Ad - Wednesday, October 12, 1983 - North Shore News strictly personal by Bob Hunter ENERGY MINISTER STEPHEN ROGERS has announced that the price of natural gas is going to rise 80 per cent in the next seven years. It’s an appropriate time to remind Mr. Rogers about one of his government's better ideas, namely the taking of a large, sharp kmife to B.C. Hydro and the surgical removal of its $350 million gas division. A while ago, I predicted that the price of natural gas was going to take off, ch? | cautioned against par- ticipating in the Canada Oil Substitution Program, whereby the feds slip you $800 to convert from oil to natural gas. While oil prices are dropp- ing in response to market conditions in the world, the price of natural gas to the B.C. consumer has almost nothing to do with economic factors. Pohtucs, my friend. That’s what the price of natural gas is caused by. I have always been suspicious of claims by the feds, Victoria and Hydro that converting to gas is good for you. My instinct has been there’s no fuel hke an old fuel. l have been keeping an eye on Hydro’s efforts to flog natural gas since 1973 when the Crown corporation came out with a series of ads claim- Ing natural gas was CHEAPER NOW THAN IN 1956. The statement was factual but deceptive. The implica- lion that prices would con- (inue to get lower was a bla- tant example of a public util- ty (rying to pull one over on the folks back home. It is one thmng when a private company tries to sucker you in. They have every right to do that. But it is quite another when an out- fit flying a flag with the Crown on it tnes to do the same thing. There is just an itsy-bitsy chance, even in this day and age, that people will believe what an artificial arm of the government says, while they End the gas scam tend to be much more skep- tical about what an out-front freebooter claims. I'm not saying that higher energy prices wouldn't be good for British Columbians in the long run. There is a convincing case to be made against subsidized energy. For one thing, so long as Canadians were sheltered against the harsh realities of oil prices out there in the real world, we failed to make the kinds of adjustments which we are now making so pain- fully, and which are no small factor tn the generally dismal state of the economy, com- pared to what it ought to be hhke. The price of natural gas has been kept unnaturally low mainly because of in- terventionist§ tinkering in Ottawa. No decision yet OFFICIALS OF _ School District 44 and members of the North Vancouver Teachers Association have until Oct. 15 to decide whether or not to open con- tract negouations. Trustee Roy Dungey told the North Shore News Tues- day the NVTA made a sub- mission to the School Board at a meeting held October 3. Should negitiations be open- ed, Dungey said both sides Rescue vessel aids injured caretaker VOLUNTEER marine sear cheers proved thei valuc again Monday, as they were called oo to evacuate an in yured man from Gambier Istand The vessel Blue Spirit, onc of 30 boats in the © anadian Marine Rescuc Auntliary, was only a bay away when the 45 year old carctaker of Camp Arteban on Crambrer Island tell from a ladder, in yuring his back A call tor help went out to the reseuc co ordination center ain Victoma gewhich relayed the distress signal to the Blue Spirit Within 1S minutes the vessel had reached the camp, loaded the injured man and his wife aboard and were on ther way to Horseshoe Bay for oa rendevous wwiong ambulance with a — PET CORNER-— PHtS BIC. handsome Stamese nceds a home blucst cyen ever He bas the Please phone Dorts Orr 987 90145 would have until November 15 to reach an agreement or the dispute would then be sent to arbitration. The NVTA contract ex- ptres on December 31. IT’S EXCITING SUPER PROGRAMS _PROCRAN- THE BEST! on OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK FOR MEN & WOMEN That $800 you get to con- vert to gas ts a bribe from the boys who gave you the Na- uuonal Energy program, one of the more spectacular ex- amples of the kind of defec- tive monstrosity you get when conniving politicians and entrenched bureaucrats mate. The case for selling Hydro’s gas division off to the highest bidder can be made simply: Let’s end the hyprocrisy involved in a political agency, only one very porous boardroom door removed from the actual civil service, pretending to pass self off as a regular business. Then we can assess ils claims and offers objectively and, if we want, ignore both — without being endlessly manipulated by the politi- cians behind the furnace. I've got an idea for a new ad for natural gas: CHEAPER NOW THAN IN 1985. Does it sing? Did you SEE? 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