PUBLIC OUTRAGED

OVER FARE BOOST

Demand Premier Bennett cancei hike

A wave of public indignation followed the announcement from the Public
Utilities Commission Monday that bus fares in Vancouver and Victoria will be
boosted to 20 cents cash for a single*ride. The announcement was met imme-
diately by a strong demand from many quarters that Premier Bennett and his
cabinet cancel the hike and set up a special legislative committee at the
coming legislative session in January to probe the transit crisis in B.C.’s

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1964
VOL. 25, NO. 51

MILITIAWOMAN OF VIETNAM DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. The South Vietnamese
Woman above is symbolic of the heroic struggle waged by the people to throw
Off the yoke of the U.S. and puppet regime in the strife-torn country. Heavy
fighting between U.S.-led puppet troops and liberation forces continued this
Week and there are growing reports that the five-week old Huong government
May topple at any time. Meanwhile, the threat of U.S. action to spread the war
to Laos and North Vietnam grows daily. (See page 7).

Labor

The B,C, Federation has urged

the provincial government to un-.

dertake a series of measures

designed to curb the power and.

influence of monopoly inB,C, The

demand was made in the federa-.

tion’s brief to the cabinet, pre-
Sented last Monday,

The submission-advocated:
® Public ownership of forests,

® Taking over of the telephone
Monopoly,

* A government auto insurance
Scheme,

* Scrapping of existing anti-
labor legislation,

The Federation's position on
Natural resources was sharp and
Clear, « All development and ex-
Ploitation of resources should be

main population centres.

Timed to come immediately
after the civic elections were out
of the way so as to avoid public
debate on the transit issue, the
Public Utilities Commission an-
nouncement that fares would go
up Jan, 1 was immediately con-
demned by civic and business
leaders, community, PTA and
labor organizations, senior citi-
zens’ groups and political lead-
ers,

In Vancouver Mayor Rathie an-
nounced that a meeting of mayors
and reeves would meet Wednes-
day and he indicated that they will
likely appeal to either the pro-
vincial cabinet or the B,C, Appeal
Court.

Meeting Tuesday night the Van-
couver Labor Council. unani-
mously endorsed a recommenda-
tion from its executive calling for
unqualified support to the muni-
cipalities in opposing the fare
hike, Speaking on the resolution,
council secretary Paddy Neale
and Amalgamated Transit Union
delegate Charles Stewart ex-
pressed the feeling of delegates,

Neale said: “The only answer
is to subsidize transit out of
power revenues. Experience
shows that increased fares mean
less riders, What is needed is
lower fares ina subsidized, mass
rapid transit system.” Stewart
said the proposed increase will
still leave the transit system with
a deficit, simply because public
transit is a service and not a
money-making proposition,

In Vancouver, the president of
the Central Council of Rate-
payers, Harry Rankin, said: “We

advocate subsidized rapid tran-
sit and these increases go in the
opposite direction, It will result
in the vicious circle ofincreased
fares, reduction of passengers,
reduction in service, loss of
revenue, then more increased
fares,”

NDP provincial leader Robert
Strachan, who opposed the boost
at the PUC hearing, said: “It
will only mean more cars in the
downtown areas” and “will give
more problems to municipali-
ties,”

B.C, Communist Party leader
Nigel Morgan put the responsi-
bility for the increase squarely
on the doorstep of-:the Bennett
government, In a statement to

PADDY NEALE, Vancouver Labor
Council secretary, who told the coun-
cil meeting Tuesday night the only
answer to the transit crisis is for the
bus system to be subsidized by power
revenues.

the PT Morgan said: “The Ben-
nett government first separated
the transit, electric and natural
gas operation of B,C, Hydro into
separate bookkeeping entities to
lay the basis for fare increases.

“Then they directed Hydro to
apply for increases ranging all
the way up to 122 per cent in
some cases, And finally, having
appointed the PUC and having set
the rules for its operation, they
are now trying to sit back and
Say: ‘What can we do? The PUC
ordered the fare boost.’

“This increase has got to be
blocked, It should be withheld
at least until a special legislative
committee can be struck off at
the coming session in January
to examine the acute transit
crisis in the metropolitan areas
where 70 per cent of the people
live.”

Morgan said the legislature
should reverse last June’s cabin-
et decision separating Hydro’s
transit operations from the highly
profitable electric and natural
gas divisions. “If this were
done,” said Morgan, “the transit
system could be maintained with-
out the fare boost; services could
be improved, and rapid transit
introduced which would substan-
tially increase transit revenues
and eliminate the extremely cost-
ly provisions for increased auto
traffic.”

Morgan urged delegations to
city and municipal councils call-
ing on them to press Victoria to
act. “Resolutions, petitions, let-
ters, phone calls toaldermenand
MLA’s are needed to get action
before it is too late,” he said.

brief urges monopoly takeover

carried out under the direct.

supervision of the (provincial)
government, The pracitce of un-
controlled alienation must end...

“We urge ... that a publicly
owned corporation be established
to develop our forests for the
benefit of all the people,” the
brief stated, No more tree farm
licences should be issued, all

presently held licences shouldbe.

reviewed, and those held by
“monopolistic corporations with
little regard for the welfare of
the people” should be withdrawn,

It pointed out that MacMillan
Bloedel & Powell River “is now
as big, or even bigger, than the
government itself, ,..The emer-
gence of such vast corporate
monopoly in any society is not a
healthy situation,”

The federation spoke out equal-

ly strongly on the important ques-
tion of preserving and fostering ,
B.C,’s fishing industry, Stating
that labor “is not satisfied that
the government has shown suf-
ficient concern for the protec+
tion” of the fishing industry, it
called for the following six-point
program to be implemented:

(5) More money for research,

(6) A 12-mile territorial limit

from headland to headland which —

would eliminate all so-called
“historic fishing rights of other
nations,”

On taking over the telephone

’ monopoly, the federation pointed

(1) All nations fishing in the
North Pacific must be included
in the Norpac Fisheries Treaty,

(2) All signatories tothe treaty
must agree to limit their in-
shore, offshore and mid-ocean
catches, and abolish mid-ocean
salmon fishing,

(3) Nursery areas must be set
aside,

(4) No mother or factory ships
must be allowed to fish within our
continental shelf,

out that “our telephone rates are
the highest in Canada” and this
situation was not likely to change
while monopoly interests con-
tinue to be at the helm of this
vital public service, The answer
lies in bringing “all telephone
services in the province under
public ownership,”

The brief opened with some
stinging remarks on existing
labor legislation in the province
and stated the labor movement's
patience is “being severely
strained” and that “intimidation

of workers by employers has be-
come a characteristic of life”
in B,C,

The Canadian Manufacturers
Association and other manage-
ment groups, operating under the
protection of Bills 42, 43 and
other vicious anti-labor Statutes,
are apparently determined to
decimate the labor movement,

“Under these circumstances,
the government's promotion of
Labor Management Conferences
is an exercise in futility, Con-
sidering the continued attacks
upon our freedoms and rights,
we do not know how much longer
we can continue to support these
endeavors,”

Demands were then enunciated
which would guarantee workers
the right to organize. to bargain

See LABOR, pg. 3