PUBLIC OUTRAGED

OVER FARE BOOST

Demand Premier Bennett cancei hike

A wave of public indignation followed the announcement from the Public Utilities Commission Monday that bus fares in Vancouver and Victoria will be boosted to 20 cents cash for a single*ride. The announcement was met imme- diately by a strong demand from many quarters that Premier Bennett and his cabinet cancel the hike and set up a special legislative committee at the coming legislative session in January to probe the transit crisis in B.C.’s

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1964 VOL. 25, NO. 51

MILITIAWOMAN OF VIETNAM DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. The South Vietnamese Woman above is symbolic of the heroic struggle waged by the people to throw Off the yoke of the U.S. and puppet regime in the strife-torn country. Heavy fighting between U.S.-led puppet troops and liberation forces continued this Week and there are growing reports that the five-week old Huong government May topple at any time. Meanwhile, the threat of U.S. action to spread the war to Laos and North Vietnam grows daily. (See page 7).

Labor

The B,C, Federation has urged

the provincial government to un-.

dertake a series of measures

designed to curb the power and.

influence of monopoly inB,C, The

demand was made in the federa-.

tion’s brief to the cabinet, pre- Sented last Monday,

The submission-advocated: ® Public ownership of forests,

® Taking over of the telephone Monopoly,

* A government auto insurance Scheme,

* Scrapping of existing anti- labor legislation,

The Federation's position on Natural resources was sharp and Clear, « All development and ex- Ploitation of resources should be

main population centres.

Timed to come immediately after the civic elections were out of the way so as to avoid public debate on the transit issue, the Public Utilities Commission an- nouncement that fares would go up Jan, 1 was immediately con- demned by civic and business leaders, community, PTA and labor organizations, senior citi- zens’ groups and political lead- ers,

In Vancouver Mayor Rathie an- nounced that a meeting of mayors and reeves would meet Wednes- day and he indicated that they will likely appeal to either the pro- vincial cabinet or the B,C, Appeal Court.

Meeting Tuesday night the Van- couver Labor Council. unani- mously endorsed a recommenda- tion from its executive calling for unqualified support to the muni- cipalities in opposing the fare hike, Speaking on the resolution, council secretary Paddy Neale and Amalgamated Transit Union delegate Charles Stewart ex- pressed the feeling of delegates,

Neale said: “The only answer is to subsidize transit out of power revenues. Experience shows that increased fares mean less riders, What is needed is lower fares ina subsidized, mass rapid transit system.” Stewart said the proposed increase will still leave the transit system with a deficit, simply because public transit is a service and not a money-making proposition,

In Vancouver, the president of the Central Council of Rate- payers, Harry Rankin, said: “We

advocate subsidized rapid tran- sit and these increases go in the opposite direction, It will result in the vicious circle ofincreased fares, reduction of passengers, reduction in service, loss of revenue, then more increased fares,”

NDP provincial leader Robert Strachan, who opposed the boost at the PUC hearing, said: “It will only mean more cars in the downtown areas” and “will give more problems to municipali- ties,”

B.C, Communist Party leader Nigel Morgan put the responsi- bility for the increase squarely on the doorstep of-:the Bennett government, In a statement to

PADDY NEALE, Vancouver Labor Council secretary, who told the coun- cil meeting Tuesday night the only answer to the transit crisis is for the bus system to be subsidized by power revenues.

the PT Morgan said: “The Ben- nett government first separated the transit, electric and natural gas operation of B,C, Hydro into separate bookkeeping entities to lay the basis for fare increases.

“Then they directed Hydro to apply for increases ranging all the way up to 122 per cent in some cases, And finally, having appointed the PUC and having set the rules for its operation, they are now trying to sit back and Say: ‘What can we do? The PUC ordered the fare boost.’

“This increase has got to be blocked, It should be withheld at least until a special legislative committee can be struck off at the coming session in January to examine the acute transit crisis in the metropolitan areas where 70 per cent of the people live.”

Morgan said the legislature should reverse last June’s cabin- et decision separating Hydro’s transit operations from the highly profitable electric and natural gas divisions. “If this were done,” said Morgan, “the transit system could be maintained with- out the fare boost; services could be improved, and rapid transit introduced which would substan- tially increase transit revenues and eliminate the extremely cost- ly provisions for increased auto traffic.”

Morgan urged delegations to city and municipal councils call- ing on them to press Victoria to act. “Resolutions, petitions, let- ters, phone calls toaldermenand MLA’s are needed to get action before it is too late,” he said.

brief urges monopoly takeover

carried out under the direct.

supervision of the (provincial) government, The pracitce of un- controlled alienation must end...

“We urge ... that a publicly owned corporation be established to develop our forests for the benefit of all the people,” the brief stated, No more tree farm licences should be issued, all

presently held licences shouldbe.

reviewed, and those held by “monopolistic corporations with little regard for the welfare of the people” should be withdrawn,

It pointed out that MacMillan Bloedel & Powell River “is now as big, or even bigger, than the government itself, ,..The emer- gence of such vast corporate monopoly in any society is not a healthy situation,”

The federation spoke out equal-

ly strongly on the important ques- tion of preserving and fostering , B.C,’s fishing industry, Stating that labor “is not satisfied that the government has shown suf- ficient concern for the protec+ tion” of the fishing industry, it called for the following six-point program to be implemented:

(5) More money for research,

(6) A 12-mile territorial limit

from headland to headland which —

would eliminate all so-called “historic fishing rights of other nations,”

On taking over the telephone

’ monopoly, the federation pointed

(1) All nations fishing in the North Pacific must be included in the Norpac Fisheries Treaty,

(2) All signatories tothe treaty must agree to limit their in- shore, offshore and mid-ocean catches, and abolish mid-ocean salmon fishing,

(3) Nursery areas must be set aside,

(4) No mother or factory ships must be allowed to fish within our continental shelf,

out that “our telephone rates are the highest in Canada” and this situation was not likely to change while monopoly interests con- tinue to be at the helm of this vital public service, The answer lies in bringing “all telephone services in the province under public ownership,”

The brief opened with some stinging remarks on existing labor legislation in the province and stated the labor movement's patience is “being severely strained” and that “intimidation

of workers by employers has be- come a characteristic of life” in B,C,

The Canadian Manufacturers Association and other manage- ment groups, operating under the protection of Bills 42, 43 and other vicious anti-labor Statutes, are apparently determined to decimate the labor movement,

“Under these circumstances, the government's promotion of Labor Management Conferences is an exercise in futility, Con- sidering the continued attacks upon our freedoms and rights, we do not know how much longer we can continue to support these endeavors,”

Demands were then enunciated which would guarantee workers the right to organize. to bargain

See LABOR, pg. 3