Representatives of the Van-
couver and District Labor
Council, the Consumers’
Association of Canada, the
Communist Party and senior
Citizens groups were among
several to take part in a meeting
at Vancouver city hall Monday
called by Vancouver mayor

- Mike Harcourt to coordinate
opposition to B.C. Telephone’s
application for a rate increase.

The meeting, headed by Har-
court and alderman Bruce
Yorke, was part of a campaign
of opposition to the rate in-
Crease set out’ in a motion to
council by Yorke last July which
urged the city to make strong
representation to the Canadian
Radio-Television and Telecom-
munications Commission to
deny the rate increase.

B.C, Tel applied in June for
an interim rate hike of 13: per-
cent and a general rate increase,
including the interim, of 28 per-
cent, which would boost
residential rates to $13 per

Month from the current $10.40
on May 1, 1982.

In an unprecedented action,
the CRTC granted B.C. the in-
terim 13 percent increase — to
take effect Jan. 1, 1982. It was
the first time a telephone. com-
Pany has been granted an in-
terim hike and was done
without reference to public

hearings, .

But hearings must be con-
ducted on the general increase
and it is there that B.C. Tel can

Opponents of B.C.
Tel increase plan
CRTC intervention

be expected to face a barrage of
opposition.

Opponents can protest the in-
crease in three ways including a
letter to the CRTC or a submis-
sion as yet unscheduled public
hearings around the province.
Alternatively, they can apply to
intervene at formal hearings
slated to open. in Vancouver
Feb. 16, in which case they must
notify the CRTC before Dec.
AZ:

VDLC secretary Paddy
Neale indicated. Monday that
the labor council, together with
the B.C. Federation of Labor
and the Telecommunications
Workers would be considering
making a joint intervention
against the proposed rate hike.’

Unionists, citizens’ groups
and others have been urged to
inundate the Commission with
protests over the proposed in-
crease which, if granted, would
push B.C. Tel rates up 62 per-
cent over what they were only
five years ago. Already they are
higher than rates in the other
three western provinces, all of
which have publicly-owned
telephone companies.

CP leader Maurice Rush, one
of those who attended
Monday’s meeting at city hall,
warned that B.C. Tel, which
already earns some 13 to 14 per-
cent on investment, ‘‘wants to
push its rate of return up to the
same level as interst rates.

“Tf that is given to the B.C.
Tel, we’ll be faced with endless
increases,’’ he said.

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Hewison challenges Pearse
to debate fish proposals

UFAWU secretary-treasurer
George Hewison this week offered
to debate federal fisheries inquiry
commissioner Peter Pearse,
challenging him to show a single
way in which his proposals for
overhaul of the licensing system
will benefit working fishermen.”

“Instead of the government im-
plementing a commission’s recom-
mendations, a commission is now
justifying the government’s pro-
posals,’” he told a press conference
at Fishermen’s Hall.

He announced that UFAWU

- representatives who go to Ottawa

to attend the CLC demonstration
Nov. 21 will remain in the capital
next week to meet with federal
fisheries minister Romeo LeBlanc
and lobby MPs.

“I called the report a bit of a
disaster when I first saw it,’’ said
Hewison, who represented the
union in months of hearings before
Pearse. ‘“‘Now the membership has
gone much farther. In a coastwide
conference they have reviewed it
and rejected it outright.

‘‘We oppose any form of royalty
on fish landings and we believe the

. proposed buy-back of excess fleet

capacity is designed to fail.

‘‘We challenge the commis-
sioner to prove his proposals will
do anything but destroy the in-
comes of fishermen.”’

Hewison went through Pearse’s

’ chief conclusions point by point

and spelled out the union’s objec-
tions.

Pearse proposes a royalty be
levied on all fish landings.
Royalties would range from 10 to
15 percent of the landed price and,
in the case of halibut and food herr-
ing, would be payable in advance,
whether or not the fish are landed.
Salmon royalties would be 10 cents
a pound for springs, sockeye and
coho, five cents a pound for pinks
and chums.

This royalty scheme will
bankrupt fishermen, Hewison

_said, by expropriating 10 to 15 per-

- cent of their gross income at a time

when fishermen’s net income is not
enough to!cover expenses.

‘“‘With interest rates at record
levels and fuel costs expected to

Ee
PEARSE (I), HEWISON .

double as a result of the energy

- pact, this is monetarism of the most

brutal kind.”’

Pearse proposes to use the pro-
ceeds of the royalties — about $12
million a year based on 1980 figures
— along with a $50 million govern-
ment grant and $100 million bor-
rowed on the open market to fund
a special corporation to reduce the
fleet.

“This buy-back proposal is
ludicrous and cannot possibly pay
for itself,’? Hewison said.
Fishermen are supposed to pay the

cost of the buy-back through,

royalties but will only be able to

contribute $12 million a year, not .

even enough to cover interest on
the borrowed funds.

‘Pearse wants fishermen to pay
for the privilege to fish,’’ Hewison
said, ‘‘then sets up a system where

. they can only to deeper into debt by

millions of dollars annually.”

The proposal that licences be
transferable and be bought and
sold simply will increase capitaliza-
tion, Hewison continued.

“Under the Pearse scheme,
workers wanting to become
fishermen would have to buy a
licence, buy a quota for some
species, pay a royalty and pay, in-
creased licence fees. You will have
to be rich to get into the industry
and you will certainly be poor when
you get out.”’

Pearse’s argument that reduc-
tion of the fleet through a buy-back
will make remaining fishermen rich

: i @
-UFAWU challenges commissioner to
justify stand in debate with union.

through increased landings does
not hold water, Hewison said. ‘‘He
proposes to tax away increased ear-
nings through royalties and he ig-
nores the question of how stocks
can be increased.”

Matters deferred by Pearse for
later consideration include destruc-
tion of habitat, ocean ranching,
catch division, area licencing, sport
fishing regulations.

‘Having reviewed this interim
report, we have no confidence in
Pearse’s work,’’ Hewison said.
“He has launched an all-out assault
on fishermen’s incomes and push-
ed a host of crucial issues to one
side. We intend to do everything
possible to see that none of these
recommendations are im-
plemented as they stand.”

High among the crucial issues
pushed to one side, continuing de-
struction of fish habitat long-has
concerned fishermen.

Since its successful campaign in
the fifties against construction of
the Mica dam on the Fraser river,
the UFAWU has campaigned con-
tinuously to stop forest and mining
corporations from polluting
coastal waters, using the excuse
that costs of other non-polluting
methods would be prohibitive.

With increasing industrial de-
velopment, particularly on the Fra-
ser, salmon nursery areas: have
been lost and this inevitably will be
reflected in future returns and cat-
ches.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 20, 1981—Page 3