| BRITISH COLUMBIA Reject new power export, CP urges board The Communist Party has called on the National Energy Board to reject B.C. Hydro’s application for a massive increase in the export of firm power to the U.S. and to tule that the existing, limited licences Temain intact. The demand was placed in a brief sub- mitted to the NEB by the party, one of a number of organizations, including the Society Promoting Environmental Con- Servation (SPEC), the Federated Anti- Poverty Groups and several Indian bands, who were expected to voice opposition to Hydro’s application when hearings opened in Vancouver Mar. 26. B.C. Hydro has submitted a lengthy and detailed application to the NEB seek- -Ng permission to increase the export of firm power from 3,000 to 6,000 gigawatt hours and to extend the term of the licen- ces from the current 12 months to six years. Unlike interruptible power which can reduced or even cut off if generating conditions or domestic needs change, firm Power must be delivered to the customer. Hydro has already been given the go- ahead by the provincial cabinet which announced its approval last week. But NEB approval must also be obtained. The company’s application signals yet another significant change in energy pol- Icy from its original application in 1979 when it sought — successfully — to export power on a firm basis to the U.S. “Now B.C. Hydro is asking that the present 12-month limits on export con- tracts be removed and that it be allowed to seek long-term, instead of short-term markets for the export of firm power,” the CP brief, prepared by B.C. provincial leader Maurice Rush, noted. And that change would be a “giant step” towards integrating the province with the continentalist demands of the U.S. for cheap power, it warned. Already B.C. Hydro is pressing for approval of a three-year contract to pro- vide firm power to various utilities in Cali- fornia, the brief noted, adding that such sales agreements “represent a major inte- gration of B.C. with the U.S. in a continen- talist policy which, if unchecked now, will place pressure on B.C. in the future to develop expensive and ecologically dam- aging hydro electric power dams to con- tinue to supply the U.S. market with hydro power.” : Both B.C. Hydro and_ provincial Energy Minister Stephen Rogers are seek- ing to sell the increase in power exports on the basis that there is surplus power gener- ated by the new Revelstoke dam. Rogers stated in the February, 1984 issue of the B.C. Government News, ‘We can either spill the water over the dams, or we can generate the power and attempt to find new markets for it.” But both Rogers and Hydro chairman Robert Bonner have also stated that exports of firm power are the central fea- ture of a new strategy for economic policy. The same piece in the Government News opened with the announcement: “A new provincial electrical strategy unveiled by Energy Minister Stephen Rogers will per- mit firm, long-term exports of surplus electricity to the United States.” Already under discussion, presumably as part of the Socreds’ plan, is another sales agreement with the U.S. Bonneville Power Administration which would see B.C. Hydro working with U.S. utilities to provide a block of power to the BPA over a 15-year period. ‘ “This new strategy. . .has never been the subject of public discussion nor has the public approved such a drastic change in energy policy,” Rush said. Yet that policy represents “a betrayal of the province’s interest,” he charged. “Tt will promote the industrial devel- opment of the U.S. at the expense of indus- trial growth and jobs for British Columbians,” he said. “Instead of a stra- tegy for firm power exports to the U.S., the government should be considering plans to take advantage of B.C. Hydro’s resour- ces to develop manufacturing and process-. eleClrical st Mister Ste ralegy UNVeileg e. é Ogers yj Stee xPOrts OF sup Nil States, Surplus ing industries which will help strengthen the economy and overcome the long- standing unemployment crisis. Noting that industry seeks to locate where there is cheap, plentiful power, he warned that the province was trying to “sell that advantage to southern Cali- fornia — for immediate profit but long range loss.” The brief called on the NEB to reject Hydro’s application. New teachers’ leader “stro Teachers, faced with continuing and relentless cutbacks to public education, will seek a closer liai- gen with parents, and trustees where possible, said the President-elect of the B.C. Teachers Federation. — Clarke told the Tribune that “creative actions” - ss those practised by the striking Metro Transit S drivers are also a possible response to teacher and support staff layoffs and class cutbacks — but nger actions” such as full-scale strikes cannot be Tuled out, “In Places where school trustees act in an undemo- cratic manner, some kind of strike action is that much more likely,” said Clarke, the current first vice-president who beat out his predecessor, Doug Smart, in a close vote — 339-321 — onthe final day of the BCTF annual convention Mar. 20. In a brief interview, Clarke noted the “shift in Public opinion that the education system is really in Jopardy,” and predicted closer co-operation between teachers and parent groups, who have Come outspoken in several districts where classes and staff have been chopped mid-term by funding cutbacks, Two motions passed at the conference facilitate this development, Clarke noted. One calls on the CTF to assist local parent organizations in fighting the cutbacks, while a second gives the federation a Mandate to prepare a provincial conference of par- _€nts and teachers, anticipated sometime this fall. As for trustees, “if all trustees took the kind of tack that Joy Leach (president of the B.C. School Trus- tees Association) took at the convention, there would lots of ground for co-operation,” said Clarke. Leach, a Nanaimo trustee who has frequently spoken out against the government’s cutbacks, gave a brief address to the convention. “Unfortunately, some districts don’t,” said Clarke, noting that several boards have taken a tough line against teachers and support staff, will- ingly carrying out Victoria’s cutbacks and holding Out on the question of exempting employees from Bill 3, the Public Sector Restraint Act, in current Negotiations. “We are definitely not going to back off. Right now, there is no climate for compromise,” he asserted. By and large, the Clarke vote was reflected in choices for other executive positions. Running unopposed for first vice-president was Elsie vows continued fight # # # Ml PF 6 eS i BCTF PRESIDENT-ELECT PAT CLARKE. . .at rally for Qualicum teachers Feb. 4. McMurphy, an advocate of a strong fightback posi- tion for the federation. The trend was broken in the vote for second vice-president, as the more conservative Margaret Woodlands defeated Solidarity. supporter Christina Schut. But it took only two ballots to elect four pro-fightback candidates out of the several vying for positions as executive member-at-large. Elected were Surrey Teachers Association presi- dent Moira MacKenzie, North Vancouver Associa- tion president Bill Friesen, and Solidarity proponents Karen Harper and Harry Janzen. After a lengthy debate teachers agreed to take another step towards trade union status (in line with ‘a resolution last year that teachers seek inclusion under the provincial Labor Code) by agreeing to hold discussions among local associations on the possibility of affiliating with either the Canadian Labor Congress “‘or other labor bodies,” with deci- sions to be made at the 1985 annual meeting. Teachers also voted 369-264 to respect the picket lines of other school employees following considera- ble debate on the issue. The delegates voted to place in their bylaws this statement: “In any situation in which other employees have established picket lines during a strike or political protest according to the policies and procedures developed for proper picketing by the trade union movement, teachers should respect the position of employees who are legitimately picketing and should not cross a picket line.” Gibsons unemployment rate prompts committee on jobs GIBSONS — Angered and frustrated at an unemployment rate of close to 40 per cent, Sunshine Coast residents have set up a committee to pressure the federal and provincial governments into freeing funds for the region. Fifteen members of an audience of some 50 people who attended a meeting on unemployment in the Legion hall here volunteered for the committee, which will also play an “educational” role to reach more people in the community, said meeting organizer and Gib- sons alderman, Ron Neilson. Speakers deplored the fact that thousands of unemployment insurance claims are made weekly in a region that once thrived on fishing and the wood industry, and hit the Socreds and federal Liberals for funding shortfalls. Local NDP MLA Don Lockstead cited studies showing 30,000 jobs could be created in silviculture, to replace badly decimated forest reserves. Not only would an enhanced forestation program create other jobs through the “multiplier effect,” but ‘people would have the pride of working instead of the indiginity of being on welfare,” said Lockstead. His colleague, Comox-Powell River MP Ray Skelly, called the ‘Socreds “the most inhuman, anti-human government ‘there ever was in this province.” But, said Skelly, “the Liberal government in Ottawa is as guilty. It was really the federal government that started the ball rolling with cutbacks in health and social services.” With adequate funding, “full employment is not impossible” Skelly asserted. When it comes to compiling statistics on unemployment, natives are the ones left out, said Gilbert Joe of the Sechelt Band and chair - of the NDP’s committee on Native rights. “I can remember 37 or 38 seiners and gillnetters in front of our reserve — now there’s only four or five...we must have awfully poor businessmen as our leaders,” Joe quipped. Sunshine Coast Teachers Association president Brian Butcher said several teacher jobs had been cut since 1979, while the enrol- ment in the area has increased by some 260 students. Silviculture and a salmonid enhancement program are both desperately needed to preserve the resources, and would put thou- sands of British Columbians to work, said United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union secretary-treasurer George Hewison. “Yet in the budget there wasn’t one mention of unemployment,” Hewsion, who made several references to the Socreds’ Feb. 20 budget, said. People were “‘bitter” over the lack of gains in the Solidarity settlement with Bennett. “But we can’t afford to be disunited. . and we can’t wait for four years for the Scoreds to be voted out of office. “We need to stop the Fraser Institute way of thinking — we need Solidarity II,” said Hewison to cheers and applause. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 28, 1984 e 3 \