COPE mayoralty candidate Bruce Yorke ta
Petition opposing bus fare increases to B.C. Hydro o

With Yorke and Gordon are other COPE candidates (from left to right) Mike Wallach, Joe Arnaud, Debra

Lewis and Paul Murphy.

—Sean Griffin photo

Fare increase protested

cont'd from pg. 1
Wages were held to within the anti-
Inflation guideline of an eight per
Cent increase yet fares were going

Up 40 per cent.

Yorke was also critical of the
fact that Bonner was not present to
Teceive the petitions. ‘He has
4ssured us in writing that he will
Meet with a delegation from COPE
to discuss the fare increases, yet

TRIDENT |

cont'd from pg. 1
Providing a deterrent was not
Mvolved at all as the Trident base
Was not defensive but was a ‘“‘first-
Strike installation.” He likened the
Situation to that of the Vietnam
War when thelabor movement took
4 Stand demanding that Canadian
Complicity in the U.S. war be en-
ded. As with the Trident base,
Canadian involvement in Vietnam
Was primarily in the construction
and sale of materials to the U.S.
defence department.

It was learned some weeks ago
that Heede International had
Obtained the Trident contract,
Valued at $3.8 million, with the

rect assistance of a_ federal
town corporation, the Canadian

Ommercial Corporation, which

ad negotiated on Heede’s behalf
With the defence department. Since

‘at information was made public,

€ede’s Port Moody plant has been
he target of a number of picket
lines and leaflet distributions,
Mcluding one last month by
Members of the Japan Council
Against Atomic and Hydrogen

€apons who were in Vancouver
On part of a North American tour.
The campaign by the labor

™ovement to end Canadian in-

Volvement and profiteering from
he Trident base would not end
With Trudeau’s letter Baker said.
We're going to be keeping the
Pressure on as best we can, and I
Would hope to see the whole labor
Movement take up this question.”
Baker said that he had written to
‘New Westminster MP Stuart
€ggatt, who has been an out-
Spoken opponent of the Trident
base, and NDP national leader Ed
Toadbent asking them to pursue
he matter with Trudeau. He said
lat he had enclosed copies of
Tudeau’s letter to both.
“As well,’’ Baker said, ‘‘copies of
°ur correspondence with Trudeau
€ave been sent to both the B.C.
€deration of Labor and the
Canadian Labor Congress and this
Question of Canadian involvement
™ the Trident submarine project
Will be raised on the floor of the
C. Federation of Labor con-
Yention later this month.”

we have requested such ... a
meeting on five separate occasions
and he still has not met us,”’ Yorke
said. ‘We still want that meeting
and we still have a lot to say on this
matter.”

Another COPE aldermanic
candidate, Bruce Eriksen, vice-
president of the Downtown
Eastside Residents Association,
said that the fare increase is just
“the thin edge of the blade.
They’ve raised fares 40 per cent
now, and in a another couple of
months they’ll raise them another
40 or 50 per cent.

“Tm positive that fares will be
up around 65 cents by next summer
unless we hold the line on them
now. You wait and see what this

city will be like next summer.

Already the streets are clogged
with traffic and they'll bea hell of a
sight worse when the bus fares go
up.”’

Eriksen said that the people he
most frequently works with, the
residents of the city’s downtown
eastside, ‘“‘just do not have the
money to pay more to ride the
buses. This increase is just com-
pounding what is already hap-

pening to these people as they find
that there are no controls on their
rents or food costs, but certainly on
their incomes. I guess there are no
controls on government corpora-

tions either.”
COPE has also called for the

immediate convening of a public
hearing which would require
Hydro to ‘‘show cause why any
increase at all infares’’ be allowed
and said that an important part of
that hearing would be the right of
citizens’ delegations to appear and
be heard. ;

The COPE campaign against the
fare increases will continue, and
the civic party expects it become a
major issue in the November 17
elections. Part of the campaign
will be putting forward a number
of alternatives to Vancouver’s
present, inadequate transit
system, including the extension of
Park and Ride systems, and a
petition campaign designed to
bring pressure upon all levels of
government to begin immediately
planning for a “‘fast, efficient, and
cheap light rapid transit system
for the city of Vancouver and
immediate environs.”

‘councils,

Students at the University of

B.C. are conducting a letter

campaign directed at education
minister Pat McGeer in an effort to

‘Stave off probable tuition fee in-

creases for next year.

So far more than 3,000 UBC
students have mailed in letters
protesting any fee increase to the
Alma Mater Society, and student
organizers say that they expect the
total to exceed 7,000 by the end of
this week. The campaign was
launched in response to a letter
from McGeer which was mailed to
all. College councils around the
province as well as the Univer-
sities Council of B.C,

In his letter, McGeer warned the
which are the ad-
ministrative bodies of the
province’s community colleges,
that the provincial government
would probably be unable to in-
crease its operating grants to the
colleges for the upcoming year,
and advised colleges to examine
ways of cutting costs and
generating additional revenue.
Another point the education
minister made was that his
department was not allowing for
any increase in wages and salaries
in formulating this policy.

B.C. Student Federation in-
formation officer Karen Bryson
told the Tribune that the result of
the department of education’s
decision would ‘‘definitely be a fee
increase for college students at
least, and most probably
university students as well.’’
Bryson also pointed out that
McGeer’s letter was written after
he had assured the BCSF ‘that he
would not encourage college ad-
ministrations to increase tuition
fees, and would not interfere in the
setting of fees for next year.

“But that is precisely what he is
doing when he advises the colleges
to find additional sources of
revenue or increase the produc-
tivity of the faculty, simply

‘because there are no other sources

of revenue for the colleges and the
faculty are already. overextended
as it is. All his letter does is to
advise the colleges that they will
haveto increase fees because there

‘

Students oppose
m tuition fee hike

will be no extra money next year.”
David Theessen, president of the
Alma Mater Society at UBC, said
that the campaign at that campus
is “‘primarily educational at this
time. We won’t know what the
extent of any fee increase will be
until the Board of Governors meets
next March to make that decision,
but we want to. acquaint students
with the issue now o that they will
be able to express their opposition
before the fact and hopefully stop it
rather than wait for the fees to
increase and then respond.”’

Theessen said that the battle to
holdthe line on tuition fees will be a
major aspect in next week’s
National Student Day, set for
November 9. National Student Day
is a project of the National Union of
Students across the country and
will focus on the accessibility of
post-secondary education, in-
cluding the question of tuition fees.

The letter which UBC students
are mailing to McGeer urges him
to ‘‘ensure that the university is
given a satisfactory increase in
operating funds for the coming
year”’ and points out that already
the students at UBC are feeling the
effects of educational cutbacks in
the 1976-77 university budget.

The students also remind
McGeer that any substantial in-
crease in tuition fees will make the
cost of university prohibitive,
particularly in view of the high
unemployment rate among
students in B.C., and restrictions
which have been placed upon
student financial aid, both of which
are compounded by other costs
including the highest food costs in
Canada, and spiralling rents.

The letter continues: ‘...
unless the university is granted
adequate funds by the provincial
government, the university will be
forced to increase tuition fees next
year. Whether this increase is
many hundreds of dollars or none
atallrestswithyou .. .I urge you
to take the view that tuition fees
represent a personal commitment
on the part of the student, and not a
principal source of revenue for the
university.”

Demand pressed to transport ministry we

‘Renew subsidy to Northland’

Northland Navigation made
what will probably be its final
voyage up the B.C. coast this week,
ending a service to remote coastal
communities that goes back to 1912
but which now will be cut off for

-want of a federal subsidy.

Northland, which has provided
mail cargo and passenger service
to such communities as Bella
Bella, Kincolth, Alice Arm, Klemtu
and Massett since 1959, had
operated on a subsidy from the
federal government but its request
for a $4.5 million subsidy to con-
tinue the service through 1977 was
rejected by transport minister Otto
Lang.

Last minute negotiations to
provide continued service on a
limited basis were unsuccessful as
Northland said it could not accept
proposals that it operate only one
vessel out of Prince Rupert for five
months on a day-to-day subsidy.

The company has already sold
one of its three vessels and laid off
150 employees.

In making the initial an-
nouncement that the subsidy would

be withdrawn, Lang stated that the
decision was made only after

consultation with the provincial
government and local shipping
companies and insisted that ser-
vice to remote communitees would
not be reduced since non-
subsidized firms would be in a
better competitive position.

Both statements evoked anger
from trade unionists through the
province who stressed that any
communities would be left
stranded while many people who
depend on the service for em-
ployment would be left jobless.

The Pacific Coast Maritime
Council, made up of unions in the
maritime industries, responded in
a brief to Lang’s insistence that
consultation had been carried out,
noting that Lang had not consulted
with those most concerned — ‘‘the
people of the communities, the
unions whose members are
working in the service and Nor-
thland itself.

“Our council estimates that in
all, 300 workers directly engaged in
servicing those communities will
lose their jobs . . . We cannot but
insist that the subsidy to Northland
be maintained until such time as
volume. of traffic warrants

reconsideration,’’ the council’s
brief declared.

The demand for the continued
subsidy was echoed by delegates to
the Vancouver and District Labor
Council this week who reiterated
an earlier call for a maintenance of
the subsidy ‘‘until up-to-date
vessels can be built and operated
by the federal government.”

Delegates coupled the resolution
with endorsement of CBRT
delegate Tom McGrath’s motion
that the government remove
transport minister Otto Lang for
“his ignorance and arrogance and
lack of concern for the people of the
B.C. coast.”

McGrath, president of the
Seamen’s local of the CBRT many
of whose members are directly
affected by the discontinuation of
Northland’s service, was also
critical of the transport minister
for suggestions that alternative
service would be provided by other
companies.

“For example, what about the
mail.  service?’’ McGrath
demanded. ‘“‘The government
hasn’t said a damn thing about the

mail service to those com-
munities.”

The provision of alternative
service is of central concern to
residents in the many communities
scattered along the coastline, most
of which have no road access.

Statements made by RivTow, the
major coastal towing company,
indicated that it would move in to
provide freight service but the
prospects are dubious.

““Many of these communities are
small and the volume of cargo,
passenger and mail service is
small. We are certain no private
firm can or will service these
communities without a subsidy,”
the Pacific Coast Maritime Council
said of RivTow’s statements.

“What it comes down to is this,”
the council declared. ‘‘There is no ~
alternative service. These com-
munities must continue to be
serviced by the kind of service now
provided by Northland and that
service will have to be subsidized.

“They must not be left to the
mercy of air, truck or shipping
companies whose only concern is
profit.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 5, 1976—Page 3