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Transit fare hikes should be subject

to public hearings Coalition argues

Two spokesmen for the Coalition
Against Fare HIkes and Service
Cuts have threatened to appear
before the B.C. Supreme Court to
challenge the latest rounds of
transit fare increases imposed by
B.C. Hydro on the basis that the
rate increases were not subject to
public hearings as required by the
B.C. Energy Act.

Downtown Eastside Residents
Association president Bruce
Eriksen and consulting economist
David Schreck asked the B.C.
Energy Commission to investigate
Hydro’s actions this week, failing
which they would apply for a court
order.

Eriksen and Schreck contend
that B.C. Hydro, as an energy
corporation, whould set its rates in
the same manner as other energy
porations under the terms of the
Energy Act. The contention is
partially based on a legal opinion
from lawyer Sheldon Goldberg that
the clause in the Act incorporating
B.C. Hydro which exempts the
crown corporation from certain
laws of the province does not apply
to the Energy Act because the B.C.
Hydro Act was passed in 1964 and
the Energy Act in 1973. The Hydro
Act exempted the corporation only

from laws existing at that time, the
lawyer argued in a letter earlier
this month, and the terms of the
Energy Act, passed much later,
should apply to B.C. Hydro.

Hydro chairman Robert Bonner
told the crown corporations
committee of the B.C. legislature,
meeting in Vancouver last week,
that he did not want the Energy
Commission to review Hydro’s
transit rates as it ‘lacked ex-
pertise in the field.”

If the Commission lacks ex-
pertise, the Coalition Against Fare
Hikes and Service Cut Backs has
unearthed considerable evidence
to show that Hydro itself lacks

know how in running a transit.

system, or else is purposely in-
flating the costs of the system in
order to justify continuing cut-
backs in service.

Eriksen and Schreck, together
with four other COPE candidates
in the Vancouver civic election last
month laid charges with the
Combines Investigation Branch
alleging that Bonner and members
of the Social Credit government
with connections to the private
automobile industry were con-
spiring to wreck the public transit
system and force growing numbers

of people back into automobiles.
_At the meeting of the crowns
corporations committee in Van-
couver last Friday the Coalition
had a series of questions it wanted
put to Bonner about Hydro’s in-
flated transit costs and user pay
policy. But in spite of an
agreement with
chairman Elwood Veitch, the
questions were not put to Bonner
who successfully grandstanded the
committee hearing by making a
widely publicized appeal for in-
creased energy exports from B.C.
- The Coalition had also wanted to
present a petition, reportedly with
about 8,000 names, to the com-

mittee protesting the transit fare .

increases. The petitions ended up
with NDP MLA Norman Levi,
however, who indicated that they
would be presented to the govern-
ment in Victoria.

Veitch, Socred MLA for Burnaby
Edmonds, told the media after the
meeting that the questions for-
mulated by the. Coalition had
already been answered by Hydro
and there was no need to put them
again to Bonner. That was disputed
this week by Schreck who wrote
Veitch telling him that ‘‘the
questions still demand answers.”

-kind of children’.

committee.

tart.

2

t= PEOPLE AND ISSUES =

is name will remain on the paper’s masthead until

the union’s convention next spring, but Fisherman.
editor Hal Griffin unofficially began his retirement:

last week — although with the various writing
projects planned, the years ahead will really be
another chapter in a long career as a newspaperman
and author.

The last 40-odd years of that career were given to
the labor movement and during 22 of them — from
1936 to 1958 — he was variously assistant editor and
editor of the Pacific Tribune and its several
predecessors including the B.C. Workers’ News and
the Peoples’ Advocate. He edited the last edition of
the Advocate before the King government banned it
in June, 1940, and then guided its illegal successor,
The Clarion, off the clandestine press. When The

People was established in 1942, this time as a legal |

paper, he was its founding editor.

Last Friday, the staff at Fishermen’s Hall and
members of the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers’ Union’s general executive board paid
tribute to Hal’s 18 years, 12 of them as editor, on the
Fisherman and bestowed on him a framed mock
edition of the paper, headlined with the story of his
retirement, which was subheaded “Griffin stuns
industry’. In a more serious moment, UFAWU
president Jack Nichol announced that the board had
nominated him for the rare honor of life membership,
a nomination which will go before the union’s con-
vention for final approval.

But if Tribune and the Fisherman have both been
turned over to younger hands — and in the case of the
’ Tribune, the family tradition continues — Hal isn’t
-- exactly stepping into the conventional retiree’s role.
-One of the first projects he’s set himself is the com-
_ pletion of an updated version of his book, British
Columbia: The People’s Early Story which was
—— by the Tribune in 1958. .
‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 22, 1978—Page 2 :
geo gp GSMS! — TAUSIAT BRAS

Jndoubtedly there is much pre-election posturing

behind such actions but nevertheless, when a
Liberal MP sends a personal letter to the director of
the Combines Investigation Branch urging him to’
press the investigation into the alleged car dealers’
conspiracy to scuttle public transit, it shouldn’t go
without some notice.

And that’s what Vancouver East MP Art Lee did
earlier this month. He sent a letter to Combines
director Robert J. Bertrand — and left a carbon copy
with the Downtown Eastside Resident Association on
whose behalf the letter was issued.

It will be recalled that six citizens — COPE can-
didates Bruce Eriksen, Libby Davies, Bruce Yorke,
Dave Schreck, Phil Rankin and Paul Murphy _ filed
an application with the Combines branch charging
that several car dealers in the Social Credit govern-
ment, together with B.C. Hydro chairman Robert
Bonner, had been conspiring since 1975 to wreck the
public transit system in order to force commuters to
drive cars. The application was sent to the Combines
branch last month and asked than an investigation be
launched into the alleged conspiracy.

Lee pressed the issue in his letter, noting that
DERA, on whose behalf he was intervening, wanted
the investigation to determine ‘‘whether there has
been a conspiracy to limit the use of the public
transportation system by individuals who have
vested interests in companies engaged in the
automobile industry.”

“Please be advised,”’ Lee added pointedly, ‘that I
support such an investigation and it would be ap-
preciated if you would advise me as to whether your
department shall be undertaking an investigation.”’

We’d be interested in having the answer to that
question as well — particularly so, considering the

speed with which the Combines branch moved ©

against the UFAWU three years ago.

Fight | just begun —
for ward system

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

At long last city council decided
to give voters a clear choice on a
ward system. The referendum in
the November 15th civic election
will read:

Are you in favor of electing
aldermen (a) By Areas or; (b) At
Large?

Now you would think that any
reasonable or sane Council would
want to give voters a chance to
declare one way or the other. But
being reasonable or sane is not a
charge to which this council need
plead guilty. It took one hell of a
battle to get council to pass my
motion as outlined above.

Alderman Don Bellamy wanted _

a plebiscite on whether the voters
preferred ‘‘some kind of ward
system’. That’s like asking a
married couple if they want ‘‘some
If Alderman
Bellamy’s motion had passed, and
if voters had endorsed it in a
referendum, council would be no
further ahead - it would still have
to decide “what kind of a ward
system”’.

TEAM wanted a partial ward
system, which if passed by council
and endorsed by voters would
have left us worse off than we are
now. It wouldn’t have given us a
genuine ward system and it would
have given us two kinds of

aldermen with different levels of -

authority. TEAM’s support for a
partial ward system is typical of its
inability to take a clear stand on
any important issue. It has suc-
cessfully waffled itself into im-
potence.

Then there- were the NPA
aldermen, represented by
aldermen Warnett Kennedy, who
adamantly opposes any kind of
ward system on the ground that its
sponsors are attempting to subvert
democracy (democracy NPA
style, that is). Alderman Kennedy

whose thinking is still mired in the

McCarthyism of twenty years ago
called the ward system a plot of the
“communists, socialists, pinkos
and lady pinkos.”. Considering
that he normally sits on his brains,
this was no surprise.

My motion passed only because
of the campaign put on by COPE
for 10 years for a ward system, the
fine work done this past year by
AREA, and because of the 30 or So
delegations to~City Council sup-
porting the idea of a full ward
system.

The battle for a ward system is
by no means yet won. Giving the
voters an honest and forthright
choice on the ballot was only the
first essential step. s

The next job is to win a large
majority of citizens for a full ward

system and to expose the false
smoke screens that its opponents

will throw up.

A ward system is ‘hardly the
revolutionary move that its op-
ponents would make out. All major
cities in Canada have it and are the
better for it. Only Vancouver is out
of step, thanks to the back-
wardness and undemocratic at-
titude of successive city councils
over the years.

We now have a chance to get into

step with the rest of Canada’s

urban areas. .

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AREA spokesman urges.
VLC to back plebiscite -

Continued from page 1
to ‘do whatever possible’ to
assist.
AREA, established last year in a
bid to win a ward. system for
Vancouver, has moved its cam-

paign into high gear ever since city

council voted narrowly to accept
alderman Harry Rankin’s motion

to put the matter before a

plebiscite November 15.

AREA co-ordinator Donald
Gutstein spoke to labor council
delegates Tuesday, telling them
that a ward system for the city had
been ‘‘a long time coming.”’

The election of aldermen at large
was “‘absurd’’, he said, noting that,
in the civic elections in 1976, voters
were confronted with a ballot with
56 names on it.

“Moreover, he added, ‘‘the
pattern has been that most of the
city councillors come from the
west side of the city. And the
biggest reason for low voter tur-
nout on the east side is that most
working people don’t feel that they
have any ee cen aon at civ
hall.” /

Gutstein warned that supporters
would have ‘‘to go all out’’ in the

campaign for the ward system,

considering the opposition forces
that would be arrayed against it.

“Tf we don’t win it this time, it

may be five or ten years down the _

road before the issue can be raised
again. But I think we can win it,”
he said.

BCA names

Incumbent school trustees Elsie
Dean, June Williams and Barry.
Jones were nominated by the
Burnaby Citizens’ Association last
Thursday to seek re-election in the
November 18 Burnaby school
board election.

The BCA also nominated Beth
Chobotuck, homemaker and home
and school activist who polled a
strong vote in the 1977 election, and
computer executive Hans Holst.

The BCA, a progressive
municipal reform group in Bur-
naby, has held a one seat majority -
on school board since 1976. The
BCA led board has been in the
forefront of the struggles against
the reactionary education policies
of the Socred government and is a
main target of right wing forces in
this year’s elections.

All five BCA candidates will be
contesting one year seats, as Board
elections begin a new schedule of
biennial elections next year in

candidates

conjunction with the municipal:
council. The number of seats on the

Board will be expanded from five

to seven next year as well.
There are no elections for
municipal council in Burnaby this
year. The BCA will carry its one
vote majority on council till next

year when the entire council will be —

up for re-election.

CP office opens |

The Communist Party of
Canada has opened a new office to”
serve the Greater Vancouver area.
Located adjacent to the Party’s

provincial offices at Room 410, 193 »

East Hastings Street, Vancouver,
the new office will be open Monday
through Friday between the hours
of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Telephone

number for the CP’s Greater —
Vancouver Regional Office is 664g 3

5014.

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