The arrogance of the Socred
government seems. to know no
bounds.

Following the public uproar
which greeted Pat McGeer’s an-
houncement in December that all
Subsidies have been cancelled: and
that the public would have to pay
Sharply increased premiums,
Premier Bill Bennett promised on

3 January 2 that new rates would be

awn up which would ease the

, burden on motorists.

Tnstead of listening to the public,
the Socred cabinet has come up
with new exorbitant rates which
Sent shock waves across the
Province. Increases range as high

ote 48
aa

Friday, January 30, 1976

VOL. 38, No. 4

~

&& 31/2 times the rate in 1975.
ParticiWarly singled out for brutal
treatment are the young under 25.
An indication of how drastically
these new rates will affect working
people was given at the IWA
convention Monday when it was
pointed out that it will take a 40-
cent-an-hour wage increase to
cover the average IWA member's
auto insurance premium rise this
year.
Despite the statement of in-
surance actuary and director of
ICBC Byron Straight, that 1976
rates have been set higher than
necessary and are based on the
“most pessimistic” guess, both

McGeer and Bennett have taken
the adamant stand that there will
be no third look at the rates.
Straight’s public criticism of the
new ICBC rates should be enough
in itself to force the government to

EDITORIAL

reopen the whole question. But no.
The Socred government appears
determined to shove these exor-
bitant rates down the throats of the
public in the hope that they will
never again support the re-election
of an NDP government, as well as
to force up the rates in one year so
as to open the way for U.S. private

insurance companies to come into
B.C. on a profitable basis. Their
commitment to the private in-
surance lobby must be big indeed.
The tears shed Tuesday by
premier Bennett for the plight of
the under-25 year old car drivers
must be a new low in hypocrisy. He
said he was shocked by the high
premiums and urged ICBC to ease
the burden next year. It was his
government which rejected every
plan put forward which would have
enabled lower premiums this year.
It was his government which
adopted the option which was the
worst for the driving public.
In his report to the government

in December on the state of ICBC
and the alternatives before the
government, Straight outlined
three plans. Plan A, which would
have meant only a nominal in-
crease in premiums this year,
provided that revenues from the
gas tax and licence fees be used to
subsidize ICBC. This plan, which
the previous NDP government was
committed to this year, was
rejected outright by premier
Bennett and the government.
“There is no such thing as
something for nothing,” premier
Bennett said this week in an at-
tempt to justify the rate boost
See CANCEL, pg. 12

l5c_

1898-1976

Paul Robeson

The Tribune joins with
Millions throughout the world
who mourn the death of Paul
Robeson last Friday in
Philadelphia. Robeson was an
Outstanding world figure, un-

nding champion of human
dignity, a fighter for the
Working class, the best son of
the black people, and a superb
artist.

The working people of B.C.
d_a.close. relationship. with
this outstanding world figure.
His life often touched the
Struggles of B.C.’s workers.
en in the mid-fifties his
Passport was withdrawn by the
‘S. government and he was
Tefused permission to travel
aboard, the Mine, Mill and
Smelter Workers Union in B.C.
organized a giant rally at the

Peace Arch to hear Robeson
i nd speak.

This navy was one of the few

public appearances in North

America Robeson was able to

make during that period.
We lower our banners in his

memory. [See pg. 9]

ine protest against Autoplan
increases continued to gather
momemtum this week as 5,000
people who overflowed Surrey’s
Queen Elizabeth High School last
Sunday voted unanimously to
schedule a huge rally for February
1 in the PNE. Agrodome. '

Later this week, the B.C.
Federation of Labor together with
the New Westminster and Van-
couver Labor Councils, threw its

‘ weight behind the plans for the

huge rally.

Last Sunday’s meeting, the
largest meeting ever held in the
municipality of Surrey, made it
clear that they were not about to
accept the Socred decree that

ICBC rates will rise by amounts of
up to 300 per cent over 1975 car
insurance rates.

Jim Black, chairman of the
Concerned Citizens Committee for
Fair ICBC Rates, told the crowd
that the committee was ap-
proaching _the.. organized ...labor
movement to support a rally in
Vancouver, and that if following
that rally the Socred government
still refused to make any
meaningful changes to ICBC rates,
the committee was prepared to go
to Victoria to press their demands.

He introduced a resolution which
lambasted the Bennett cabinet for
acting “in a very undemocratic
manner by reaching a decision of

this magnitude (introducing such
exorbitant insurance rate in-
creases) with no reference to the
legislature or even to their own
party” and demanded that the
announced ICBC rate increases
‘“‘be- repealed and limited to 20 per
cent.over 1975 rates, along with a
subsidy from the gasoline tax.’
Current legislation allows for the
transfer of up to 10 cents tax per
gallon of gasoline to the provincial
insurance corporation. :
The rally also called upon the
B.C. Federation of Labor to make
the resolution available to ©
organized labor throughout the

See PROTEST, pg. 12

a
—Sean Griffin photo