i di Lt bald B.C. Electric annual report shows huge profits in 1960 By TRADE UNION RESEARCH The annual report of the B.C. Electric Company Limited presents an interesting is pricing who out of the market. answer te the question who The report, just released, shows total revenues for 1960 of $105,500,000, of which $39,- 100,,000 was paid out for wages and materials and $66,400,000 was shared by the tax collector. the bondholders and the share- holders. In the past five years, there have been increases in bus fare and in electric rates, and a price established for ‘natural gas which consumers argued at the time, was out of all rea- son. All of these increases were supposedly based on cost increases and approved by the Public Utilities Commission. - During those five years, the company’s output increased as follows: Electricity sold_53 percent Gas soid__.__315 percent Passengers carried down 17 per cent Despite the small reduction in transit passengers, the over- all picture is or a striking in- crease in output with only eight percent more employees. In terms of money, the total wage bill increased 13 percent (or five percent per worker) while total revenues incrased 64 percent. If we express the revenues and costs in per employee terms, we can easily see what has happened: output by more than $2,000 during this five-year period. The B.C. Electric would maintain, no doubt, that the figure of $6,723 in profit per: employee is exaggerated since it includes ‘‘taxes’”. However, as Premier Bennett has re- cently discovered, the payment. of taxes by the B.C. Electric) ~~ is a highly theoretical proposi- tion. The operating statement shows “taxes on income” of $12,370,469, but a footnote dis- closes that the company evad-} ed payment of $8,470,000 of this amount by padding its de-} preciation account, The same. procedure has been followed in every year since 1951, re- {Maas ew OOM Pro OPP CLOW Te 8 le 6) pom!) PU) Om tC Bm AWE OnE Se Or) . ee Rie 2 yy? < EXENRT — PORT | This cartoon depicts Diefenbaker, Fleming, Frost of On ' Revenue Per Employee Increase | sulting in a total tax “defer- 1955 1960 ment” of $44,000,000. tario and. big business singing their theme song. Premier $33,260 $20,323 $7,063 Perhaps all companies are| Bennett could well join this motley crew after the session Wages and fringe benefits.. 4.455 4,681 226 |not as money-hungry as the) of the legislature which ended last week. Material costs ----------- . 1481 2.851 1,370 | B.C. Electric, but certainly for —4 Interest to bondholders... 1,015 3.159 2,144 Ge SUPE it is obvious that “Depreciation” _-:-------- 1,699 2.909 1,210 | if there has been any increase U. S. -U. K Di t t S t Sak See 4,600 6,723 2,123 in “cost” the demands of IS or ovie “. Profit before tax The company, in short, has increased its revenues per em- pleyee by over $7,000, which wages and fringe bene- of fits accounted for only $226, while’ the bondholders and shareholders each increased their share of each worker’s bondholders and shareholders were each responsible for at least ten times as much of it as the picayune increase in wages. Ask Sanctions Against South Africa; Trade Mission Coming To Canada A South African trade mission will visit Canada in April and Mey to seek ways and means of increasing trade. This announced last week by was the South African Government information serv- ice. According to the announce- TRADE WITH CHINA URGED BY SURREY CANDIDATE SELMAR BEAN WHALLEY — Over 100 unemployed packed the Moose Hall here last Friday to hear candidates in the coming civic by-election pre- sent their proposals. for tackling the jobless situa- tion. Selmer Bean, candidate for the municipal council, told the meeting that more jobs would be created by opening up trade with Peo- ples China. Qne seat for council and the reeveship position are’ being contested in the cur- rent by-election. Bean is a prominent trade unionist and active community work- er. — , ment the mission will be in Ottawa April 20-25; Montreal April 25-27; Toronto April ‘1 and Vancouver May 1-3. Meanwhile at the United tions against South Africa. closure of all ports to all South African ships; preven- entering South African ports; boycott of South African all aircraft belong to South African government and com- panies registered under tal, telegraphic, radio and other means of communicatin 27-30; Winnipeg April 30-May. | Nations, Ghana delegate. Quai- Geneve conference. son-Sackey, last week put for- ward a six-point plan for sanc- | Many | would not comment on | The six-point plan called for p ibe breaking diplomotic relations; goods; refusal of facilities to its laws; interruptions of air, pos- Nuclear Test With indecent haste the daily press has rushed into print to declare that prospects aré’ “dim” for the current talks in Geneva aimed at ef- fecting a ban on nuclear wea- pons tests. Because the Soviet Union advanced one new proposal on the composition of the control organization, and because it did not immediately endorse a number of modifications in the position of the United States and Britain, the correspondent of the New York Times was led to conclude that the Soviet Union. had cast “serious doubts” on the future of the What the Soviet delegate, Semyon Tsarapkin, did say, was: “There seems to be too. “ifs”. Beyond that, he West’s new proposals. He did, however, draw at- tention to the fact that France | had carried through a number of muclear tests despite an agreed halt to such tests by the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union, and despite a United Nations General Assembly resolution ‘calling for a halt to all tests. It seemed, said Tsarapkin, that the U.S. and Britain, by “spinning out the conference,” had given France the time to carry out her tests by ‘‘a kind of division of labor.” — | with the Union. Changes in the Western pro- April 7, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page ° Proposals posals included a U.S. agree ment to let Soviet scientists : in spect all nuclear devices to be. used in- U.S. seismic researe! programs. But legislation for this would. have to be asked, of the U.S. Congress. The West asked the soviet Union to allow similar inspe@ tion of their own devices aB& to join in a joint seismic 7 search program. Along wit this, the West proposed three-year minimum on small underground explosions. Pf viously the West had propos | a two-year moratorium while the Soviet Union had prope ed a four to five-year one- The’ West. said it was PE pared to, grant. the sovie Union a total of 20 annual # spections of suspicious seismie. events on U.S. soil and an ad ditional 20 on British territo™ ies. It had previously sugs® ed 20 inspections on soviet territory and 20 to be divide. between the two Western pow ers. The Soviet riage last a proposed three inspectious °, Soviet territory. It claim that three inspections P% year, to be carried out ynco? ditionally, would be sutficie® and that the Western propos. for 20 would honeycomb ‘ Soviet Union with inspect” of empowered to carry out : aest vestigations on the wW# fo! ] seale and could be used spying purposes.