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| B.C ENERGY OFFICIAL WARNS:

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1974
Second class mail registration number 1560.

VOL. 35, No. 4

ENERGY EXPORTS TO U.S.
OUR SURVIVAL’

ag

Candles and flashlights in hand, tenants begin march to public meeting at Kitsilano high school Tuesday. (See

Story this Page).

THREATE

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Council to urge government
action on tenant legislation

: peed to hear a motion from
re, en Harry Rankin to send a
tens elegation of council and
aoe to Victoria to urge im-
hina legislation, city council
en up a stormy four-hour
Rene at Kitsilano high school
uesday night by adopting some
ie e Proposals: advanced by
aa nts organizations but
Pped short of agreeing that

any rent increases should be tied

© the cost of living index.
efore the méeting, some 100
Marched from Broadway
acDonald with flashlights
Candles only -o find when
A arrived at the auditorium
Many of the seats had been

and M

Snapped up by landlords who had

Packed ‘the meeting in the-hopes

: aes any council action on
Sperate housing situation.
ankin’s motion. seconded by

an Marzari, was passed
fter it was amended by
arcourt to remove a
ng for cost of living
a on rent increases.
¢ tinal motion did endorse the
ple of rent review boards
9re which landlords could be

Only at

Section calli
'Mitations

brought to justify excessive rent
increases and just cause for evic-
tion. :
None of the aldermen who op-
posed the rent increase limita-
tion offered any indication of
what would be considered an ex-
cessive increase. Nor would they
agree to sending a joint tenants-
citv council delegation to Vic-
toria. opting instead for a
meeting between city council and
attorney-general Alex Mac-
donald. \
Vancouver Tenants Council
secretary Bruce Yorke presented
a major brief on behalf of tenants
before the council and emphasiz-
ed that “housing should be con-
sidered a public necessity and

rents should be justified before’

public bodies.”

Yorke pointed out that the
massive rent increases many
corporate landlord have imposed
in the last few months have been
completely unjustified con-
sidering that. in most cases, tax~
es on apartments have declined
or remained stable and increases
on other costs have been slight.

In the Block Brothers-owned

Beach Towers complex. com-
prising two apartments, the tax-
es dropped 4% from 1972 to 1973.
Yet in the same complex, tenants
have recently been given notice
of rent increases averaging 15 to
16‘.

Several tenants, many of them
from the Century House apart-
ment, also owned by Block
Brothers, addressed the meeting
to-urge support for Rankin’s mo-
tion and gave as examples of the
recent rent gouge. their own
cases of rent increases which
have averaged $28 a month.

See TENANTS, pg. 12

“We as Canadians must make
the choice of a well-defined
national energy policy. or we
may have no national identity
left to search for.”’ This warning
came on the eve of the federal-
provincial conference in Ottawa
from a top energy official in B.C.

Speaking to a meeting of the
Vancouver Electric Club last
Friday. John Caplette, a member
of the B.C. Energy Commission,
warned that Canada is sharing its
energy resources with the U.S.
“too much for its own good.”

He pointed out that Canadians
are already ‘sharing’ over half
their total western oil production
with the U.S. and almost half our

- natural gas. Caplette said that if

Canada continues to export both
gas and oil at the present rate. it
will have severe shortages from
present reserves in five to 10
years.

Illustrating the danger to
Canada in present energy exports
to the U.S., Caplette said that if
Canada sold all the present flow
ot oil and gas to the U.S. it would
increase the present supply to the
U.S. by only five percent but
Canada would be sucked dry in
about five vears.

Hitting out at the giveaway
prices the U.S. is paying for gas
and oil, and pointing to the rise of
exports in 1972 and 1973, the
speaker made the following
points:

e The average border price of
gas in 1973 was 35 cents for 1,000
cubic feet. To replace that gas
from the Mackenzie delta in the
future is estimated at about $1
per 1,000 cubic feet.

e In 1973 Canada exported 350
million barrels of crude oil to the
U.S. and imported 290 million for
eastern Canada. Sale price for
Canadian oil in Chicago in
December, 1973 was $6.00 to $6.50
a barrel. To replace it in Mon-
treal Canada had to pay about
$8.50 a barrel. :

Illustrating the magnitude of
Canada’s gas exports to the U:S..,
he said that in 1972. Canada

shipped to the U.S. slightly over
one trillion cubic feet of gas,
about 45 percent of our produc-
tion. This had a heat equivalent
of 16 times the present ‘otalCana-

dian electrical generation
capacity.
Caplette said that Canada’s

reserves are running downhill
and there is no viable alternative
to phasing out exports.

Morgan calls

for shift in
taxation load

The Communist Party of B.C.
has called on the provincial
government to take action at the
coming spring session of the
Legislature to overhaul the pre- —
sent assessment methods - and
shift the tax load from lower and
middle income groups to in-
dustry.

“There is no issue of greater
importance to the working people
of this province,’ says a letter
sent to Premier and Finance
Minister Dave Barrett over the
signature of B.C. Communist
Party leader Nigel Morgan.

“The fact that the number of
rural taxpayers in B.C. appealing
their assessments this year is
setting an all-time record — dou-
ble the average number — is
proof enough that the present
assessment methods are totally
unacceptable and in need of a
drastic overhaul.” said Morgan
in his letter. i

“The B.C. electorate ousted
the previous Socred administra-
tion and elected your government
because they wanted and ex-
pected new policies. They wanted
the cost of education lifted off
homes and the family farm
(which you promised in your
election campaign. )

They also wanted the removal
of abuses and inequalities in
assessment methods and an end
to the Socred giveaways’ to the
monopolies so that the ~heavy
burden of sales, gasoline and con-
sumer taxes could be removed or
at least reduced. These taxes
bear most heavily on lower ‘in-
come groups. yet your govern-
ment raises a good third of its

See TAX LOAD, pg. 12