, or FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1972

CORNERING THE PREMIER. Members of the rapid transit lobby to Victoria last Monday are shown
surrounding Premier Bennett's limousine as he arrived at the Legislature. Shown speaking to him is Bruce

Yorke, leader of the lobby.

—Pat O’Kane photo

Rapid transit not third
crossing urged by lobby

By WILLIAM TURNER
A contingent of 100 Vancouver

citizens journeyed to the Legis= |

lative buildings Monday to
interview provincial members.
They carried a brief urging the
government to oppose a third
crossing over Burrard Inlet, and
to support the start of a rapid
transit system for metropolitan
Vancouver.

Led by Bruce Yorke, chair-
man of the Citizen’s Co-ordin-
ating Committee for Public
Transit, groups of ten were
assigned to interview govern-
ment members and opposition
M.L.A.’s.

The brief reviewed the ques-
tion of the provincial govern-
ment’s pledged financial aid of
$41 million towards construction
of approaches, and suggested a
great deal has happened since
the offer was first made. It
urged the government to take a
second look at the entire matter.

In a well-documented analysis
accompanied by diagrams, the

brief examines the effeet of a
third crossing imposed upon the
downtown area, and the inevit-
able pattern of freeways criss-
crossing the city.

Pointing its attack at the finan-
cial cost, the CCPT brief reveals
that the loans from provincial
and federal sources, in addition
to cost to local taxpayers for
crossing and freeways, would
amount to $285 million. Over a 45-
year period, with interest
charges of 7 percent, the cost to
the taxpayers would soar to a
staggering $600,557,000. The

Hearings on the third
crossing have been set for
Wed. March 15 in Vancouver
and North Vancouver. Van-
couver’s hearing will be in Eric
Hamber school starting at 7
p.m. Deadline for briefs is
March 10. North Vancouver's
hearing starts at 7:30 p.m. in
Carson Graham Secondary
School. Deadline for briefs is
March 8.

taxpayers who will be called
upon to pay the bill have never
been given the opportunity to
vote on the project.

The overwhelming response of
the public to this was demon-
strated in the petition campaign
that secured. 21,631 signatures
on the demand for a plebiscite
on the matter. These petitions
were made available to Premier
Bennett and the members of the
legislature by the CCPT delega-
tion.

Premier Bennett is quoted as
replying to Yorke’s request that
the provincial contribution
should be earmarked for rapid
transit, ‘‘That’s a good idea, my
friend. A good idea!”

Some of the Social Credit
M.L.A.’s expressed support for
the concept of rapid transit as
opposed to another North Shore
crossing. Others, notably Harold
Merilees, wants this crossing
and perhaps four or five more if
necessary. Ernie LeCours was

See THIRD CROSSING, pg. 12

ey
DE:

VOL. 33, No. 8

ESAT
: Rare

UNITE TO FIGHT
WAGE FREEZE DECREES

TTR SO
[COUNCIL >
i

‘Socreds aim to destroy
collective bargaining’

By MAURICE RUSH
B.C.’s working people served notice this week
through their trade unions that they will not stand idly by
as the Socred government moves to impose a compul-
sory wage freeze through cabinet decree, and destroys

free collective bargaining.

A conference of five unions

directly hit by the latest govern-
ment action has been called for
March 1 to plan a fight-back

against the arbitrary wage:

freeze and to gain full collective
bargaining rights. The 160,000-
member B.C. Federation of
Labor has pledged its full
support to the unions directly
under attack.

Represented at the meeting
on March 1 will be: the B.C.
Government Employees Union;
B.C. Teachers Federation;
Canadian Union of Public
Employees and the Psychiatric
Nurses’ Association. The
Registered Nurses Association
has also been invited to attend.

The full scope of the Socred
government’s attack on labor,
unprecedented in the western
capitalist world outside of
fascist states like Spain,
Portugal and Greece, was made
evident in a bill introduced in
the Legislature last Friday.

The bill makes it clear the
government intends to impose a
wage freeze on employees in the

WILLIAM KASHTAN, Communist
Party leader, was last week nom-
inated in the Federal riding of
Toronto-Davenport. See page 11.

entire public service of the
province. It gives the power to
the cabinet to arbitrarily issue
decrees. declaring what
increases shall be granted (if
any). Where a vote of rate-
payers (property-owners) is
required before more is allowed
than the amount ordered by the
cabinet, a 60-percent approval
vote will be needed.

Angela wins bail

Bail for Angela Davis was
ordered Tuesday by a California
judge following the State
Supreme Court’s ruling last
week that the death penalty
violates the State’s constitution.
Bail is expected to be set this
week.

Although the bill is written to
cover ‘“‘the whole of the public
service of the province’’ it does
not specifically spell out
whether this will also include the
imposition of wage controls on
employees of Crown corpora-
tions such as B.C. Hydro, the
PGE, and municipal workers.

However, the bill is so
sweeping that it is clear the
intent is much broader than
merely civil servants. On
Monday of this week it was
revealed that Municipal Affairs
Minister Dan Campbell intends
to introduce a bill in the House
which will tie salary increases
for elected civic officials to
those paid civil servants and
other public employees. This is
seen as a piece of window
dressing to actually obscure the
real intention of the govern-
ment, which is to extend the
wage freeze to municipal
employees throughout the
province.

This is already indicated by a
recent statement of Vancouver
School Board labor relations
officer Art Guttman, who said he
interprets the government’s

See UNIONS, pg. 12