MID-EAST CRISIS .. .

Po. 5

© Iribun

—°

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1973

Delegates from B.C. left Tuesdayfrom Vancouver to attend the World Congress of Peace Forces opening in

J Sow October 25, L. toR. F.E. deVito, Bob Hamilton, Bridget Moran, Angie Dennis, Jim Foulks, Lois Boyce,
in Beeching, Mary Cox, Ruth Smith, Bert Ogden.

Tenants demand Victoria act

On just cause for eviction

The Bc.

demanded
Sent

Tenants Organization
in a special telegram
to Premier Dave Barrett that

Me amendment be included in

owe to the Landlord and Te-
Act at this session requiring

dlords :
eviction to show just cause for

BCTO : :
Teleased president Bruce Yorke

: copies of the telegram
a Was decided on by a special
tele Ng of the organization. The
Sen Stressed that immediate
the a changes in the Act along
BCT \; Proposed in an earlier
The t Tief were urgent.
fat elegram to the Premier said

Tents are escalating, living

Sta
ndards are being lowered, and

insecurity mounts.” It draws atten-
tion to the NDP’s election program
which pledged that an NDP
government would establish rental
review boards with teeth and
recognize tenant associations to be
certified as bargaining agencies.

The wire, which was signed by
Yorke, pointed out that in an inter-
view with thirty-five represen-
tatives of tenants during the spring
session attorney general Alex Mac-
donald flatly stated that new
legislation would come in the fall
session, and that ‘“‘he got the
message regarding just cause for
eviction.”

“Jn our session ten days ago with:

the cabinet committee of 10

members, the attorney general said
that new legislation would be
forthcoming in the spring of 1974
and that it would contain just cause
for eviction provisions.” :
Protesting this failure of the
government to act at the current
session, the wire said that unless
the government acts now to imple-
ment a just cause for eviction
provision, tenants will remain
defenceless in face of what surely
will be an intensified effort on the
part of the landlords now to “beat”
the effects of the “telegraphed
legislation in the spring of 1974.
“Accordingly, we feel it proper
to demand of yourself (Premier
See TENANTS, pg. 3

vol. 34, No. 43

By MAURICE RUSH

The annual report of B.C. Hydro,
released Friday, shows that B.C.
exported 13 times more power to
the U.S. this year than the year
before, and that we sold it to the
U.S. for a small fraction of what
B.C. consumers pay.

These revealing facts brought
out in the report of our public own-
ed utility, indicate that B.C. is still
following the disastrous energy ex-
port policies laid down during the
Socred government’s reign. If
anything, they have been expanded
on by the B.C. Energy Board and
the NDP. government.

The report shows that for the 12
month period ending August, 1972
B.C. exported 221 million kilowatt
(kwt) hours. In the same period for
1973 it jumped to 2,865 million kwt
— which is almost 13 times!

B.C. Hydro justifies the large ex-
port of power on the grounds that
it was surplus to the needs of B.C.
But it is not being honest with the
public when it takes that stand.

It is true that hydro power —
that is power generated by water
— is surplus at certain peak
periods when there is a heavy flow
which generates more than can be
immediately used. (A national
energy grid which could direct
such peak power across Canada for
Canadian use instead of export to
the U.S. is urgently needed to meet
the problem of what to do with
hydro power in peak periods).

But the report of B.C. Hydro
shows that most of the power ex-
ported to the U.S. was thermal
power — that is power generated
by burning natural gas or oil. The
figures given in the report show

that 1,633 million kwt was thermal:

power, and 1,232 million kwt was
hydro electric power.

In other words, the bulk of the
power we exported to the U.S. was
not surplus (or peak) hydro, but
energy produced by burning vitally
needed natural gas and oil.

Thermal power is not like hydro

power. All you have to do is turn.

off the taps and stop burning gas

and oil to stop production. It’s like
turning off your own furnace when

-you don’t need any more heat and

want to- preserve fuel.

Yet at a time when Canada and
B.C. are threatened by shortages of
natural gas and oil, B.C. Hydro per-
mitted the burning of as much as
150 million cubic feet of natural gas
a day at the Burrard thermal sta-
tion at Port Moody — as well as
large quantities of oil — to produce
thermal power for export to the
US.

Officials at B.C. Hydro are
quoted in the press last weekend as
having said that although the price
per kwt varied according to the
fuel used to produce it, the average
price charged the U.S. was 4 mills
per kwt hour. A mill is one-tenth of
a cent.

See ENERGY, pg. 11

CITY VOTE
RESULTS

With returns incomplete in Van-
couver’s Wednesday voting in-
dications were that voters turned
out in small numbers to support
retention of the present at large
system of electing city council, and
to keep the council at 10 members.

In a very confusing and complex
series of ballots, voters also ap- -
parently voted to acquire 1%
blocks at the entrance to Stanley
Park, approved building of five ice
rinks, and filled the one seat vacan-
cy on school board with indepen-
dent Helen Boyce.

Results of the plebiscite on the
ward system will require analysis
when the final vote is in. In-
complete returns Wednesday night
gave the vote for retention of the
present system as 7,164. But on the
vote for a partial or full. ward
system, 7,901 voted for full, in-
dicating the confusion surrounding
the vote.

Watch next week for analysis.

Issues before B.C. Fed parley... Pg. 3
An open letter to the NDP... Pg. 12