NEWS ITEM: The price of gasoline and home-heating fuel will jump by 3.2 cents a gallon Monday night, both Imperial Oil and Gulf Oil, the largest oil firms in the country, announced last weekend. The boost will mean that consumers will pay about $20 more for their heating oil and $32 a year more for running the family car. A similar increase will hit consumers next March 1 in the second stage of the oil price boost which the federal government has approved, adding millions more to

the profits of the oil monopolies.

Reduced daily rate urged for new B.C. Care program

By ALD. HARRY RAINKIN

City Council, atthe request of the minister of health R. H. Mc- Clelland, has accepted respon- sibility for administering the province’s Long Term Care Program in Vancouver.

Under this program, according to the government, all persons in B.C. will be eligible for personal care, intermediate care and ex- tended care at a patient charge of $6.50 per day effective January 1, 1978. Where the services of a homemaker are required for home care service, there will be an additional charge. The minister says that although the program will be concerned mainly with the elderly, it will also cover the mentally ill, the handicapped, and later will apply to long term care fer children.

It is estmated that 7 percent of the elderly over 65 require some form of institutional care and an additional 8 percent require home management services.

Burrard plant blocked

Anti-pollution fi

The people in the Lower Mainland, and ‘particularly Bur- naby and Port Moody, won an important victory in the fight against air pollution last week when their opposition compelled the B.C. Pollution Control Branch (PCB) to reject an application by B.C. Hydro to expand the Burrard thermal generating plant.

In April, Hydro applied to the PCB for a permit which would have allowed the Burrard thermal plant to boost daily emissions of sulphur dioxide from 142 pounds to 453,600 pounds. The permit would also have allowed the Ioco elec- tricity generating station to raise

the maximum level of pollutants from 3,240 pounds per day to 25,956 pounds and to emit up to 49,440 pounds daily of nitrogen oxide. PCB director Bill Venables announced last Friday that the permit Hydro was seeking will not be issued because the proposed daily emissions far exceed the standards for ground-level con- centrations laid out in the PCB’s

air quality guidelines. Venables

said the PCB believed that if the permit were granted ‘the air quality could not be maintained at acceptable levels — particularly during adverse meterological conditions.”

Socred Bill wipes out public-owned companies

Premier Bill Bennett introduced legislation last Tuesday which would turn over to private business the assets of four companies acquired by the previous NDP government.

The fact that the premier himself introduced Bill 87, which sets up a B.C. Resources Investment Cor- poration, indicates the importance the Socred government places on this piece of legislation. It is one of the major payoffs to big business in return for support in the last election.

In outlining reasons for the Bill, Bennett said the ‘‘denationali- zation’? would boost industry’s confidence (meaning private big business) in the government.

The legislation allows the government to transfer its assets in four companies to the new corporation which will function as a private company. Under the Bill the Socred government will transfer to private hands nearly 10,000 shares of Canadian Cellulose Ltd.; about 160,000 shares in West Coast Transmission; and the government’s holdings in the fully government-owned Plateau Mills Ltd. and Kootenay Forest Products Ltd.

Presented in the guise of a

‘able to immediately

scheme to allow B.C. residents to share in a ‘‘Buy B.C.”’ plan, ob- jectively its aim is to turn over public assets to private business. The premier said the new com- pany will have large cash reserve invest in major resource developments, and that shares will be available through banks, trust companies and bond houses.

It will not be long before the new corporation will pass under the control of the big business establishment in B.C.

PREMIER BENNETT

‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 2, 1977—Page 2

ht won

Hydro’s application for the permit was vigorously opposed by the public and by civic and regional government bodies. The Burnaby and Port Moody council’s opposed the application, as well as the Greater Vancouver Regional District. About 700 Port Moody residents signed a petition against it.

In its submission against the permit, the GVRD charged that the termal plant would be able to emit 12 times the entire amount of sulphur dioxide presently given off by all industry in upper Burrard Inlet. Opponents of the permit said that the level of pollution requested by Hydro would have a: serious effect on air quality in the area which is already susceptible to high concentrations of air pollutants due to poor ventilation due to geographical conditions.

A major consideration in the PCB decision, said Venables, was that large quantities of sulphur dioxide in the eastern Burrard Inlet basin could have detrimental effects on the health of susceptible groups of the population.

Recently Burnaby health unit spokesman, Dr. John Blatherwick, said that high concentrations of sulphur dioxide could pose a serious health hazard to ‘‘those who are weak’’ — infants, senior citizens and people’ with respiratory problems.

B.C. Hydro chairman Robert Bonner said Friday that the cor- poration will consider appealing the PCB decision to the B.C. Pollution Control Board. Hydro has not yet given up the fight to carry through the highly .dangerous project which is aimed at generating electricity, much of which is earmarked for export to the U.S.

It was also implied in Bonner’s statement that Hydro may use the rejection by the PCB of its permit to expand the Burrard thermal plant to pressure the provincial government to bring down an early decision favoring the construction of the Revelstoke dam, which a cabinet committee has been studying, but has not yet brought down its recommendations. _

The minister also states that this new program will replace similar services presently being ad- ministered for people on social assistance by the Vanouver Resources Board and_ the Department of Human Resources.

There is nothing wrong in principle with such a universal care program, in fact it’s com- mendable. The problems arise in its practical application.

First of all the rate of $6.50 a day is too high. It costs the patient even

more than when he goes to the.

hospital where the rate is $4.00 a day. (It was $2.00. day but the rate was doubled by the Social Credit government). There are many families that simply can’t afford $6.50 a day for a member of the family who requires care services.

Therate should, I think, be cut at least in half. It certainly costs less to take care of people outside of hospitals than in; why then charge them more? It doesn’t make sense, unless, of ocurse, the aim is to shift still more of the financial burdens of medicare on the people who can afford them the least.

Secondly, there is the problems of providing decent facilities. At present we have a combination of both public and private facilities. Some of the private facilities are simply unfit for such care services —no elderly person deserves to be condemned to them. And the number of units available is en- tirely inadequate.

Vancouver has about 65 percent of B.C.’s over 65 population. They number approximately 60,000. According to the government’s own figures they require 4,200 institutional placements, while another 4,800 require home management services. Vancouver is already deficient in intermediate care services’ and some of the specialized care services will naturally attract people into Vancouver from other municipalities as this program goes into operations.

So we have two problems in- volvedhere. One is the need for the government to set quality stan- dards for care services for private institutions that are not less than those supplied in public in- stitutions. The other is the need to build many new facilities so that all people who require care will receive it.

Lastly, there is the question of administering the program. Vancouver requires at least 25 people immediately if the program is to be operative by January 1, 1978. The minister of health is offering us one! If this is to be taken as an indication of the seriousness of the minister in getting his own program into operation, then. it will take not months but years for it to become operative. That is why City Council is insisting that it will accept responsibility for the Care program in Vancouver only if:

(1) The ‘provincial government assumes 100 percent of all costs including administrative overhead costs.

(2) That before the’ end of

September the province provide the city with an adequate budget and sufficient. authority an flexibility to appoint the necessary staff and begin preparations im- mediately to get the plan underway by January 1, 1978.

‘Boost human rights code’

A five-member committee of the B.C. Human Rights Commission, under the chairmanship of Bishop Remi De Roo, has tabled a report in the Legislature which recom- mends that the Human Rights Code be upgraded so that it “suspercede any legislation that is deemed to be in conflict with it.”

The report says that huma? rights investigating officers find that inconsistencies and om- missions in the present code render them helpless to control certaif types of discrimination. The code is also confusing since under most sections race, sex, religion, color ancestry, age and place of origi? are prejudice areas, while other sections also include marital

“status, political belief and criminal

charges.

The committee also states that for human rights legislation t0 protect the public from all unseen types of discrimination, 4 “reasonable cause”’ clause should cover all sections which. would mean that if a _ specific discrimination was not in black and white under the code, it could still be considered a contravention of the law if the board found there was not reasonable ‘cause for the prejudice. :

Programs to eliminate racism andsexism in public schools is als? urged in the committee report.

Take time

Surrey forms civic group

The Surrey Alternative Movement (SAM) announced this week that they will contest this year’s municipal elections i? Surrey with a “‘labor, farmer, people orientated” program.

SAM met August 28 and adopted the civic policy program of the New Westminster and District Labor Council.

The meeting elected Kosty? Gidora chairperson, Dave Jense? vice-chairperson, Frank Izzar secretary, Dave Arland treasure! and Joe LeClair organizer.

RIBUNE

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