Te

ednesday. (See story).

to,
beayieenants Organization president Bruce aus
| Victory Some 14,000 signatures to attorney-genera

presents petitions
Alex MacDonald in
—Sean Griffin photos

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1974

By FRED WILSON

B.C. tenant’s campaign to “keep
rents down’’ struck home this week
as that slogan soared eight feet
high and fifty feet across the lawn
outside the provincial Legislature
Wednesday afternoon, and was
met with a statement by attorney-
general Alex MacDonald that new
legislation concerning rents would
be put to the next session of the
legislature, and that a commission
on rents would be established.

It was welcome news for Bruce
Yorke and about 75 members of the
British Columbia Tenants
Organization who had gone to
Victoria to meet MacDonald and
present him with a petition bearing
14,000 signatures calling on the
government to retain the 8% freeze
on rents, to embark on a massive

-profit housing program.
eae MacDonald came down to the

: Re EDITORIAL
Nore (88in B.C. Tel is appearing
the Canadian Transport

te alre’s Customers in B.C. who
& j Y paying the highest
Nhic ie ahada for a phone system
| t the &°Nerally regarded as one
) “Oinin, MOSt inefficient in the

beara Present application being
NSiness Victoria would boost
tistanc > Tesidential, and long-
ill arges by a total of about
Moce Be M 1975, As the hearings
Raleq this week, it was
‘pany 22,.CTOSS examination of
DDlicaty Officials that the present
“hie, 108 contains a hidden hike
5 i boost rates for about
Meh ae tt of phone users by as
S 23 Percent in the Greater
€r and Victoria areas.

tates SSion Seeking higher phone ,

B.C. Tel applied and
Pier its last rate inereasens
paper warned in a feature ar 34
that, “‘There is no end to ine ral te
increases that BEG he cee
request. The Be wi
ilked without reliet.
ge of the main arguments of
company before the hearing oe a
its profits are not big enoug as
attract capital needed for :
pansion. This is the old ie bb
How big do prof its have to be t ie
days to be attractive? In 1973 ue
company made $47,661,000 in or i
before taxes, which was eno
recent of shareholders ay
Isn’t that enough for this pe
hungry corporation? Apparent
not. They want to milk the Cx
public of another $15 se ae a
B.C. Tel is part of the giant U. :
financial empire which is con

trolled by General Telephone and
Electronics Corporation in New
York, one of the world’s biggest
multi-national corporations. It
operates and hides its profits
through a vast interlocking chain
of companies which are not under
any kind of regulation.

These companies manufacture
the components used in the
telephone system as well as handle
the lucrative directory ad-
vertising. Each company scrat-
ches the back of the other to the
mutual benefit of the parent cor-
poration in New York.

It was this interlocking system
through which conglomerates hide
their profits, that Martin Taylor,
counsel for the provincial govern-
ment, was trying to get at Monday
when he suggested at the hearing

See PHONE RATES, pg. 3

ts set up huge placards bearing their message to the provincial government outside the Legislature Wednesday.
nants s

Tribun

VOL. 36, No. 42

steps of the legislature to meet
BCTO president Yorke and
receive the bundle of petitions,
Yorke read the petition aloud to
him and urged him not to lift the
ceiling until after the government
could conduct an independent
study of the rental market. Yorke
said the study should concern itself
“with the ability of tenants to
pay”’.
“We are not unappreciative for
what the government has done so
far,’ Yorke said, ‘‘but these
petitions tell the story. And there
are thousands more to come.”
MacDonald replied to Yorke that
the government would ‘‘complete
its homework’’ before any
decisions were made and that a
commission was being set up to
consider new legislation to amend
the Landlord and Tenant Act.
Earlier in the day, MacDonald had
responded to rentalsman Barrie
Clarke’s request that matters of
rent review be taken out of his
jurisdiction by saying that “new
legislation’ would be introduced.
Such a move would be welcomed
by tenants as it would mean a
further reprieve from an im-

15°

pending rent increase — possibly
until January 1 — and would give
the BCTO the opportunity to
reiterate its position on the Act as a
whole, amd influence changes that
be made.

“We have made our point clear
and strong,’’ Yorke told the
assembled tenants after the
demonstration, ‘‘but we must keep
the pressure up. The petitioning
must continue and intensify. The
best representation we can make

will be 15 or 30 thousand
names.”

Yorke also called on the tenants
to build for the founding convention
of the new provincial tenants
organization, November 3, at the
Plaza 500 in Vancouver. “The
campaign will not be the end of
things,” Yorke said, ‘‘A law is but
a law. We need a strong and united
organization to shape and enforce
the law. Organization is our only
security.”’

On Monday of this week the call
to the convention was released at a
meeting of over 200 tenants on the

See TENANTS pg. 12