‘Most reactionary in B.C. history’

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Legislative session

—Sean Griffin photo

The massive protest movement against Bill 65 and to save the Vancouver Resources epee ee a a
Protest in Victoria on June 28, proves that the people of B.C. are prepared to lee cs aaorst e Socre
government's right wing offensive. Given broad- all-in unity the Socred drive can be defeated.

Put lid on further energy
projects,’ food probe told

The provincial government has
been urged to put the lid on any

rther proposed power projects in
B.C. until.a complete assessment
of the provinces future. energy
demands and costs are made.

This appeal came in a brief
Tuesday at the inquiry of the
legislature’s standing committee
On agriculture, in Vancouver. It
Was presented by the 20,000-
Member B.C. Wildlife Federation,
and warned that present B.C.
Hydro electrical generation
Schemes could bankrupt the

Province in 10 years unless halted. —

he BCWF brief pointed out that
€ most ruinous” of present
Schemes is “the committing of our
valley bottoms to hydro-electric
reservoirs,” which threatens to
destroy most of B.C.’s agricultural
land,
_ “All of the major river systems
™ B.C. not now dammed are
™arked with flooding reserves by
B.C. Hydro,” emphasized the
brief, “Any schoolboy knows that
the richest productivity is always
found in valley bottoms and this
Province is a spiderweb of valleys.
1 doomed productivity of valleys
like the Columbia, Kootenay,
Nechako, Finlay, Parsnip and
ace all stand as stark testimony
° the single purpose use of this
Sort of option-taking.”

Hitting out at the Revelstoke
. 2M which will flood 28,000 acres
in the Kootenays, the brief said:
In the last 15 vears, B. C. Hydro

8S flooded tens of thousands of
res of the best farmland in the
_ West. We have built thousands of

Uses on the most productive

Sod plains in Canada. In the
Peace River Valley we are now
Preparing to flood enough Class
°ne farmland to feed this entire
City. (Vancouver). It is roughly one
fifth of all the Class one land that
"emains in B.C.”

€ above reference is to present
Plans by B.c. Hydro to go ahead in
© near future with the building of
@dam on the Peace River knowns
a8 the Peace Site C scheme.
The BCWF pointed out that since
Canada’s agriculture and food
Processing industry now requires

bE |

20 percent.of the nation’s energy
requirements, the legislature’s
standing committee on agriculture
should logically be considering
power needs for B.C. farmers when
making recommendations about
the industry’s future and cost of
producing food in B.c.

The gist of the BCWF’s brief was
that both high energy costs in-
volved in the present wasteful B.C.
Hydro program, and_ the
destruction of prime agricultural
land, will strike a severe blow at
future food needs and costs.

The Federation claimed that the
capital costs of building massive
hydro plants have increased
tremendously in the last few years
and says that ‘future proejets will
look astronomical in the next few
years.”

Questioning the decision to go

ahead with the Revelstoke Dam,
thefederation said that the present
estimated cost of the dam is $1.2
billion, but that it will probably
cost closer to $3 billion when the
cost of borrowing over 20 years 1S
taken into account. It warned that

if the Canadian dollar slides to 80
cents for the long term the cost of
foreign borrowing for the dam will
increase by 20 percent.

“Tf you take the projected cost of
Revelstoke, the proposed Hat

- Creek coal project and the Peace

Site C sceme, the extra cost to the
people of B.C., if the Canadian
dollar drops and remains around 80
cents, will be more than $3 billion.

“The real question at that point
is what electricity will cost far-
mers, food processors, consumers,
etc., and what Hydro will do to
increase revenues.”’

The federation called on the
committee to “recommend that
B.C. undertake a complete study of
our total energy needs and the
costs including growth in the forest,
agriculture and secondary in-
dustries.’’ It said that Hydro must
be forced to justify future projects
and say what electricity will cost,
consumers in five ot ten years and
who will buy excess power and at
what price if the utility’s energy
forecasts do not reach ex-
pectations.

te Columbia River near Revelstoke where B.C. Hydro has been given

app
Although approve’

val to build a dam. which will flood 28,000 acres of land.
“e dd by the Socred cabinet, this project and others on

the planning board, continues to draw public criticism as an extravagant

waste of energy and land resources.

By NIGEL MORGAN

The current Legislative session,
now drawing to a close, will be
remembered not only as the

_ JongestinB.C.’s history, but as one

of the most reactionary on record. ,
So reactionary in fact that rifts

have begun to be openly expressed

in Socred ranks over the extreme

right-wing, red-neck, anti-people

policies being expressed by Socred

ministers Vander Zalm, McGeer

and Davis.

The Bennett government, trying
to satisfy the greedy demands of
the big monopoly interests in the
face of rising inflation, mounting
unemployment and wage controls,
has imposed severe cutbacks on
the standards of living of the
people of this province. Increased
taxes, auto. insurance premiums,
ferry and bus fares, hydro and
natural gas rates, and increased
health, hospital and educational
services, have cost the average
B.C. family more than $1,000 a
year.

Day after day, week after week,
therecordgrows worse! Anti-labor
laws, attempts to extend AIB
controls, dissolution of the Van-
couver Resources Board, scuttling
of rent controls, exorbitant in-
creases in taxes and utility rates,
and sharp curtailment of services
to people, are only some of the
latest measures imposed by the
Socreds at this session.

Indicativeof the right-wing drive
by the Socred government is its
attempt to return to ‘tough’
vagrancy laws which are a veiled
attack on the unemployed. With
over 100,000 without jobs, and new
UIC changes cutting off more
people, human resources minister
Vander Zalm has decreed that
assistance will not be given to
those jobless forced to wait longer
periods for their UIC benefits.

Allocations for “human
resource’’ funding for services to
people has been cut by $100 million
by Vander Zalm. The GAIN
program for seniors has been
slashed from $128.7 million down to
$108.9 million. Additional
assistance for needy persons 55-59
years of age has been cut from $218
to $194 million. And children’s and
family. care from $65.8 to $60.3
million.

While living costs continue to
rise sharply and services to people
are being slashed, the Socred
government is heaping additional
tax burdens on working people
while revenues, which should be
coming from resources, are being
reduced sharply. For example, in
the last Socred budget charges
against resource industries — such
as minerals and natural gas —
were cut back from $328 million to
$284 million; timber royalties and
stumpage fees from $113 million to
$67 million; coal royalties were cut
from $12.5 million to $5.3 million,
and mining and mineral land taxes
reduced from $30 million to $20
million.

It is important to note that the
seven per cent sales tax and
personal income taxes, which now
account for almost half (48.44 per
cent) of all projected B.C.
revenues, have risen three times
as much as corporation taxes.

The Socred government has also
pushed through the B.C. Resource
Investment Corporation Act which
turns over Crown companies to the
monopolies. It has also scuttled
earlier legislation which would
have given municipalities a share
of natural gas and income
revenues. Succession duties and
“gift” taxes on the estates of the
rich have been removed. Mean-

reviewed

while, changes in the assessment
and property taxes can only place
additional burdens on local tax-
payers.

The Socred government also
used this session to undermine the
Land Act and has transferred
thousands of acres_ from
agricultural land use to the
developers and corporations.
Likewise itis determined to pursue
its disastrous’ energy policies as
exemplified by the Revelstoke
Dam and the planned MacGregor-
Fraser diversion.

In the field of education, McGeer
has brought post-secondary
education under tight,
authoritarian control, while B.C.’s
three public universities have been
held down to $10 million less than
the bare minimum recommended
by the Universities Council of B.C.
— resulting in a sharp jump in
tuition fees for students. McGeer
has also introduced the CORE
curriculum for secondary schools,
and Bill 33 with its support for
private and: religious schools,
which undercuts BGs
educational standards.

Among the most reactionary
measures introduced by the
Socreds at this session are the B.C.
Labor Code Amendments Act (Bill
89) creating obstacles to free
collective bargaining for the trade
union: movement; eliminating
previous restrictions on unfair
labor practices by employers;
extending to double the period for
raiding established unions, and
making it more difficult for labor
organizations to gain certification.
College faculties (under Bill 68)
have been arbitrarily stripped of
their trade union rights.

This Legislative session proves
that the Social Credit government
is the faithful servant of the big
monopolies. The people of B.C. are
paying a heavy price because of
the right-wing offensive pushed by
the Bennett government. Public
resentment and opposition to the
big business policies of the Socreds
are growing.

A united fight-back by the people
can. defeat the Socred right-wing
drive. That such a fight-back is
possible is shown by the mass
movement to save the Vancouver
Resources Board, and by earlier
struggles.

A united labor movement is
needed to fight back against the-
Socred government’s attack, but
some right-wing union leaders are
more determined to pursue their
interna] struggle than to unite in
defence of labor and the people’s
over-all interests. Such narrow
attitudes which block labor unity
was displayed by IWA regional
president Jack Munro at. this
week’s convention, when he used
the convention platform to attack
the B.C. Federation of Labor
leadership.

United action is also being
prevented by the attitude of the
NDP leadership, which has failed
to take up an effective fight against
the Socred government’s big
business policies. The NDP enjoys
the support of a good part of the
trade union movement and must be
pressed to take up the fight against
the Socred right-wing drive and to
support all-in unity of labor and
democratic forces.

The Communist Party believes
that the way forward in B.C. lies in
co-operation of all working and
democratic forces around a
common program of struggle for
progressive policies today. That
struggle can open the way to
ousting the Socreds and electing a
progressive alternative in the next
provincial election.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 23, 1977—Page 3