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ENSURE INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION

& JOBS FOR CANADA'S PEOPLE

Above

Electrical Workers (UE).

Is the front page of the two color folder put out by the United

liberals aim to push
through Columbia pact

T

i gepeech from the Throne
a Y makes it clear the Lib-
necesserveTment intends, if
Pushing a Stake its life on

Treat
Sessicn ud protocol at the new

ss Parliament
fe the campaign
the sellout treaty is

Moy

Bae ve is the front page

its Beaton folder which the
Si mrcirieal Workers Union

cre dely Circulating across

Th
—<_ilder makes out a strong

Ough the Columbia ©

case against the present Treaty
and calls for support of the Mc-.
Naughton Plan to keep Canadian
control of the vital waterway.
It urges the public to write their

-MP’s opposing the Treaty and

demanding a full public hearing on
the Columbia.

Also last week a lengthy ar-
ticle. appeared on the editorial
page of the Toronto Globe and
Mail which charged that ‘‘the
Treaty and protocol will establish
a master-and-slave relationship
on the Columbia. Canada will not
be the master.’’

CAPITAL COMMENT

MLA urges action
On consumer prices

By ERNIE KNOTT
: hee take stock, we are
“Slo Tough this 1964 ses-
5 ae the MLA’s have
Ming €cord number of days
. Sults at each other
‘k pune about social wel-
: bank, while ignoring

eal ermpie

lings ble. Waldo Skil-
(up) ©) charged Gordon Gibson
: being drunk during
? the 1961 spec-
_ ial session for
the B.C. Elec-
tric takeover,
Gibson, in
turn, said he

Tim

-€round inan
attempt to
learn why he

€ *saiq Such a remark.
‘SUpligg the Oxford dictionary
Meaning «Word ‘‘skillings®?
80 from » = Shed or outhouse,’
Bos lings as «a privy

Shou] q

Bimor and an out-
it mance as one local

as Voice of the

i? tee, eee

people did break througha couple
of times during the week. William
Speare (SC) read in the House a
letter from women in his consti-
tuency (Quesnel) who are cam-
paigning for aprovince- wide boy-
cott, March 2-9 onsugar.

He called for a consumer
prices commission to investigate
what is going on in the field of
consumer goods, especially
sugar and gasoline.

Dave Barrett (NDP) charged
‘the government is so smart it
subsidizes the production of
physical resources, like ironore,
which goes to Japan to be made
into steel which is sold back
to B.C. while refusing to sub-
sidize human resources by deny-
ing people necessary and
adequate social welfare services
and treatment.’’

So far we are certainly not
getting our money’s worth, exX-
pecially when you consider an
MLA gets the following for an
average 40 day session: Salary
$4,000; expenses $1,000; per
diem living out allowances at $25
per day, $1,000; telegraph and
telephone $400; and 25¢ per mile
for car allowance. Grand total of
$6,500.

os os INDUSTRY POSSIBLE
B.C. can process ironore

—but Victoria must act

By MAURICE RUSH

Two recent announcements—
one from Victoria and the other
from Ottawa—knock on the head
the arguments which British Col-
umbians have heard for gener-
ations against the building of a
steel industry on the Pacific
Coast.

For many years the two chief
arguments against the feasabil-
ity of a steel industry on the
Pacific Coast were:

First, that B.C. does not have
iron ore in sufficient quantities
and of high enough grade for
steel smelting.

Second, that B.C. lacks proper
fuel for steel refining, and that
its coal is unsuitable for the mak-
ing of steel.

These arguments, together
with the cries: ‘‘There’s no
market’? and ‘Where will the

capital come from?”’ have served
powerful U.S. and eastern Can-
adian monopoly groups, who have
blocked the building of a steel
industry on the Pacific Coast
for their own interests.

The first of the important an-
nouncements came last week
from B.C. Mines Minister Ken-
neth Kiernan. He told the Legis~-
lature that the Queen Charlotte
Islands have 30 million tons of
known iron ore reserves and
could become a major steel pro-
ducing area.

Kiernan said that there prob-
ably is ‘‘a whole lot more’”’
on the island. The only thing
lacking, said the Mines Minister,
is that there is no suitable fuel
for smelting and refining the
ore, This problem now, accord-
ing to the Socred minister, is
blocking a steel industry on the
Pacific Coast.

The second important an-
nouncement came almost as an
answer to Kiernan. From Ottawa
came a report that the federal
cabinet will announce soon that
a subsidy for coal amounting to
about $3 per ton will be intro-
duced to facilitate the sale and
shipment of Alberta and B.C.
coal to Japan. :

Japan is reported to be very
anxious to buy more medium-

grade coal for steel smelting. -

In October the Japanese steel

Demand federal
action to expand

Vancouver's port

The 17th provincial conven-
tion of the Communist Party
of Saskatchewan has written
Trade Minister Sharp that im-
mediate action is required to
expand port facilities in Van-
couver.

The letter, signed by pro-
vincial leader W. C. Beech-
ing, stated that in addition to
making money available for
port expansion ~ “Ottawa.
should enter into negotiations ©
and financially assist the
pbuilding of large capacity pool
elevators in Vancouver.”’

Pointing out that present
facilities are inadequate to
meet greatly expanded trade
with socialist and world mark-
ets, the letter said:

“The federal government
I has publicly admitted that it
was unable to conclude all
the agreements for wheat that
were possible this past few
months because of inadequate
handling facilities.”’

While it welcomed this ad-
mission by the government,
action is quickly neededto re-
medy the present short-
comings, it said.

‘fits,’

industry signed a three-year
agreement with B.C, and Alberta
coal producers for 800,000 tons
in 1963 and at least one mil-
lion tons in 1964,

In the last few years Japanhas
tremendously increased its pur-
chase of iron ore in B:C. There
have been major iron ore devel-
opments by Japanese capital in
B.C., and special freighters have
been built to haul our ‘‘inferior’’
iron ore thousands of miles to
Japan, for smelting into steel.

Now Japan has built special
coal carriers for its trade with
B.C, Last week a giant Japanese
bulk coal carrier, Kanishka Jay-
anti, loaded 35,000 tons of coal
at Port Moody Terminals in only
30 hours for Japanese steel mills.

Japan has now become the third
largest steel producer in the
world. And she has relied heav-
ily on B.C.’s iron ore and coal
for the basic materials to build
its steel industry.

The interesting thing is that
Japan has been able to use so
called ‘inferior’? B.C. iron ore
and coal to make steel, to ship
the raw materials over 5,000
miles to Japan, then ship the
steel products back another 5.000
miles to Canada, and still sell
steel at competitive prices.

The question arises: ‘‘If Japan
can use B.C. iron ore and coal

for making steel, why couldi’t
BGs

The answer is that we can,
The Hon. H. H. Stevens who
was a member of the R. B.
Bennett cabinet, has repeatedly
charged that B.C. could have had
a large steel industry generations
ago but that it has been consist-
ently blocked by the giant U.S.
steel companies who for their
own interests never wanted a
steel industry built on Canada’s
Pacific Coast.

In all modern countries the
building of a steel industry has
been the foundation on which
industrialization took place. For
B.C, such an industry is one of
the major prerequisites ifwe are
to ever move away from being
a raw material area and becom-
ing a modern industrial manu-
facturing province.

Building of a steel industry,
taken together with the vast hydro
and other raw material resources
we have in abundance, could, if
developed under correct policies,
make B.C. one of the great in-
dustrial areas in the world.

The argument that there is no
capital for the building of a steel
industry on the Pacific Coast
is ridiculous considering the vast
wealth of B.C. The public’s re-
sponse, for example to the sale

See STEEL, pg. 12

LABOR ROUNDUP

Jobless to state case
before council, govt.

The Vancouver Unemployed
Council will be presenting a
brief on the plight of unemployed
workers to city council and the
provincial government. Contents
of the brief were endorsed in
principle by the Vancouver Labor
Council at its meeting last Tues-
day.

Ray Tickson, speaking for the
youth division of the unemploy-
ed council, told VLC delegates
that youth is hardest hit by un-
employment in the midst of
plenty.

‘‘We have no experience in
industry, we can’t afford to go
to university and its practically
impossible to get into vocational
schools,’’? said Tickson. In ad-

dition, there is ‘a lack of edu--

cational facilities, a lack of jobs
and a lack of unemployed bene-
about which the senior
governments are doing nothing.

Tickson’s remarks were
greeted with the strongest ap-
plause of the evening.

Speaking after Tickson,
Charles Shane (Tunnel & Rock
Workers) charged that the sad
plight of B.C.’s youth is part
and parcel of the crisis in soc-
jal assistance to the needy.

‘‘Despite this sorry situation,
it?s encouraging to see the youth
has not lost faith in the trade
union movement,’’ Shane stated.

Also participating in the dis-
cussion was John Hayward (Street
Railwaymen) who told delegates:
*‘As long as we continue to ship
our raw materials from B.C.
to all parts of the world, our
youth will continue to look for
jobs in vain.’’

@

Charlie Wilson, president of
the Marineworkers union, told
council that the 5 - man negoti-
ating committee for 22 strike
bound unions in the shipbuilding
industry is meeting in Victoria
to discuss the two week strike
at Burrard Dry Dock, Yarrows
and Victoria Machinery Depot.

He said the committee was pre-

pared for futher meetings to try
to resolve the strike with em-
ployer representatives ‘tat any
time’’.

Wilson charged that ‘*Burrard
Dry Dock alone is sitting on
approximately $27 million worth
of contracts—trying to starve its
workers into submission—while
it tries to maintain a wage and
vacation scale far short of what
has been achieved in comparable
industries.’’

He expressed confidence the-~
2,000 workers on strike would
receive the solid backing of the
entire labor movement in B.C.

Meanwhile, press reports in-
dicated that Victoria Mayor R.
B. Wilson and North Vancouver
Mayor W. M. Angus were press-
ing Prime Minister Pearson to
rebuild Canada’s merchant
marine ’’as a long term measure
to keep all yards operating.’’

6

Striking oil workers at Irving
Refinery in New Brunswick are
overjoyed with aid received from
B.C. labor. Jerry Le Bourdais
(Oil, Chemical Workers, Local
9-601) told council over $3,000
has gone to the strikers from
B.C. unions—not including the
province’s oil workers.

Morale is still high, he said,
and has been further boosted by
a drop in production at Irving
from 45,000 to 30,000 barrels
a day. Further production losses
are expected, after which time
it is hoped the company will be-
gin to seriously negotiate on
workers’ demands.

The UFAWU ref submitted a
34 page argument to Mr. Justice
N. Nemetz on the “question of
terms of reference in the dis-
pute between salmon net fisher-
men and the cannery operators.
Mr. Justice Nemetz was appoint-
ed “sole arbitrator’’ to replace
the Hon. V. L. Dryer, who was
unable to continue with the hear-
ings due to pressure of other
business.

February 21,:1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3