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FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1954

*

jov't on spot
on fare issue

VICTORIA

Biggest test of the Bennett government since it took

‘ofice loomed as a result of

the widening opposition ‘to

the attempt of the BCER to get higher transit fares in

Vancouver and Victoria.

With city and municipal councils taking an almost

unanimous stand against any in- |
crease, the stage was set for a
battle with the provincially-ap-
pointed Public Utilities Commis-
sion.

This will be the first hearing
‘by the PUC on an application by
the BCER since the Bennett gov-
ernment took office in 1952.

Pressure on the Public Utilities
Commissioners to refuse the com-
pany’s demand will be overwhelm-
ing. But in the past the PUC
has never refused the power
monopoly what it asked.

This-year the PUC is going to
be on the spot—and so is the
Bennett regime. :

If the Commission caves in and
gives a transit increase to the
company, the cry will go up to
the government to repudiate or
override the Commission, which
consists of appointees of the prev-
ious Liberal and Coalition admin-
istrations. :

If the Commission refuses any
fare hike then the foes of the
electric and transit monopoly will
have scored a notable victory. The
Grauermen will be on the run —
in fact the demand for public
ownership of the BCER could be-
come a real hot issue.

Company directors, of course,
can figure this out as well as any-
one, and so there is mounting
evidence that they are attempting
to take the Socreds into camp—
to have great and good friends in
the parliament buildings as they
had under the previous Liberal
and Tory reigns.

The Bennett camp is in a deli-
eate position if it starts playing
ball with Dal and his boys. They
rode into office on the wave of
disgust against the old-line
parties for their faithful toeing
of the line of the province’s top
industrialists. And Bennett and
his followers have carefully main-
tained an anti-monopoly front.

But events in the past several
months have raised widespread
doubts of the genuineness of this
professed “trust:busting” talk.

Most startling was the resig-
nation of James Blyth, one of the
newly-chosen members of the
provincially -owned B.C. Power
Commission. Blyth gave as his
reason for quitting that he saw
little guarantee of a future for
' public power in the province.

In the storm that followed,
Premier Bennett stoutly denied
accusations that he was preparing |
to curtail activities of the Power
Commission or hand it over to
the BCER. — ;

But political observers pointed
at the time to the BCER’s project-

United Labor
PICNIC

| SUNDAY, AUGUST 8

| CONFEDERATION PARK
| 4600 EAST HASTINGS
NORTH BURNABY

ed invasion of the rich Vancou-
ver Island territory of the Power

Commission and charged that |

these empire-building schemes
had the tacit approval of the
provincial government.

Charges of a half-hearted at-
titude by the Socreds to the pub-
licly-owned power system served.
to underline the cabinet’s parti-
ality for U.S. monopolies in other
spheres of the development of
provincial natural resources.

The Premier leaned heavily in
favor of the Aluminum Company
of America over the rival Fro-
bisher interests. And this in face
of Alcoa’s plan to dam the Yukon
River to make power for a plant
in Alaska.

Down on the Columbia River,
Lands and Forest Minister Robert
Sommers has been busy dealing
another set of aluminum monop-
olists in on our water resources.

The Bennett government also
appeared to be involved in a
gigantic international deal that
would mean surrender of control
over some of our major water
power resources to the U.S. mon-
opolists of the Pacific Northwest
States.

Five huge private electric light
and power companies are prepar-
ing with the Eisenhower admin-
istration’s backing to carve up

he public Bonneville power sys-

tem on the lower Columbia river.
But they need control over the
Canadian portions of the Colum-
bia and Kootenay rivers to get
maximum profits from the divi-
sion of spoils.

The B.C. Electric, as Canadian
member of the Northwest Power
Pool based on Bonneville and
Grand Coulee, is up to its ears in
this scheme.

Signs that Victoria has swung
behind the BCER could be the
tip-off to the way the Socreds will
decide on the water power ques-
tion. It would ‘be evidence that
a back-room deal has been cook-
ed up by the participants in this
blue chip power game with the
future of B.C. as stakes.

In that way the action of the
Bennett cabinet on the fare in-
crease could very well be a turn-
ing point in its career.

Stores open
Wednesday

For the fi®st time since the war
years, Vancouver department
stores will open on Wednesday,
July 21. A last-ditch attempt to
delay the changeover until a court
decision on the legality of the
petition of the department stores
failed to win the support of City
Council.

Lawyer T. E. H. Ellis, acting
for a group of ladies’ wear, meat,
hardware, shoe and other smaller
stores, called the granting of the
department store petition “dis-
crimination.”

High and almost dry

Only an optimist would give the halibu :
the Gulf of Georgia, a chance of getting off in one piece.

his sturdy little 45-footer until she refloated on the incoming tide,

_ courtesy of The Fisherman).

t-troller Karmsund, shown perched on Mystery ane
But owner-skipper Ole Vea stuck with.

Reef in

with only minor damages. (Photo /

‘Sure we'll sign’ people

against the fare increase.

couple of years.

rolling in to the Public Utilities
Commission in Victoria. Members
of the Civic Reform Association

.of which she is president, and

scores of volunteer workers are
rapping on doors in a block-by-
block canvass of large areas of
the city. ;

Civic Reform Association has
opened’ an office at 339 West
Pender (phone PA. 5831) and peti-
tions will be collected and for-
warded to the PUC prior to the
public hearings next month.

“We can use more volunteers,”
said Mrs. Jones. “I urge all those

tell Jones’ canvassers

“Sure we'll sign,’”’ people told the first canvassers for Effie Jones’

petition

‘We're glad to see someone doing something about a
Fares are already too high and.the B.C. Electric seems to get am increase about eve

Where is it going to end?
Mrs. Jones told the Pacific Tribune that she

expects to have thousands of 2

ames

Unions give support
to bakery strikers.

Vancouver Labor Council (CCL)
_voted uanimously this week to
declare bread imported from the
State of Washington unfair for
the duration of the bakery strike.
The council gave its fullest sup-
port to the striking and locked-
out bakery workers.

Meanwhile, there was no deci-

international representatives 7
the Bakery and Confectio ‘oP
Workers’ Union to consider §
ping shipments of bread
Bellingham.

Mayor Fred Hume’s offer 2
mediate produced the first mene
ings of the two sides since
lockout began. Meetings

*ho are opposed to a fare in- : its
yeNae to bake a petition form sion reported by Pacific Tribune proceeding without any piss
and collect signatures.” press time on meetings held with having been announced as ¥
/ a

EFFIE JONES’ says:

“No increase in bus fares.”

PETITION

VICTORIA, B.C.

Geniiemen:

\

bus fares.

PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION,

We, the undersigned citizens, are opposed to any increase in
'

- ADDRESS

EFFIE JONES