LPP DELEGATION IN Moscow Attending the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the - Soviet Union, which opened this week in Moscow, are three Canadian Communists: Tim Buck, national leader of the j LPP; Nigel Morgan, B.C. provincial leader of the LPP; and 7 ‘W. C. Ross, Manitoba provincial leader of the LPP. ie NIGEL MORGAN ‘W. C. ROSS SPEECH FROM THE THRONE | VICTORIA, B.C. — The le But somehow this year things w men, bankers, preachers, militar % : : representatives of organized lab And although the Speech from the Throne was seven pages long and contained a jot . of ‘fine talk about past achievements, mostly public works projects, its 3,600 words said very little about definite future plans for the people of EG: What does this guarded out- line of the Socred program hold for labor, farmers, hard pressed taxpayers and pen- sicners? What about unemployment? The government said it was deeply concerned and called for immediate sittings of the select standing committee on labor “to study ways and means of decreasing unem- ployment.” One labor leader remarked afterwards: “They have had plenty of time for study of the matter — what we want now is action.” What about taxes? Although public accounts tabled the first day showed a record five, percent sales tax income of $87 millions, no direct relief was indicated for hard pressed municipalities, other than in- creased grants to school dis- tricts. On such matters of over- riding importance as a power policy for B.C. the govern- ment is silent. It neither dis- cusses plans for the develop- By ERNIE KNOTT ment of the Columbia, or even the Wenner-Gren deal. It is completely silent on the ques-— tion of trade and markets for - B.C. goods. Similarly, the government preserved a more than dis- creet silence on such matters as labor legislation, dominion- provincial relations, forest management licenses and farm policies. In fact it is a cautious pro- gram, a do-nothing program. Jt is B.C.’s_ first postwar austerity program and it estab- lished the relief ofices to go along with it. For that is the real meaning of the plan to establish a new Social Welfare branch headed by a cabinet minister and separated from the Health Services and Hos- pital Insurance Department. The only assistance to hard pressed agriculture was the proposal to make more loan money available ‘on easier terms and to encourage people to settle on the land in the north central interior and the Peace River country. A new version of the “Go North, young man” idea, and an at- tempt to bolster up the PGE, which had been built into the area and which barély broke even last year. ’ No help was indicated for hard pressed Okanagan fruit growers who. are being ruined by big fruit wholesalers and ‘Nothing for you’ Dief tells The Canadian people were told last week in the Speech from the Throne that the Die- fenbaker government will not do anything about unemploy- ‘ment. Ignoring widespread and growing privation among sec- tions of the people, defying hard economic facts, thrusting aside mounting public concern, the Speech from the Throne contains not a single proposal that will cope in any effective way with this national em- - ergency. The government attitude is revealed in the blithe state-— ment “My government wel- comes the evidence of recovery from the recession . .. as -recovery proceeds there will be ‘increasing need for care to preserve the stability and pur- chasing power of our cur- rency.” ; Aside from the fact that, no indication is given as to how this objective is to be achieved,- the first question that must be asked is “What recovery?” Four days after parliament opened official government fig- ures just released for Decem- ber showed 440,000 Canadians out of work, 48,000 more than for the same period last year. Thus, the speech continues the rosy “prosperity-is-just- around-the-corner” talk of Fi- nance Minister Fleming’s bud- get speech last June, when he said unemployment is “rapidly narrowing.” It has now. been revealed that Fleming at that time was ignoring the predic- tion of his own experts who at that time foretold a level of — unemployment for 1958, two thirds above the 1957 figure. The actual figures for 11 months of 1958 showed an av. erage rise in unemployment of 58 percent over the previous year. ie Diefenbaker government that it could find nothing better to put in the Speech from the Throne, but a repetition of its scheme announced with much fan-fare last fall to pay 50 per cent of the labor costs of mun- icipal winter programs - a scheme which on the admis- sion of Labor Minister Starr had by Christmas produced less than 10,000 jobs across the entire country. .The government may. try to defend itself by pointing to further spending on housing, and it is true that last year government spending did help increase employment in the building trades. But unless . there is a drastic overhauling of the direction of housing So bankrupt of ideas is the spending (of which there is - no indication to date) spend- ing for this purpose is going to have increasingly less effect. The housing money has gone mainly into the construction of high priced homes and ex- pensive apartments. There are already signs that there is a surplus developing of this type. of housing because only a limited number of Canadians can afford it. What is needed is a greatly stepped up ex- penditure for publicly financed low-rental housing. ~ The reforms promised in the unemployment insurance act are not expected to go beyond measures to raise the income ceiling for those who can draw insurance from $4,800 to $5,500 a year. This falls far short of labor’s demands: for extension of unemployment insurance to cover all working *« gislature opened with the usual pomp and ceremony last week. ere different. For the first time there was no scramble for seats” in the public gallery. To be sure, seats on the floor were filled with invited guests — busine: y and. professional people — but significantly there were or. January 30, 1959 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE U.S. dumping. Likewise help for Lower Mainland v etable and small fruit growe who also suffers from JU, dumping, ~ : On the positive side, the Throne Speech promised more education aid to local. school boards, UBC and Victoria College, although it is not known just how much as yet. The government recantl tried to pressure the B Power Commission into. re- financing its debt in order to brag about being debt-free by time of the next election, but Public Accounts tabled by Premier Bennett revealed an_ increase of $143 millions in contingent liabilities. (govern-— ment guaranteed borrowings). They increased from $241,334,- _ 000 in 1957 to $345,163,000 in | 1958. The previous year con-— tingent liabilities increased by more than $100 millions. : Expenditure in 1958 was $351 millions and income $322 millions. The deficit of $29 millions was made up with money from current acounts, revenue surpluses from pre- vious years and capital accounts. Z In 1959 inflation, taxes and unemployment are rising rapidly, The Throne Speech — is silent on these questions and offers no help to the working man. . Clearly it is not an election budget. : for wages; for increase in benefits to all; and for the continuation of those benefi through the entire period of unemployment. Nor did the Speech from the Throne hold any promise — for the development of thos new, independent’ national — policies about which Diefen. baker talked so windily on th hustings last year. On the contrary, the speech called for increased subordin tion to the United States. I pleaded with the U.S. to he out Canadian industries by giving them a share in the | production of war equipment. — It went out of its way to kow-tow to the U.S. State Department by attacking the Soviet Union’s sensible de- mands to make West Berlin free city. :