| eet LL Li

_ didn’t it? .. .”

! Fishermen join opposition
at NEB pipeline hearings

The United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union stepped into the
fight to block National Energy
ard approval for a supertanker
Oil port in the Strait of Juan de
Ca this week.
| The UFAWU applied for and re-
4 aaa ee status in the
| .-8 hearings in. Vancouver. Mon-'.
day, ‘ining aionmental na Ra
Live groups in the opposition group
at the hearings. :
_, Last week, the opposition failed
Ma motion which would have forc-
“@ the suspension of the hearings
While Trans Mountain Pipeline
Mpany, whose application for an
“oil Port and pipeline is before the
. NEB, prepared detailed environ-
Mental studies on the impact of the
Port at Low Point, Washington,
4 few miles east of Port Angeles.
,,/0 a controversial ruling, the
dismissed the motion on the
Uunds that it had no authority to
oe ine the environmental impact

Port on U.S. territory.

ies € decision “emasculates any
10Us regulatory or environmental
trol process in Canada,’’ an

Rett Andrew Thompson, former
*st Coast oil ports commissioner,

“aid following the ruling.

cae. decision. was also sharply
Ucized this week by Communist
a Y provincial leader Maurice
“Uh who declared in a communi-
rheee to the NEB hearings Tuesday
itt the ruling ‘‘concedes to U.S.
“tests that they can place an oil
™ anywhere in Juan de Fuca

a

F

Strait or its environs as long as it is
on U.S. territory, regardless of the
threat such a port may pose to B.C.
environment or fisheries.”

The Communist leader said the
Board’s decision is in violation of
“the letter and the spirit of the
Boundary Waters Act’’ which re-
pollution is involved. ~~

Rush said that neither the Trans
Mountain project, or the Foothills
pipeline project along the Alcan gas
line route, are acceptable.

“‘They are primarily schemes to
get Alaska oil to the continental
U.S.,’’ he said. ‘‘Once built there is
nothing in them for Canada, except
the threat to our environment and
to the rights of Canada’s Native
peoples. Either of these plans would
constitute a giant step towards con-
tinental integration and undermine.
Canadian sovereignty.

‘Nor is there any assurance that
either of these plans would remove
the threat-of oil tanker traffic to
B.C.’s coast,’’ he warned.

There are already more than 100
oil tankers per month plying coastal
waters and entering Puget Sound
which would be unaffected by the
Foothills overland route, and the
Trans Mountain project would in-
crease vastly the tanker traffic, both
in size and numbers. ‘

“Instead of building pipelines
running north and south and carry-
ing Alaska oil to the U.S., Canada
should build two pipelines, for oil
and gas, across Canada from coast

This week’s announcements
f third quarter profits for
Nultinational oil companies

“ave been met with outrage by
~lOnists, consumer groups and

- Political groups in the U.S. and
Canada.

In the U.S., Exxon Corpora-
| Hon led the way with the largest
| ‘Yer quarterly profit in cor-
Sie history, earning $1.14.
ae lion in three months, 116 per-

] Sent more than the same period a

Year before. The third quarter
fits were earned precisely as
“Nericans were lined up at gas

°s that swept the country.

| Oil profits biggest ever

\Ps in the phony gas shor- * rn
‘incentives will remain intact. — J

+)

- In Canada, Shell, Imperial Oil
and Texaco announced average
increases in profits of 52 percent
in the first nine months of this
year over the same period a year
before. Gulf Oil announced
third quarter profits up by 55 per
cent.

Monday in Parliament, NDP
leader Ed Broadbend called the
profits a ‘corporate rip of zt
and demanded an end to tax in-
centives and giveaways to the oil
companies. But Tory prime
minister Clark rejected Broad-
bent’s call and assured the com-
panies that the government's tax

“y

quires agreement’ between States if

sume next Monday.

to coast, to carry Alberta oil and
gas, and B.C. gas to all parts of
Canada.

“Further,’” he added, ‘‘Canada
should demand that if the U.S. de-
cides to proceed with the Northern
Tier pipeline, that it move its oil
port further south to.a point where

it would not: threaten the B.C. —

coast. At the same time we should
demand that U.S. tanker traffic
from Valdez, Alaska be compelled
to travel navigation routes far from
the B.C. coast to remove any threat
to our coastal areas.’’

At the NEB hearings this week
Trans Mountain came under sharp
fire from opposition intervenors
over the almost complete lack of en-
vironmental data concerning tanker
traffic in coastal waters. Trans
Mountain also ran into trouble over
questioning about its ability to re-
ceive necessary permits from U.S.
regulatory agencies to proceed with
its project. At one point, the com-
pany’s American representative ad-
mitted that the Clallum County re-
gional government in the State of
Washington has bylaws prohibiting
the building of an oil port at Low
Point, and that Trans Mountain’s
plans are based on the assumption
that the local government will be
overruled by state governor Dixie
Lee Ray.

Although it withdrew its applica-
tion for the overland oil pipeline,
Foothills Oil Pipeline Company, a
consortium. of Westcoast Trans-
mission and Alberta Gas 'Trunk
Ltd., has remained active in the
hearings, ready to reactivate its ap-
plication to the NEB when the
Trans Mountain bid either is reject-
ed or runs out of time to meet the
U.S. deadline of December- for

- choosing a route to bring Alaska oil

south. :

Foothills retains the political
backing of the federal Tory govern-
ment and the B.C. Socred govern-
ment and the consensus among the
intervenors at the NEB is that it is
waiting for the appropriate time to
make a political move for quick ap-

-proval as the Canadian option to

bring Alaska oil south. =
The NEB temporarily adjourne
the hearings Thursday following
cross examination of Trans Mount-
ain. Other intervenors will present
their evidence when the hearings re-

Nee ot tS 5 ee ee

eee oS PP PE eee

7—PROVINCIAL NOTES:

Demonstration
against Trident

set for Sunday

BANGOR, Wash. — A
coalition of groups including the
Pacific Life Community from
Vancouver, will converge on the
Trident nuclear submarine base
this Sunday, to protest the ‘‘im-
minent threat posed by the Tri-
dent weapons system completing
its first operational phase this
month.”’ This phase involves the
backfitting of 10 of the 31 Posei-
don submarines at the base with
the Trident I missile.

Coordinated with the anti-Tri-°
dent action at Bangor, simultan-
eous demonstrations are planned
at the second Trident base in
King’s Bay, Georgia; at the ship-
yards building the Trident sub-
marines in Groton, Connecticut;
at the plant in Sunnyvale, Cali-
fornia where Lockheed
Corporation builds Trident mis-
siles; at St. Louis, Missouri
where General Dynamics is
building NAVSTAR, a 24-satel-
lite missile guidance system; and
at Washington, D.C., home of
the U.S. federal decision-
makers. ;

The pacificist action at Ban-
gor will focus on the them of
“Peace Conversion’ and a ‘Peace
Conversion City’ of tents, a
stage, information booths and
displays of alternate technology
will be assembled outside the
barbed wire fence surrounding
the base.

Several participants will at-
tempt to enter high risk areas of

the Bangor base where the nuc-

lear weapons are stored.

Public advisory
ctee. ‘sabotaged’

by Forest Service

“QUEEN CHARLOTTE
CITY — The Queen Charlottes
Public Advisory Committee,
formed in March 1977 by the
B.C. Forest Service under press-
ure by local residents wanting in-
put into forest management, was
sabotaged by the Forest Service
so that the interests of the log-
ging companies could be better
served, the former chairman of
the committee charged last
week. :

“The Forest Service must ac-
cept the blame for this failure of
participatory democracy,’’ said

Dr. Richard Helmer, referring to
the motion to disband the com-
mittee by its ‘‘disillusioned’’
non-industry members — a mo-
tion which passed unanimously
on Sept. 9. :

The Public Advisory Com-
mittee had been told how
“‘vital’’ its input was by the For-
est Service, and yet the Forest
Service ‘‘thwarted’? PAC’s at-

tempts to get information on al-

lowable annual cut calculations
and how the new Forest Act was
going to be applied to the for-
estry industry by the govern-
ment, Helmer said.

When industry representatives
broke the non-industry majority
on the committee this year, they
“emasculated’’ the committee so
that ‘‘credible public input was~
impossible,’’ he added.

In an open letter to the Queen
Charlotte Islands Observer, Hel-
mer noted that the advisory
committee was “‘started by the
Forest Service as an experiment

~\

_barrassing public questioning”’
of a watchdog environmental
group, the Islands Protection —
Committee, a group wanting the
South Moresby area of the
island to be designated a wilder-
ness area.

To ensure that advisory com-
mittee would not be the Island
Protection Committee in an-
other form, the Forest Service
decided that a ‘‘broad spectrum
of industrial representatives’’
should sit on the committee.
This was in line, Helmer added,
with the traditional Forest Serv-
ice policy of putting private sec-
tor recommendations before
those of the public.

“The mandate of the Forest
Service is to ‘manage forests’ but
the bureaucracy is deeply in-
stilled in the giveaway traditions
of the 1950s under W.A.C. Ben-
nett,’’ Helmer said, ‘‘and they
view their mandate as selling
trees. This makes them the na-
tural ally of the logging compan-
ies and the structure the Forest
Service chose for PAC can be
understood in that light.’’

In 1978, the Forest Service
awarded a major timber sale of
non-tree forest license lands to
Rayonier Ltd., despite the call
for the recalculation of the avail-
able- woods on that land by
PAC.

When PAC pressed for public
hearings into Tree Forest Li-
cence renewals, winning the sup-
port of union and environmental
groups, forest minister Tom
Waterland said that the Forest
Act ‘‘precluded”’ public hearings
and ‘‘forced’’ him to make a re-
newal offer to Rayonier. PAC
members subsequently sup-
ported the Island Protection
Committee in their court battle
against Waterland for failing to
““act responsibly in his
position.” . :

At that poing the Forest Ser-
vice disassociatéd itself from the
Public Advisory Committee
and, according to Helmer, lob-
bied industry representatives to
stack the committee and prevent
it from functioning.

* * *

‘No confidence’
in Socreds over
farm land policy

LANGLEY — The removal of
626 acres in Langley from the
agricultural land reserve by the
provincial government has
sparked the formation of an un-
precedented coalition of diverse
Organizations demanding a re-
versal of the decision.

The coalition, including the
B.C. Federation of Agriculture,
B.C. Consumer Association,
B.C. Chamber of Commerce,
the United Church, the B.C. In-
stitute of Agrologists, the Feder-
ation of B.C. Naturalists, the
Planning Institute of B.C. and
the B.C. Women’s Institute, is-
sued a joint statement at a press
conference on Tuesday.

The statement, read by Pat
Hibbert of the B.C. Federation
of Agriculture, said they have
lost “‘confidence in the provin-
cial government’s willingness
and desire to maintain the effect-
iveness of the agricultural land
reserve and hence protect the
province’s agricultural land
-base.”’

Hibbert went on to say that
“there can, no longer be any
doubt that what we are witness-
ing is the demise of farmland
preservation in this province.” aa

we see if it could defuse the em-

PACIFI

Pas

C TRIBUNE OCTOBER 26, 1979— Page 3