B.C. Electric conducting drive |
to take over public power system

A high-pressure campaign has been launched by
on the part of the Financial Post and the province’s three bi

lobbyists of the private power monopoly,

VICTORIA, B.C.

backed by an elaborate and studied clamor
ggest daily papers, to knock the publiclyowned power system out of the field and

get its assets turned over “‘lock, stock and barrel” to the B.C. Electric. The B.C. Power Commission, established nine years ago, has assets listed
at $65 million and is providing hydro-electric power for 50,000 customers, many of them in communities which formerly were not served. On
Vancouver Island, where most of its business is concentrated, the Power Commission has reduced rates while the B.C. Electric has increased them.

Bennett turns down
Bill of Rights plea

The campaign, aimed at restor-
ing monopoly control for the B.C.
Electric, got under way with an-
‘nouncement of BCE plans for a
submarine cable to tie Vancouver
Island in with the Northwest
Power Pool.

This announcement, which, it
is reported by an authoritative
source, was unknown to Power
Commission officials until two
weeks before it appeard in the
press, was timed to coincide with
resignation of the former three-
man Power Commission over the
Whatshan Dam disaster and re-
opening of the projected Buttle
Lake development.

The Financial Post commented:

“Observers here feel that there
will be a Power Commission-B.C.
Electric deal soon. . . . The neigh-
borhood power business developed
by the Power Commission may
very well be taken over by the
B.C. Electric Company ... a
$267.7 million utility (which) re-
cently announced the invasion of
Vancouver Island by a submarine
cable from the mainland . . . ob-
viously future requirement will be
met by B.C. Electric by its cable.
Government and utility might
work a plan whereby B.C. Electric
gets transmission and retailing
rights, while the Government
keeps production rights.”

Plans of the B.C. Electric to re-
gain the “Island empire” and util-
ize the Whatshan disaster to kill
the growing demand for public
ownership of the province’s power
industry, received a bit of a set-
back with the government’s quick
replacement of resigned Power
Commission members and Premier
Bennett’s consequent statement to
the legislature.

But Premier Bennett’s statement
fell far short of halting the BCE-
inspired campaign. He ignored
rumors that a deal is being readied
to turn over the government-own-
ed transmission and distribution
facilities which serve Vancouver
Island from Duncan north to the
B.C. Electric’s network. :

Meanwhile the B.C. Electric is
proceeding with construction of its
submarine cable capable of carry-
ing a maximum load of 120,000
kilowatts from a point on the main-
land to Vancouver Island and pre-
paring future plans for a second
line which would raise the capacity
to 240,000 kilowatts.

The BCE now serves only the
south end of the Island around

Victoria. About half of the power
presently needed in this area is
generated at BCE Jordan River
plant. The rest, amounting this
year to a maximum of 26,000 kilo-
watts, is brought by the BCE from
the Power Commission, and comes
to Victoria over a BCE high-voltage
line from the Jinglepot sub-station
near Nanaimo.

The BCE has shown an interest
in improving its obsolescent
plants near Victoria. Rates in
the capital are the highest for a
city of its size in the whole
country. Cheap power bought
from the Power Commission js
retailed at a handsome profit.

Purchase of power from the
Power Commission was begun by
the BCE in 1950 under a 25-year
contract in which the commission
agreed to supply up to 60,000 kilo-
watts. The BCE has already made
its second request for an increase
in the peak load, this time to
37,000 kilowatts starting in Novem-
ber of this year.

One thing is certain — the

A. E. “DAL” GRAUER
power monopoly is not pushing
construction of a 120,000-kilowatt
submarine cable from Point Grey
to the Island merely to serve
Victoria where the present maxi-
mum demand is less than: half
that figure. Nor is supplying the
proposed new pulp mill in the
Cowichan Valley its only objec-
tive.

Dal Grauer and other BCE offi-
cials have their greedy eyes on
the huge profits to be made in sup-
plying power to large industrial
users on the Island. The Power
Commission’s annual reports indi-
cate the rich prize the monopolists
are trying to grab.

At present, the three large pulp
mills at Nanaimo, Port Alberni and
Duncan Bay, and the BCE itself
use only about half the power pro-
duced at Campbell River, but they
pay two-thirds of the cost of pro-
ducing it, including the cost of
transmitting and distributing.

Under the Electric Power Act
which sets up the Power Commis-
sion, the profits from these opera-
tions must be used to subsidize
the cost of electricity for domestic
users. In other words, profits from
large industries means lower light
bills for home owners. w

If the BCE were to get control
of power distribution on the Island,
consumers in Duncan, Nanaimo and
Upper Island would be paying the
same high rates as the people of
Victoria, and the fat profits from
the big industries would go to the
B.C. Electric.

The new submarine cable is the
B.C. Electric’s first move to bring
Vancouver Island under its domin-
ation. The cable would tie into the
existing BCE line at a point ‘be-
tween Duncan and Nanaimo. The
monopoly will then be in a position

to cut rates to big users as far
north as Nanaimo in order to take
customers away from the Power
Commission.

Coupled with this is an attack
on Power Commission proposals to
expand its producing capacity by
damming Buttle Lake. The com-
mission has always maintained that
it must use the lake for storage
if the John Hart development is to
keep pace with the growing need
for power.

The bringing in of power by
the underwater cable from the

mainland is now advanced by
Special groups using conserva-
tionist arguments and supported
by many genuine conservationists
as an alternative to damming
Buttle Lake. If they can stop
the Power Commission from con-
structing the extra storage, then
industry on the Island will be
increasingly dependent on the -
Pacific Northwest Power Pool, of
which the B.C. Electric is the
Canadian member, for additional
power at times of peak load.

This would mean that the BCE
would be in the most favored posi-
tion to contract for delivery of new
power and thus obtain, a whip hand
in setting of rates. From there it
would be just a step to taking over
distributing facilities and assuming
effective control of the use of pow-
er on Vancouver Island.

The announcement about the
BCE cable provides an interesting
sidelight on the motives of the
alleged conservationists who most
vociferously opposed the damming
of Buttle Lake. :

Asked to comment, the head of
the so-called B.C. Natural Resources

| Conservation League, H. H. Stev-

ens, former cabinet minister in the
Bennett Tory government and a
well-known member of Vancouver
Board of Trade, said nothing about
the saving of the beauties of Buttle
Lake, but only about the saving of
taxpayers’ money if there were no
further development at the John
Hart site. It seems more than a
mere coincidence that this posi-
tion is most favorable to the plans
of the B.C.Electric.

Another interesting fact is that
although the plans for a cable
were kept secret until the last
minute, even after the necessary
cable had been ordered from
Britain, these same “conserva-
tionists’” were using the possi-
bility of just such a cable as an
argument against the damming
of Buttle Lake in hearings held
over a year ago!

VICTORIA, B.C.

A measure which would prevent
the building of power dams to ob-
struct rivers where salmon migrate
unless fish ladders are provided,
has been approved by the legisla-
ture. ’

The new act would prevent pow-
er-hungry corporations from de-
stroying the valuable salmon runs
by building dams in salmon
streams.

Some question as to whether the
act will be effective was raised by
Arthur Turner (CCF, Vancouver-

East) who cited passages from an-
other act, the Industrial Develop-

Act controls dams
on salmon rivers

ment Act, which would give the
government power to over-ride the
Fisheries Act.

What the CCF member had in
mind was the possibility of another
Alcan deal where the Aluminum
Company of Canada was able to
build a.dam on the Nechako River
without any provision to protect
the salmon runs below the dam-
site.

Opposition criticism of the
‘new act was cenfred around the
powers held by the government
to omit any river it chooses from
me protection of the Fisheries

Chi

VICTORIA, B.C.‘
: ‘right to employment, to engage
‘any occupation and to membersah

Louis, St. Laurent’s big Liberal 5 trade and professional associ®-

Last week as Prime Minister

majority was pushing through the
House of Commons the very amend-
ments to the Criminal Code which
undermine the civil liberties of all
Canadians, Premier W. A. C. Ben-
nett’s Social Credit government re-
fused in the legislature to consider
a proposal for a provincial Bill of

Rights.

The resolution put forward by
CCF Opposition leader Arnold
Webster asked government consid-
eration for an act to protect the
rights of freedom of religion, free
expression, free association, free-

dom from arbitrary imprisonment.

tions, as well as the right to ow?
and occupy property, the right of
access to public places and tbe
right to education.

Attorney-General Bonner echoed
the opposition to the motion €*
pressed by Liberal leader Arthw
Laing. Bonner said that if theré
was a case for such a bill it was
a case for a national bill. He said,
that provincial invasions into thé
field of civil liberties were “tr&
grettable” and cited the instance
of Quebec under Premier Duple®
sis.

Science--for good or evil

Overshadowed by the bending of its discoveries to human destru®
tion and crippled for want of the funds squandered on weapons of m
destruction, science nevertheless pursues its war against disease. Heré
Carl Barkley (top) of Cliften, N.J., uses television in his study of
human cell to devise a method of analyzing normal and abnormal cha"
acteristics. A standard TV camera (centre) picks up a magnified image
of the cell from a miscroscope beneath the camera. Portion of image !*
transferred to the picture tube (left) where it appears as a luminous
graph. By studying pattern variations of light intensity scientists hope
tc be able to detect abnormalities at an early stage. And (bottom) 4
mammoth model of a human heart is displayed at the Franklin Institute

in Philadelphia.

“PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 16, 1954 — PAGE 4