest another $12 million into the Fernie coal deposits with the object being a surface mine in operation by the early 1980’s with an initial production of 1.4 million tons a year. Indicating the concessions that the company will be expec- ting from the provincial gover- ment, Danmiels went on to say that competition in the coal in- dustry is intensifying with U.S., Australian — and now = Chinese — coal undercut- ting B.C. export markets. ‘‘For these reasons there is a conti-- nuing need to ‘excercise restraint in respect of govern- ment revenues derived from the coal sector and in respect of mining wage rates,’’ the Shell boss warned. B.C. coal ports are presently jammed to capacity, he said, ~ ; and a new integrated railway and pro port facility is needed to accommodate the big in- crease in exports in the 1980’s.