‘Cut from social services’

_ By ALD. HARRY RANKIN
Evan Wolfe, the provincial
Minister of finance, has gleefully
“Mnounced that the provincial
8overnment had a surplus of $213.7
Mhillion at the end of the last fiscal
Year. Personally I don’t think that
‘this is anything to crow about; the
-80vernment should be ashamed of
the means used to create this
‘Surplus.
; The surplus was created by
fastic cuts in services essential to
the people of British Columbia.
One of the most obvious was the,
‘Cutbacks in hospital grants, which
forced hospitals to cut staff and
teduce care facilities.

~ A second means of achieving the
Surplus was to cut back substantial-
Y on the government’s share of
ducation costs. This was done by
Mposing a continually increasing
ic mill rate on homeowners, plus
forcing school boards to pay all the
‘SO-called ‘‘extras’’, all of them
*ssential but not within the govern-
Ment’s definition of basic needs.
Then we all remember how Bill
ander Zalm, when he was Minister
Of Human Resources, cut back
‘Welfare and in one year alone saved
© government over $100 million,
at the expense of the poor and the
oyattutey the handicapped and the

Why all these cutbacks? To save
Money for the people? To reduce
taxes? Not on your life!

The government already has
ans for the disposition of the
Surpluses it is accumulating by cut-

ting Services to people.

One is to build a $50 million
ridge across the Fraser River to
nacis Island. What many people
May not know is that this whole
and is owned by one family, the
Wealthy British Grosvenor family,
Which bought it in 1950 at a very
©W price and developed it as a
Private industrial park, and a very
Profitable one too.
Ow the citizens of British Col-

Provincial surplus
allocated for rich

umbia, if the provincial government
has its way, will pay to build a
bridge to this privately owned in-
dustrial park, a bridge that should
be built and paid for by the family
corporation that’s raking in all the
benefits. Z

Then there’s the projected $250
million new highway from Hope to
Merritt. Why all this money for one
short highway? Is this being done
for the benefit of the residents?

The answer, of course, is that a
whole number of new mines are be-
ing developed in that area. They are
owned by big corporations, many

'of them foreign controlled. They

want a shorter route to the coast.
And again the people of British
Columbia are being asked to foot
the bill.

What is happening in B.C. is that

under the guise of restraint, cut —

backs are being made in all sorts of
services to people. The savings are
then diverted to services to the big
corporations.

Is that surprising? It shouldn’t
be. What, after all, is the role of the
Provincial government in a society
such as ours? Isn’t it to take from
the people and give to the big cor-
porations? And isn’t that what it’s
doing?

The ‘‘free enterprisers’’ like to
scream about the virtues of working
hard for your money (at any wages
offered), about the adverse effects
of government interference in the
economy (whenever the government
imposes even the mildest restric-

tions on them), and about the need —
to cut the ‘‘lazy bums”’ off welfare .

and unemployment insurance.

But these corporate bums are the
first ones to stand in line with their
hands out when the government
distributes: its° surplus. They hate
socialism for the poor, but they sure
like the socialism for the rich prac-
ticed by the present B.C. govern-
ment. Which is why they put it
there, of course.

Chilean consul’s role

| ___ Continued from page 1
; and development department head,
4 Z Maeno. Maeno urged the
. ieee committee to release the
| Nd because Hydro’s real estate
1; Columbia: Estate Company,
“Ose president is Hydro chairman
“de ert Bonner, would participate
Hye’ development of the land.
alte 0’s interests were also looked
Hew; by Socred minister Jim
me tt, a director of Hydro, and a
| ~“Mber of the cabinet committee.
| vin Ording to Vancouver Pro-
ia columnist Allen Garr, Hydro
Glo Previously made a deal with
o. Ucester that if the land was suc-
it fully released from the reserve,
Would swap some nearby land
fb Hydro, but still in the
| Gy €, for an equal amount of
5 eff Ucester’s land. Hydro would, in
With ‘develop agricultural land
|, Out becoming involved in the
= lang OversY of attempting to have
| y,. taken out of the reserve.
i ane has ended up right in the
tee of the controversy,
dent Yer, and has been caught in a
‘te. © manipulate, rather than pro-
€ public interest. :
Canadians for Democracy in

“©, a Vancouver based solidarity ©
» this week questioned the role.
uin Grubner, the Chilcan

inland deal questioned

consul, in the land deal. Committee
spokesperson John Radosevic said
that Grubner’s financial dealings in
B.C. are questionable because he is
an official agent of the fascist
junta.

The suggestion in news reports

that Chilean money may be involv-
ed in Gloucester Properties 1s

reason enough for the provincial »

government to suspend the decision
and have an investigation, he said.

“Losing farmjand is bad enough,
but it apears that our loss may be
the junta’s gain,” Radosevic said.
“The junta has no business in
Canadian affairs, and neither does
its agent.”

Grubner’s company bought the

626 acres in 1971 for $3.2 million. It.

plans to sub-divide the property,

have it re-zoned industrial and sell it~

in acre lots. Loretto estimates that
the land will sell for about $75,000
per acres, which would net
Gloucester a possible profit of $3.1
million — a 100 percent capital gain
without making any improvements
to the property. ;

Not including Gloucester's pro-
perty, there are 5,928 acres of land
in the upper Fraser Valley

3,875 acres remain vacant.

/—— PROVINCIAL NOTES

Citizens walk
out of forest

advisory cttee.

QUEEN CHARLOTTE CITY —
Public members of the Queen
Charlottes Public Advisory Com-
mittee voted Sept. 9 to disband their
committee, ‘‘disgusted’’ by the
stonewalling tactics of forest com-
pany representatives.

The committee, set up as a vehi-
cle for communication between the
public and the B.C. Forest Service,
was ‘‘just too polarized,’’ accor-
ding to Gary Edenshaw, prominent
Haida spokesman and ex-
committee member.

Edenshaw charged that the com-
pany representatives voted con-
sistently in the interests of the big
logging companies. ““These guys, 5
from Rayonier, have been sitting on
the committee all along offering vir-
tually nothing in the way of a policy
and voting against anything that
may suggest a tree might be left
standing,’’ he said.

One motion by committee mem-

‘| ber Paul George to place a morator-

ium on handlogging of the South
Moresby area while under review by
the South Moresby Task Force fail-
ed 6-5, while the subsequent motion
opposing the moratorium passed
6-5. It was the final straw. ‘‘At the
last motion it became obvious that
we were all wasting our time,”’ said
Edenshaw.

Disagreements over treee farm
forest licences, allowable annual
cuts, environmental concerns, over-
cut and operability plagued the
committee since its inception. ‘‘The
company representatives were con-
tinually in conflict of interest,’’
George stated.

The recommendations coming
out of PAC were not listened to by
the B.C. Forest Service, according
to the chairman. ‘‘As the issues
became more controversial, less at-
tention was paid by the Forest _Ser-
vice,’’ he said, and the sources of
information ‘‘dried up’? when PAC
got closer to the ‘‘real’’ forestry
issues.

At their last meeting, PAC
received a letter from the minister
of forests telling them they ‘‘could
not participate in the renewal of any
upcoming tree farm _licences,’’
Edenshaw said.

“The public members of the
committee came to the clear realiza-
tion that we were set up as an illu-
sion of public participation, so we
voted to disband,’’ he added.

Budget surplus
linked to hike

in income taxes

VICTORIA The much
vaunted surplus in the Socred
budget was due in large part to the
23 percent increase realized from
personal income taxes, Dave

designated for industrial use, and

Aly oe

TELKWA — The Save the Bulkley Committee, a coalition of en-
vironmental groups in the Northwest erected this sign at the con-
fluence of the Telkwa and Bulkley Rivers as part of the campaign
to halt the proposed Kemano Il dam. The project, sought by
Alcan, would reduce substantially the flow of three rivers as well

as flooding several thousand acres.

Stupich, NDP opposition finance
critic said Monday.

Undeterred by the fact that the
total personal income of British
Columbians “‘stood virtually still
last year,’’ the provincial govern-
ment ‘‘took a huge increase out of
the population in personal income
taxes,’’ Stupich said.

He went on to explain how the
9.4 percent increase in the total per-

sonal income of the population had

been all but wiped out by an 8.1
percent inflation rate and a 1.5 in-
crease of new residents in the pro-
vince. It was under these conditions
that B.C. residents had to dish out
more money in personal income
taxes.

Stupich pointed out that hospital
cutbacks, mortgage foreclosures
and the failure of the government to
start a comprehensive Denticare
program and rapid transit *‘co-
exists with all the publicity about
surpluses.” 33 ooo

“Tf times are so good under the
Socreds, why are most people worse
off?’’ he asked.

Vernon labor

backs Nilsson

VERNON — ‘‘Civic democracy
and open government’’ will set the
stage for Vernon’s upcoming
municipal elections, according to
Bert Nilsson, secretary-treasurer of
the Vernon Labor Council.

Nilsson, who narrowly missed
election last time, will be running
for alderman a second time with the
endorsement of the Labor Council.

STH past
undemocratic way of doing
municipal business was the main
reason why Vernon citizens were
prepared to pay a Vancouver firm
the sum of $18,000 to make an in-
quiry into city hall,’’ Nilsson said.
The report they produced was
“critical” of the city administrator

council’s .

—Hal Griffin photo

and ‘‘the leadership given by the
council,’’ he added.

Nilsson feels that this issue as well
as the controversial issue of
urainium mining will make this elec-
tion a ‘‘lively one for Vernon.”’

Rupert cannery
workers hard
hit by UI cuts

PRINCE RUPERT — The bitter
forecasts about the new unemploy-

_Mment insurance regulations hitting

seasonal workers first and hardest,
has come true for hundreds of
unemployed fishing industry
workers in Prince Rupert. Due to
the stiffer requirements they have to
meet, the majority of cannery
workers are not eligible to collect
unemployment insurance benefits.
Of the 151° shoreworkers
employed at Canadian Fishing’

Co.’s Oceanside plant, thrée> —

employees were eligible to collect
benefits when 'flie plant closed down
abruptly at the end of August. Emi-
ly Brown, a top seniority cannery
worker, is still ‘one week short of the
16 weeks of insurable employment
she needs to qualify for benefits.
Other plants such as Cassiar’s
Prince Rupert plant, B.C. Packers’
Port Edward and Seal Cove plants
have closed down most of their
operations, except for maintenance

. work and a little canning.

Most of their employees won’t be
able to scrape together the
minimum 20 weeks of insured earn-
ings they will need to qualify for
benefits, that is if they didn’t collect
benefits last year. If they did receive
benefits last year, they will have to
match every week that they received
then with a week of insurable work
(20 hours a week) this year, up to a
minimum of 16 weeks.

Brown managed to get 12 weeks
of work at Oceanside, and like
many other shoreworkers, did
janitorial work at the plant for as
long as she could in the hopes of
qualifying. She worked an adci-

.' tional three weeks but still needed

ae :

DUNCAN — B.C. Federation of Labor unemployment committee
coordinator Bill Dennison brought the Federation’‘s travelling in-
formation van on unemployment insurance to Duncan last week
after two days in Victoria. The Federation information campaign
is aimed at educating claimants and the public of their rights and
(warning them against usual pitfalls in applying for UI.

another week.

An expected 2,300 are expected
to register for employment with the
local Prince Rupert Manpower of-
fice in the next two weeks, but with
a 30-35 percent unemployment rate,
work prospects are grim.

Earlier this year, Prince Rupert }
shoreworkers formed a salmon ex- |
port committee protesting the loss
of jobs caused by the growing quan-
tities of unprocessed fish sent
abroad. They staged demonstra-
tions and rallies, earlier this year
and made representation to the new
federal fisheries minister James
McGrath. :

Prince Rupert fishing industry
workers are planning a rally Oct. 11
to coincide with the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor’s Vancouver rally
protesting the federal government’s
new UIC regulations. -

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 12, 1979—Page 3-