FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1970

VOL. 31, NO. 3

Placards carried in the demonstration at B.C. Hydro Monday |

ommunists protest hydro hike

“Good for you. . . Keep it up
- . . We’re with you.” shouted a
Carload of young people as they
drove by the B.C. Hydro building
on Burrard Monday and saw
about 40 members of the Com-
munist. Party picketing the
building to protest the rate hike
- announced last week.
€ reaction of these young
People was typical of hundreds of
Motorists who drove by and saw
the men, women and youth with
Placards reading: “Stop the
Hydro Boost,” “Bus Fares Too
igh Now!” and “Boost Shrum
to Kingdom come!”
ne sign carried by an old age
Pensioner said: ‘‘Bus Fare Boost
its Pensioners and Students.”
Another said that “B.C. Hydro
Rates Are Highest In Canada.”’
Sponsored by the Vancouver
Ommittee of the Communist
_ ‘arty, the impressive demon-
_~ Stration was the opening shot of

a campaign by the Party to fight
the proposed hydro and bus hike.
A leaflet handed out to the
public headed, ‘‘Stop the Boost in
Hydro and Bus Rates,” charged
that B.C. Hydro rates are
already the highest and that an
increase cannot be justified. It
compared the rates for major
Canadian cities and showed
Vancouvers’ rates far ahead of
all of them — about fifty percent
higher than Toronto and
nnipeg.
ec er leaflet said:
“The source of the problem is
cheap concessions to U.S.
interests; high interest rates

arising out of the horrendous ~

waste of U.S. aggression in
Vietnam flowing over into
Canada, and the estimated $200
million costs in excess of
payments from_ the U.S. for
building Columbia River dams
for U.S. benefit.”

Charging that B.C. Hydro
profits have risen from $7,500,000
in 1966 to $9,300,000 in 1969, the
leaflet said that wages con-
stitute ‘“‘only a very small part of
increased operational costs’’
and pointed out that while recent
wage increases will cost about $6

million, Hydro stands to
increase revenues to $43,428,975
by the 15 percent boost.

Pointing out that present rates
have strongly favored industrial
and commercial users against
residential consumers, the
leaflet says: ““B.C. Hydro’s elec-
trical and gas distribution is a
lucrative business. Oppose the
increase. Write your MLA. Make
your voice heard.”

The Vancouver protest demon-
stration was the opening shot in
a province-wide campaign
launched by the Communist
Party to oppose the hydro and

-bus fare increase. On Tuesday |

AVOR MONOPOLIES

Make industry pay
higher power rates

By MAURICE RUSH

Residential users of hydro in B.C. have been paying
the highest rates in Canada to subsidize low rates for big
industrial and commercial enterprises.

Now B.C. Hydro wants to boost rates to the public so
that it can continue to provide cheap power to the
monopolies, while the public is forced to subsidize them.

There is no hint in Dr. Gordon
Shrum’s recent announcement
to suggest that either he or the
Socred government intend to
change the present unfair rate
schedule which heavily favors
big business.

This week the Trade Union
Research Buro in Vancouver
released a study of B.C. Hydro’s
annual report which bears out
the charges made above. It
shows that big business, which
uses large blocks of our power, ,
pays substantially less for it
than residential users.

Not only have foreign and dom-
estic monopolies in ° B.C.
enjoyed exceptionally low hydro
rates, but in recent years the
charge to residential users has
gone up sharply while the

Nigel Morgan, B.C. leader of the

Communist Party wrote
Premier W.A.C. _ Bennett
condemning the boost.

The letter says that
projected increase cannot be
justified and we urge your
government to take effective
measures to disallow it: we
urge a complete review of the
rate structure of hydro and gas,
and extension of the policy of
subsidizing transit as an essen-
tial public service.”’

DOCTOR
CONDEMNS
ATROCITIES
IN VIETNAM

—See page 2—

“the

amount. these companies pay
has declined considerably.

Incredible as it seems, in a
period in which B.C. Hydro is
crying over the terrible state of
the publicly-owned system, here
are the facts:

. The average price per killo-
wat hour for residential
consumers has increased from
1.49¢ kwh in March 1966 to 1.68¢
in March 1969, or a 12.8 percent:
increase.

~On the other hand, com-
mercial and industrial
consumers have had their
average rate drop in the same
period from 1.12¢ per kwh to
1,04, or a 7.14 percent decrease.
The above figures illustrate
one of the major reasons for the
present bid to hike prices. B.C.
Hydro wants higher rates on resi-

dential users so that it can
continue the trend to lower hydro
rates for the big monopolies. |

Debunking the charge by Dr.
Shrum that higher wage costs
were responsible for the finan-

cial plight of Hydro, the
Research Buro says that
“increased revenues will:

account for $43 million, while the
payroll will increase only $6
million. Where will the extra $37
million go? A good guess is to
pay for borrowed money.”’
“Interest charges for the year

ending March 31, 1968 were
$53,233,932. A year later they had -
jumped $10,461,924 to the huge
figure of $63,695,856. (By way of
comparison, the total wage bill

_was $49,619,222).””

The Research -Buro charges
that ‘‘one of the main reasons for
borrowing money was to build
The Columbia River dams to
store water to produce
electricity in the United States

The most conservative
estimates of the net capital cost -

See HYDRO RATES, pg. 12