EDITORIAL Rate relief — for whom? B.C. Telephone Company’s application for yet another hike in its telephone rates — an application filed only a week after the U.S.-owned monopoly reported record profits for 1983 — should lay to rest any idea that the corporate sector in the province is going to restrain itself in its demand for profits. More than anything, it emphasizes what we have been saying in these pages for a decade and more — as long as this company remains in private hands, the applications for rate increases and its quest for a yet higher return on investment will be endless. In mid-January, while workers in this province were enduring wage increases that have averaged only three per cent, B.C. Tel announced that its profits were the highest ever in its history — $86.2 million, up 19.4 per cent over the previous year. That was in spite of a ruling by the Canada-Radio television and Telecommunica- tions Commission last June reducing B.C. Tel’s increase from 11.4 per cent to three per cent. Share earnings went up to an all-time high of $2.36 per share, which, for the coupon clippers, works out to a rate of return on investment of 11.8 per cent. Even that is not enough for B.C. Tel. In its applica- tion, it insists that it must now seek “rate relief” to increase its rate of return on investment to 13.5 percent. Rate relief! That statement must have telephone users all over the province shaking their heads. For they are the ones burdened with among the highest telephone rates in the country. And now they are expected to pay even more Action now The 1982 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment noted in its Declaration (Principle 21): “States have, in accordance with the Charter of the UN and the principles of international law. . the responsibil- ity to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states or of areas beyond the limits of national Other international agreements support that. In 1979 Canada, the U.S. and 32 European countries recog- "nized the need to deal with sulphur pollution, and signed the Economic Commission for Europe agree- ment on long-range transboundary air pollution. At a June, 1982, Stockholm conference on the Acidification of the Environment, need was seen (by European, Can- adian and U.S. governments) for strong control mea- sures. In June 1983, seven European countries and Canada endorsed a decision to cut sulphur dioxide (S02) emissions by an initial 30 per cent by 1993. (Acid rain is formed when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen-oxide com- bine with water vapor in the atmosphere and fall to earth.) The Canadian government was “deeply disap- pointed”, it said in a statement issued at the embassy in in order to boost the profits for the corporate share- holders of B.C. Tel — the chief one of which is the U.S. multinational telecommunications giant, General Tele- phone and Electronics. At the same time, there will be restraint at B.C. Tel. The company, in its application to the CRTC, com- plains of falling revenues and states that it will “restrain its Operating costs and capital program to the minimal level required to maintain the quality of its service.” For a monopoly whose service has already earned numerous rebukes from CRTC panels, that can only mean even more deterioration of service, longer waits for installa- tion and fewer customer services. As for Premier. Bennett’s so-called “profit-led recovery” — where is it? There is indeed a 19.4 per cent increase in profit, but there are no expansion plans, no new jobs. There is only B.C. Tel’s talk of restraining its operating costs — and making us pay increased rates so that profits can be made more attractive to the owners in New York. There is absolutely no justification for the six per cent hike in phone rates sought by B.C. Tel. The CRTC, far from acceding to the request, should move instead to roll back the increase granted in June — and give all stees subscribers in B.C. rate relief that is genuinely needed. But that should only be the beginning. The time is long over due for this U.S.-owned monopoly to be brought under public ownership. on acid rain Washington, at Reagan’s refusal in his State of the Union address to shoulder any responsibility in the acid rain crisis. As a decoy, he set aside a paltry $120-million for 1985 for “research”, protecting the monopoly inter- ests from having to clean up their pollution (That com- pares with a proposed $305-billion for the military.) Environment Minister Caccia called it “a serious setback for Canada. , : “From our point of view there is enough evidence now to take action,” he said. The “research” is already on hand in Ontario, where 4,000 lakes have been killed to the extent that they cannot support trout or bass; it is present in Quebec where 1,300 lakes are in the process of being destroyed; it’s seen in Nova Scotia where nine rivers used as spawn- ing grounds by Atlantic salmon no longer teem with fish during the spring. Canada’s environment ministry estimates that without U.S. action, 48,000 Canadian lakes will be dead by the end of the century. It’s time for the Canadian people to demand of their government the hard line that’s needed to halt Reagan’s noxious breath by whatever restrictive measures can be taken against the U.S. - equipment — Northern Telecom — 55% owned by Bell Canada: THOSE CAVAD IANS AKC ALWAYS va pple ABST ACID Rpyaj om EOOKS: “EO Fe.) jigs THose FISH Are ‘4 VIGHINS OF SON ~ CT rok Your very own telephone was probably designed by Nom America’s second largest designer of telecommunicatiol For the year ended Dec. 31/83 NT had after-tax profit of $227,100,000 up from 1982’s $132,400,000. After income tax ¢ based on a subsidiary’s prior years’ loss, the profit added up $268,400,000. ___IRIBUNE | Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Graphics — ANGELA KENYON Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada — $14 one year; $8 six months Foreign — $20 one year; Second class mail registration number 1560 t could well be that as the Social Credit government proceeds with its private enterprise dismantling of the economy that we'll have to introduce a new term into the political lexicon. We'll have to People and issues ane ee ae oe ce Se SS So i on Re RE ET FRR eT TR I RS SRE ES] merce was Institute director Michael Walker. But over at the College of New Caledonia on the same night was labor educator Ben Swankey who was speaking |) to a meeting organized by the Solidarity refer to “Jamaicanization” of the pro- vince, so named for the policies pursued by the right wing prime minister of Jamaica, Edward Seaga, who has allowed the country’s agricultural and industrial base to crumble while he spends millions. trying to attract more tourists. If the parallel sounds a little far-fetched, consider the program just announced by the provincial Ministry of Industry and Small Business Development and the fed- eral Department of Regional Industrial Expansion for Port Alberni. It’s hardly news to anyone, of course that Port Alberni was once the centre of Vancouver Island’s wood industry with the highest per capita incomes in Canada — but now has among the high- est unemployment rates in the province, with the major mills working at only half capacity. An estimated 1,200 jobs have been lost in the past two years, at least half * of them forever. So what is the government’s answer? You build a “harborfront tourism centre” financed by a-+$1.9 million federal- provincial loan. You model it after Van- couver’s Granville Island public market and put in an agricultural and seafood market, a craft market, a boat rental and charter facility, a passenger for the outer island ferry and an observation clock tower. And after you’ve done all that, you trumpet it to the world as “‘the city’s move towards economic diversification from the forest resource base.” - Ifthe development doesn’t impress you, : the jobs figures undoubtedly will. Some 20 person-years of employment will be — created during the construction phase. And when it is all completed, there will be 15 full time jobs. Never mind that in the process, the forest giant MacMillan-Bloedel which has extracted millions in profits from the Alberni Valley has been absolved of any responsibility for the hundreds of workers that have been displaced. Never mind that the profits have been taken out and invested in Alabama and Brazil while the necessary modernization and diversifica- tion in Port Alberni’s wood industry did not take place. And never mind that the demands raised by forest industry workers — that the provincial govern- ment use the tree farm licences as a lever to force the company to keep plants operat- ing and invest in new equipment and the development of new products — have been ignored in Victoria. After all, what are 600 jobs lost permanently in the forest industry when 15 people can get a chance to cater to tourists? Maybe Edward Seaga can come for a boating trip on thé Alberni Inlet. : onan Sita te efore the July 7 Social Credit budget Michael Walker and the Fraser Insti- tute had a free ride in the media for their corporate-backed message of less taxes for - the wealthy and less services for the poor. But since the advent of Operation Solidar- ity and the Solidarity Coalition, the Insti- _ tute is finding that there are some voices out there challenging its Chicago school economics and resisting the implementa- tion by the Socreds of its policies. It was certainly that way in Prince George Jan. 26. On one side of the city, speaking before the Chamber. of Com- - Coalition on — naturally — the Fraser Institute. Walker’s message was the usual a change the Labor Code to weaken the power of unions and cut social programs such as medicare and pensions to fuel eco- nomic recovery. But across town, Swan- key told his audience that Walker’s program would only deepen the economic — crisis and offered an alternative program including nationalization of the banks and resource industries and development of manufacturing industries. And if Walker has usually had the ear of the press, this time at least Swankey got a good hearing as well, commanding as much ink in the Jan. 27 issue of the Prince George Citizen as did Walker. There is also much more to come from Swankey on that subject. His new book, The Fraser Institute: A Socialist Analysis is slated for publication this month by the Centre for Socialist Education of which he is director. It will be selling for $2.50 and copies can be ordered in advance from the Centre, 105; 2747 E. Hastings St. Van- -couver, VSK 1Z8.. smc 4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 8, 1984