aabigeags a “Daw WOREP 7 hie” wer 4, e Pad Airport controversy By ALD. HARRY RANKIN City Council on May 18, 1976 recommended to Ottawa that a decision on expansion of Van- couver International Airport put off for two years. It should have recommended that the proposed expansion be scrapped. Those favoring the expansion include the federal government, the aircraft industry and of course all the contractors and other in- dustries that would benefit from government projects which are always good for a few extra per- centage points in profits. Those opposing it are citizens who live in the area and would be affected (the new runway would be within a mile of Vancouver); people and groups concerned with the environment (noise pollution, the harmful effects a runway built out into the sea could have on all the surrounding area); and all those, including me, who don’t see any need for or any sense in ex- panding the airport. One of the main reasons given — im COURTENAY — The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, meeting here in conference May 19, took a giant step forward on the issue of Indian land claims when they adopted a land claims action declaration setting out their demands on the emotion-charged issue. The declaration, when presented to the government, will contain a deadline for an answer on the demands contained in the paper. It was suggested the deadline be July 1 Dominion Day — or June 25, the 100th anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand. Both dates, it was suggested, were historic and had strong significance. The document outlines the principles of recognition of native title and aboriginal rights and provides the basis for districts, tribes and bands to state their specific claims in their traditional territories. It was stressed that the document was _ not designed to outline research material on the land claims issue — but for land claiinss action. : Winle the Socred government, shortly after its election, said it was going to consult the native peoples in discussions with Ottawa for a solution of the land claims issue, it has failed to do anything about the issue since. It has also bypassed the native peoples in talks with Ottawa on the issue. This has brought severe criticism of the provincial government from In- dian leaders. During the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs conference, which represents some 50,000 registered (status) Indians, it was stressed by speakers that in the past the issue of aboriginal rights and land claims had been presented as an obscure, legal issue that is not related to the present needs of Indian people. This presentation of the issue was rejected. Delegates were told that land claims are directly related to the everyday needs of housing, employment op- portunities and education. A successful land claim can provide Indian communities with the economic base to meet these needs. Delegates were told they must fight for recognition of native title and must fight to have native title and aboriginal rights put into practice. The Union’s three-man executive Press land claims issue was instructed to present the document to federal and provincial governments as the Indian’s position paper. The parley also agreed to hold workshops at three different locations to study the land claims issue, Indian Act changes, economic development, com- pensation, hunting and trapping rights as well as a proposal for an exclusive fishery for Indians. So MUCH FOR THE WAGE GUIDELINES! MW A TT Pp tpion VW New runway not needed for expansion is that of forecasts about the increases in air traffic that will occur in the next 10 to 20 years. The figures are dubious to say the least, and are discounted by experts;as well as laymen. Another reason given for ex- pansion is that if we don’t expand, the average four minute delay factor may be increased. So What? Do we have to spend another $20 million just so that businessmen will reach their destination five minutes later? Illustrating that we don’t need expansion is also the fact that planes are flying with a load factor of 63 per cent and don’t appear to be interested in evening out their loads so as to be near-full all the time. Again their main concern seems to be that it will in- ~ convenience a few businessmen. It seems to me that the ex- pansion of our airport right from the beginning has been carried through piecemeal and certainly without any view to economy or efficiency. We were told that the Arthur Lang Bridge for example, had to be built to expedite car traffic to and from the airport, and that the parking lot at the airport had to be expanded to handle the many more cars now coming to the airport. do much about it unless compel™® “there are clear indications t What we are seeing is really freeway philosophy at work. Hal the federal government been it terested in moving people saving money, it would have buill§ — rapid transit system from centre of the city to the airp That would have relieved traffic congestion and would h made travel a lot cheaper faster. City Council has now recd mended that such a rapid tram) system be built to the airp However our present Council, the ones before it, has ne distinguished itself as an expon® of rapid transit, so it is not likely’ to move by public opinion. In the meantime, however, W have to keep up the camp against airport expansion,-bec Ottawa intends to go ahead matter what the citizens of couver want. Preparation of site for the runway is under ac consideration right now and un a strong protest movement sto the runway site will be prep: while Ottawa pretends to? studying the matter some M& Our Ottawa politicians are no sneaky than some of the hol grown variety. ; Phone rates, B.C. Tel last week announced another boost in telephone rates to take effect on June 11 despite the huge profits made by the. utility company in the first quarter of 1976. A financial statement released one week before the latest rate boost showed that the U.S.-owned utility company’s profits had jumped 79 per cent compared with the same three months period the year before. : : This latest increase will mean another five to 20 cents per month added to the phone bills of B.C. customers, making them among the highest in Canada. Vancouver phone users face a 20 cents per month boost bringing their phone bill to $8.10 for a private line. The latest increase is the remainder of the amount applied for last March. The B.C. Tel ap- plication was granted by the Canadian Transport Commission after a hearing last fall at which strong pposition was voiced to the increase. At the time, the CTC _ March. profits up rolled back the increase by 2.3 cent because of the Anti-Infl Board guidelines. The latest crease granted by the CTC m that B.C. Tel has now been gral!” the full amount it asked for. It 4 means that the AIB has allow full increase to the utility c pany. ; It remains a mystery how Anti-Inflation Board could j granting B.C. Tel the full am of the increase it sought after’ utility company reported its ht increase in profits. But AIB di block the increase, the res that the public is saddled with phone rate boosts at a time B.C. Tel is reporting one of | sharpest rises in profits in © company’s history. : Instead. of granting the 1a" boost in rates the CTC should ordered B.C. Tel to roll back fr) and to give the publica refund) phone rates to return some of profits made from exorb charges in January, February ie SN TOM McEWEN Were the Pierre Elliot Trudeau government faced with a general cie¢tion now or in the near future, it would be faced witii the certainty of defeat. Scandal, arrogance, ministerial ineptitude, graft and corruption, lying and deceit : they've all taken the erstwhile sheen off the early charisma and transformed Trudeau and most, if not all, of his ministerial yes-men into persons totally remote from the great mass of the Canadian people, into shameless servitors of big monopoly capital. They have become power mad, literally drunk with power. Should one slip up in his stewardship as did a popular minister of finance in recent times, and have to step down to appease the rabble, he is promptly picked up by one or other of a powerful financial oligarchy to con- tinue his scheming against the basic interests of the people. his errors conveniently forgotten, and his services to his new bosses rated at top-notch price. Among other things this confirms the close affinity between the government in power and the monopoly plunderbund, which stands as a sinister invisible government behind the regime which the people fondly thought they had elected. The real power behind the throne! Today the time of parliament is largely taken up with PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 28, 1976—Page 2 ae scandal or rumors of scandal; long debates over the in terference with the due process of law as in the Quebec case in which a minister of the crown is alleged to have suggested to a trial judge to mitigate or withhold sen- tence. The courts as we have been taught are in- corruptible, but if sufficient finances and pull are available, a deal can always be arranged. Then there is the Lockheed aircraft deal involving billions of dollars of Canadian taxpayers’ money, in which a powerful U.S. monopoly was to build a dozen or more Orion planes to watch for non-existent subs in Canadian waters. Trudeau blandly insisted “NATO needs them badly,” with much more emphasis than he’ ever urged jobs, health facilities, better education standards, or shelter for the Canadian people. Like the present U.S. presidential merry-go-round of the Fords-Reagans et al,” Trudeau argues for ‘‘peace through strength,” if indeed a little more hypocritically. The ‘charisma’ of yesteryear has become the big stick against the Canadian people, - with an AIB club to drive the lesson home. Wage-and- price controls, with full emphasis on wages, and nothing but excuses on prices. 3 In the event of a general election, however, how does the situation stack up for any drastic change or possible betterment of the situation? As this scribe sees it, damn little if anv. Now we have a new Tory ‘charisma’ all set and rarin’ to go, with one Joe Clark, catapulted out of nowhere, with ambition to be prime minister but little else, now avidly preening his feathers for the fray. Shades of R. B. “Iron Heel’’ Bennett and all the Tory prime ministers before and since. Each of these tub- thumpers spoke of Canada as their particular preserve; ‘least be painfully obvious to all Canadians that each served the interests of a monopoly Mammon w! unexcelled devotion. Their differences with the Liber Social Credit or whatever were purely fictional. they were on the outside it was largely a deluge of & and when they were in office, they took their orders the same monopoly sources, as have the Kings, Pea St. Laurents and Trudeaus. It is a condition of econt freedom that Canadians should not be ruled Bb. authority which they cannot control, and it should no government in power, or one of Tory vintage, has ne the will or desire to effect any basic change in this r For a Trudeau in power or a Joe Clark itching to get a just society means one and the same thing, to le) monopoly free enterprise undisturbed in its robbery ‘) exploitation of the people. The only alternative W’ seem to be — socialism. Then you would hear © scream — while a new society was a-building! PACIFIC | # [ y Editor — MAURICE RUSH. Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN Business and Circulation Manager — MIKE GIDORA Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. 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