Sititton COLUMEA —__.____ =

Phone deregulation

There is no doubt at all that the federal
government intends to deregulate the tele-
phone industry, just as soon as it feels it
can get away with it without massive pub-
lic protest.

Detailed plans have already been
worked out by the Mulroney government.
They include:

® Deregulating long distance calls, fora
Starter;

@ Privatizing Teleglobe;

@ A $1-million public campaign of lies,
deceit and trickery, to sell the idea of
deregulation to the public;

© Deregulation of the entire telecom-
munications industry.

The pressure to deregulate long distance
calls comes from CNCP, a sector of the
telecommunications industry jointly owned
by the CPR and CNR, but dominated by
the CPR. It wants to muscle in on the
highly lucrative long distance business
now monopolized by B.C. Telephone and
Bell Canada.

CNCP knows it can make a high rate of
profit even if it lowers rates for business
long distance calls, and this it has prom-
ised to do. By this means it is enlisting the
support of the business community.

The catch in this is that the two tele-
phone monopolies have also made clear
that if they have to share their long dis-
tance profits with CNCP, they will greatly
increase all rates to the general consumer.
In other words, the public will be com-
pelled to subsidize lower long distance
rates for business.

There will then be three corporate pigs

in the long distance trough, and ordinary
citizens will have to pay through the nose
to support these three corporate pigs in the
high-profit style of life to which they are
accustomed.

Teleglobe Canada is a Crown corpora-
tion that provides international communi-
cations services to all countries abroad,
except the United States. It is a highly
profitable Crown corporation that con-
tributes substantially to federal revenues.
Privatizing it would be the height of fiscal
irresponsiblity.

Yet that is just what the government is

Harry

Rankin

planning to do. It would be another
giveaway of public propery to private cor-
porate interests (just as was the sale of de
Havilland to Boeing of Seattle). It would
deprive Ottawa of much needed revenue
and destroy Canada’s control over a vital
link in the international communications
network.

Deregulating the entire telephone
industry would mean an _ enormous
increase in rates for consumers, and a cor-
responding increase in profits for the tele-
phone monopolies: Bell Canada and B.C.

— it'll show up

Telephone, both of which are American
owned. In the U.S., where deregulation
has already been put into effect by the
Reagan administration, rates have shot
up, doubling in Calfiornia and tripling ih
Texas.

Local Measured Service (LMS) will be
introduced once deregulation goes into
effect here, which means that consumers
will have to pay separately for every local
call they make on their own telephones.
The effect will be to greatly boost all our
telephone bills. For low income people it
will be devastating, as it will for citizens

and community groups that depend on
the telephone.

Knowing that there would be a mighty
nation-wide protest if the public knew the
real meaning of deregulation, the govern-
ment has devised a $1-million public
“information” campaign to deceive us —
a campaign that you and I will be paying
for. It was outlined in a special and secret
cabinet document last May.

It admits that deregulation will mean
“increased rates” that “‘will hit residential
users hardest, while big business users will

in your bill
benefit.”

It admits that low-income Canadians
will be adversely affected, but says that
measures to deal with this “would be deve-
loped within the industry without recourse
to taxes or government revenues.”

It warns that “since consumers, small
business and provinces will join the fight”
against deregulation, “the government
must prevent at all costs the formation of a
common front of these groups because a
common front would create the biggest
threat to the government’s ability to man-
age the change.”

It warns that the government must see
to it that the public debate must be
“focused on rate restructuring,” and that
“it must not focus on the American expe-
rience.”

It proposes that the argument to be
used to sell the idea to Canadians should
be that “only competition would ensure
that rates were based on costs” and that
deregulation would increase “the rate of
job creation” and “contribute to Canada’s
economic growth.” What a pack of lies!

The only true statement in this docu-
ment is that acommon front of consumers
could defeat government plans to deregu-
late the communications industry. That is
exactly what we must do: bring together
all concerned groups into one mighty coa-
lition that will convince Mulroney that he
better forget it if he and his govenrment
want to survive politically.

This is a campaign that we should all get
into, with the trade union movement act-
ing as a catalyst.

Canada-USSR Assoc.
AGM set for Jan. 5

Hi HOUUUUUEREEEAEEAUECUUUAA REE EEA LA EGAN

The Vancouver branch of the Canada-
USSR Friendship Association has set the

Crisis grants not
| repayable — JOIN

annual general meeting for Jan. 5, 11 a.m. at Even if the Ministry of Human Resources Earlier, End Legislated Poverty, a coali-

: Season’s Greetings
and
Best Wishes
for the
New Year
_ to all our friends
and supporters =

CUUEUEAEUCUCECCLL CUE LEU EEA ETAT

the Hastings Community Centre.

The branch was placed under trusteeship
by the national executive last month, but
branch spokesman Rod Doran said the
local leadership “thas received legal opinion
that there is no basis in law or constitution
of the association for the trusteeship.”

He said the “duly elected executive” has
the authority to conduct the affairs of the
branch, including calling annual meetings.
January’s AGM will receive nominations
for, and elect, branch officers and executive,
he announced.

Doran said the meeting will hear “several
prominent speakers who have made out-
standing contributions to developing better

- understanding and friendly relations between

Canada and the USSR.” Among those
scheduled to address the meeting is Van-
couver alderman Harry Rankin.

The branch is urging all members to
attend.

2066 Parker Street, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 215

Season’s Greetings from COPE

... working to make Vancouver :
a better place for working people

is supplying inadequate funding for GAIN
recipients during the holiday season, crisis
grants are available for all recipients.

That’s the advice of Jobs or Income Now
(JOIN), a coalition of unemployed workers
campaigning for increased welfare and
Unemployment Insurance rates and full
employment.

Crisis grants are available to anyone who
can show need and these are non-repayable.
But the ministry often deducts the amount
from the recipients’ subsequent monthly
cheques, the coalition charges.

That practice is “totally inhumane,” said
Sue Harris of the Downtown Eastside Resi-
dents Association.

“Unless the recipient knows what the cri-
sis grant is — and how many do know all
the regulations of MHR — they’ll be intim-
idated into paying it back,” she said.

Such a practice is “against the philosophy
and policy governing crisis grants,” said
Harris.

tion of church and community groups, -
urged GAIN recipients to apply for crisis 2
grants during the Christmas season. The —
group has been pressing Human Resources ~

Minister Grace McCarthy to add $100 to
each single recipients’ cheque, and $60 for
each dependent during the season.

ELP argues that the five-week wait

JOIN is sponsoring a “training day” f |
potential welfare advocates at the Maritime
Labor Centre at 111 Victoria Dr., Dec. 19-

The action centre and DERA are offering
assistance to GAIN recipients. DERA can
be reached at 682-0931.

\

To all my friends and supporters,

All the very best to you and your family
this holiday season and in 1986.

Sue Harris, Parks C. ommissioner ( Vancouver)

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 18, 1985