Food prices in Canada took a Sharp jump in May, rising 2.3 per Cent in the four-week period ending May 20, and were more than double the increase in April, which recorded a one per cent rise. A survey released last week by the Anti-Inflation Board in Ottawa Said that significant increases in Prices for potatoes, beef and pork, fats and oils and beverages were largely responsible for the sharp rise These latest figures released by the AIB underscore the fact that the board has underestimated the Friday, June 3, 1977 Fone extent of rising food prices in Canada. In April, when Statistics Canada announced a one per cent rise in food prices, the AIB predicted that food costs in May will rise another 1.5 per cent. In- stead of that, they have gone up 2.3 per cent. The sharp escalation of food prices in Canada has boosted the cost of food in May, compared to last year, by 8.4 per cent while the board continues to insist on holding wage increases in current contract negotiations down to the six per cent guideline figure. With rising Up 2.3 percent in one month food costs, wage settlement of six percent will leave workers’ living standards far behind by the year’s end. The 2.3 per cent boost in food costs does not yet reflect the ef- fects of the federal government’s recent decision to boost the price of fuel oil by $4. barrel over the next two years. This is expected to result in a sharp rise in living costs since each $2-a-barrel increase means a two per cent rise in the cost of living. The higher cost for fuel oil, which is a profit bonanza for the large multinational oil corporations, is passed on to the public in the form of higher costs in home heating fuels, gasoline and other by- products. It is expected that the $4- a-barrel increase will by itself account for a four per cent rise in the cost of living in the next two years. May was the fourth month in succession in which food prices rose sharply, the current month showing the sharpest increase so far. And no end is in sight for sharply escalating food prices. On the contrary rising sugar and other food items which find their way into a wide range of food products is under way. This week B.C. Sugar, which is the major sugar monopoly in western Canada, announced that higher sugar prices have led to a doubling of net earnings in the last six months. Total revenues were $82,555,000, up from $45,505,000 last year. This week the B.C. government’s probe into high food prices in the province got under way but because of the restricted nature of See FOOD, pg. 12 Rhodesian armed forces backed by jet fighter planes and helicopters invaded the territory of Mozambique and have occupied a town (shown by arrow) and announced they will remain on Mozambique territory. Rhodesia’s aggression poses a grave threat to the independent African state. At press time there were indications the issue may be taken to the UN Security Council. . The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Thomas Enders, came to Van- Couver last Monday to make a Speech at the Men’s Canada Club to urge the people of B.C. to accept the Trident nuclear sub base at Bangor, Washington, near the Canadian border. Repeating the line of the Carter administration and Barney Danson, Canada’s defence Minister, alleging the threat. of attack by the Soviet Union, Enders Said, ‘“‘we don’t believe in uni- ' lateral disarmament’? and added that the Trident sub base was - Needed as a “‘deterrent.”’ This is the same argument used by the industrial-military complex in the U.S. to justify the new build- up of nuclear muscle which threatens the world with collapse of the SALT II talks and with a new escalation of the costly nuclear arms race. No one has ever suggested that the U.S., or Canada for that matter, should believe in unilateral disarmament. What has been Suggested as vital to world peace, _is that an international agreement be reached in the current SALT talks. to bring nuclear weapons under control and to prevent a new and deadly extension of the nuclear arms race. No one has ever suggested that the U.S., or Canada for that matter, should believe in unilateral disarmament. What has been THOMAS ENDERS ww suggested as vital to world peace, is that an international agreement be reached in the current SALT talks to bring nuclear weapons under control and to prevent a new and deadly extension of the nuclear arms race. : The attempt by the U.S. am- bassador to placate growing public protest in B.C. against the Trident subs, which will use Canadian waters as they travel in and out of the Straits of Juan de Fuca to their base at Bangor, should be rejected as an attempt to influence Canadian public opinion and an insult to the intelligence of the people of B.C. The speech by the U.S. am- bassador in Vancouver was un- doubtedly aimed at preventing the provincial government from passing the Cyril Shelford resolution when the legislature re- convenes in two weeks, which protests plans to use Canadian waters for the Trident subs, and’ urges that construction of the base at Bangor be halted. The U.S. ambassador’s speech See U.S., pg. 12 Under the pretext of drought conditions in the U.S., Washington state governor Dixy Lee Ray announced last Friday that she was reversing the state’s previous stand, and now supported the raising of the Ross Dam which wouldresult in the flooding of some 5,000 acres of the Skagit Valley in BC. ~The project has been vigorously opposed in B.C, and public protest has stopped numerous attempts over the years to put the agreement, originally entered into by the W.A.C. Bennett Socred government with Seattle City Light, into effect. In 1967, Seattle City Light, a private utility, signed a contract with the Socred government permitting the raising of the Ross Dam by 122-1/2 feet which would destroy much of the Skagit Valley about 100 miles from Vancouver, and one of the few beautiful scenic spots left on the Lower Mainland. Actually, the start of the sellout of the Skagit Valley to the US. utility company began back in August, 1952 when the Socred government first came to office. At that time B.C. entered into an agreement to allow Seattle to flood 6,000 acres on the B.C. side of the valley for compensation of $255,000 plus $2,000 a year in taxes. The agreement was negotiated by Robert Sommers, the first Socred minister of lands and forests. The B.C. government, original culprit in the deal, attempted to back out of responsibility by stating that it disclaimed any responsibility for the agreement and charged that the federal government could stop the project if it wished under provisions of the International Rivers Improvement Act of 1955. Both Ottawa and Victoria have not had clean hands in the agreement, which B.C. could not have negotiated by itself since it involved dealings with another country. The real reason for Washington state raising the demand again has all the earmarks of a pressure play. This was revealed Monday when representative Lloyd Meeds (Dem.-Wash.) suggested at a conference in Victoria that Seattle City Light cancel plans to raise the dam in exchange for B.C. agreeing to make up the electricity a higher dam would provide. mt i The raising of the Ross Dam issue at this time is most likely connected with the growing hunger in the U.S. for more B.C. hydro resources. This week it was revealed that the sale of B.C. power to the U.S. has risen sharply in the past year, totalling about 1,700 million kilowatt hours. Yorke slams rent changes The decision by provincial consumer affairs minister Rafe Mair to make substantial changes to the Landlord and Tenant Act in favor of landlords and to abolish rent controls in some areas brought a swift response this week as ‘Vancouver Tenant Council president Bruce Yorke denounced the move as ‘‘an election payoff” and called on tenants and the labor movement ~to. ‘‘come. together quickly to. bring tremendous pressure to-béar on Victoria to let the government know that we will not tolerate the watering down or the abolition of rent control in this province.” Yorke’s call for public action was given particular urgency by Mair’s announcement that the changes would be made at the upcoming session and would pave the way for a general ‘“decontrol program.” “Rents are already too high and take a. huge slice of ordinary people’s income,” Yorke said. “Rent controls need strengthening, not abolishing. Moreover the Landlord and Tenant Act is already 90 per cent weighted in favor of the landlords.” He also debunked the idea that the housing crisis had been alleviated to any extent, pointing out that the slightly increased vacancy rate was the result of people “‘doubling up”’ in the face of mass unemployment. “For thousands, the housing crisis remains. acute and crushing,’’ he declared. “T call on all tenants’ and people’s groups, especially the labor movement to come together quickly to bring pressure on the government.”