Shell's property tax rip

Rate hike, transit surcharge ‘un ‘unjust’

By SEAN GRIFFIN
. If B.C. Hydro’s announced rate -
increases for electricity are allowed
to gointo effect Apr. 1 — and both
the NDP and the Communist Party

have demanded a freeze on rates —

ee ae

residential users will be hit with two
unjustified increases on their new
hydro bills — and that for power
that is already overpriced, com-
Pared to Manitoba and
Washington state.

The crown corporation an-
nounced the rate increases earlier
this month claiming they were
Necessary to offset “‘increased ser-
vice and operating costs.’’ For

residential users bills after Apr. 1
will include an extra 50 cents on the
bi-monthly service charge of $4.50
as well as increases in energy costs
ranging from roughly two to 10
percent, depending on consump-
tion.

But on the same date — Apr. 1
— the newly-established Urban
Transit Authority is scheduled to
take over transit from B.C. Hydro.
And the financing formula, which,
in addition to a three-cent-a-gallon
gas tax calls for a 24-cent-a-month
surcharge on hydro bills, is also_
scheduled to take effect.

Simultaneous with that change,

ANALYSIS

B.C. Hydro will divest itself of its
substantial transit deficit — which
will add some $61 million to
operating revenues if the figure for

1978-79 is used.
The result will be that Hydro will

more than double its net income —
again based on the 1978-79 figures
— while residential users will be
compelled to pay double increases
for the same level of service. ;

Adding to. the injustice is that
fact that industrial and bulk users
— who already enjoy much lower

off challenged

rates — will not have to pay the
transit surcharge although they will
be subject to the general rate in-
crease.

The removal of the transit deficit
from Hydro’s book itself suggests
that there is no justification for the
rate increases. But Hydro chair-
man Robert Bonner’s arguments
that the increases are needed to
“offset increased operating costs”
are suspect for a more fundamental
reason.

B.C. Hydrois already paying the
almost incomprehensible sum of
$783,000 a day to service its huge
debt. And last November it got per-

. . page 2

Hydro consumers face double bite

mission from the Socred govern-
ment to increase its borrowing
power by an additional $750
‘million, in order to meet capital
construction costs on such projects
as the Revelstoke, Seven Mile and
Peace Dams.

Yet, according to the
Legislature’ 'S crown corporation
reporting committee, those pro-
jects will generate power far in ex-
cess of the province’s immediate or
foreseeable needs.

That committee, which reported
last November, voiced concern that
Hydro may deliberately have

See USERS page 3

Pacific Life Community activist Ron Irons stands outside the Van-

‘couver courthouse Monday as the group began a 24-hour vigil to
coincide with the trial in Seattle of 12 Canadians and 101 Americans
charged with trespass following their sit-in last October at the Tri-
dent nuclear submarine base. Predictably, the first 61 tried were
found guilty, with sentencing set for March 28.

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

Basic needs not
met with GAIN

For 66,000 people in B.C. whose
standard of living is established by
the provincial government’s GAIN
rates, monthly income is over $100
short of meeting basic human re-
quirements.

The figures, released Tuesday by
the United Way of Greater Van-
couver, tell an old story. Tens of
thousands of people, of whom over
half are children and most others
are single mothers, handicapped or
unemployable, live in forced
poverty under the Socred’s
Guaranteed Available Income for
Need (GAIN) program.

The United Way report which
updates its Nov. 1978 report on the
adequacy of social assistance
benefits Has been called a
devastating inditement of the
government’s social welfare
policies.

It was a charge which the United
Way’s Dr. Henry Hightower,
chairman of the 19 person commit-
tee which produced the report,

“would not disagree with at a press

conference Tuesday.
“Tf there is a devastating indite-
ment of the government’s policy, it

is to-be found in the factual
statements themselves,’’
Hightower responded carefully.

. The report compared basic costs
for food, clothing, bus fare, rent
and utilities in Dec. 1979 with the
maximum benefits available under
GAIN. GAIN rates were shown to
be between 51 and 75 percent below
meeting monthly requirements in
the first four months, and between
12 and .75 percent below re-
quirements after four months
when rates rise.

A single person in the first four
months on social assistance can
receive a maximum of $240, $130
short of basic costs. After four
months for those over 31 years of
age, the gap narrows to $75, but for
those under 31 years, thereis noim-
provement.

Families are worse off. Two
adults with three children can
receive a maximum of $700 in the
first four months and $735 after
that. But that leaves them $230 and
$195 short each month of meeting
costs. -

The shortfall, Hightower said,

See UNITED page 11

North Vancouver district
citizens won a major victory this
Tuesday when they forced their
municipal council to release a
report detailing potential chlorine
disasters at two chemical plants -
Hooker Chemicals Ltd. and Erco
Industries Ltd. - in the Maplewood
area.

“Tt was citizen’s pressure which
made the council move,’’ said
alderman Ernie Crist, who played
the central role in fighting for the
release of the report kept under
wraps for almost two years.

“Now the public will have to

compel council to take action on
the basis of the report,”’ Crist said.
Xeroxed copies of the report -
prepared by Beak Consultants - are
being prepared for sale to the
public.

Despite Crist’s opposition, a
statement prepared by Hooker
chemicals vice-president and
general manager, L.H. Schnurs-
tein will be attached to the report,
in all likelihood to offset mounting
concern that a Mississauga-style
accident could happen in Van-
couver.

Crist argued that the municipali-

ty shouldn’t “be an agent for
Hooker Chemicals and facilitate
the spreading of their materials.”’

The report, a lengthy detailed ~

study, outlines several scenarios in
which rail cars carrying chlorine, in
liquid or gas form, could be punc-
tured. Earthquakes, sabotage and
accidents at the work site were cited
as possible causes of leakage of the
deadly substance.

It also pointed out that various
government agencies were not
equipped to cope with a large-scale
disaster, adding that ‘‘the degree of

N. Van. forced to release Beak report

damage and number of dea
would depend on unpredictable
weather conditions.

Accidental chlorine spills are
Statistical likelihoods, occurring
once every eight years.

The Chemical Hazards Com-
mittee, a citizen’s group formed to
pressure council in releasing the
report, are drawing up a series of
action proposals to take to council
on the matter.

Crist said: ‘‘Unless adequate
safeguards are in place, then the
operations should be moved
somewhere else.”

TRIBUNE PHOTO—FRED WILSON

HENRY HIGHTOWER
United Way’s facts about inade-
quacy of GAIN rates speak for
themselves.

re ti |
: ee aga, Isf- t
90) LANDERDS
— cagrying

| = LEGAL

@ TENANTS: As landlords
push rents -up to profit |
from the housing crisis,
tenants take action to or-

ganize; and. MLAs are
asked about protective |
legislation, page 3.

@® COLD WAR: U.S. Con- |
gressman Ronald Dell-
ums denounces Carter's |
cold war program and |
military spending as |
“madness, hysteria andj 5
insanity,” page 7.

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