BRITISH COLUMBIA _® Institute members, | to r, Gideon Rosenbluth, William Schworm, David Donaldson, Robert Evans, Angela Redish. ‘Restraint policy economic disaster’ Continued from page 1 oba which have tended to run deficits, he added. In their paper, Rosenbluth and Schworm also consider the issue of provincial debt and conclude that until 1982/83, British Columbia took in more interest income than it paid out and even after that, the provincial-debt would not have been signifi- cantly affected if the government had “fol- lowed a less restrictive fiscal policy.” But where the government debt is of importance — and also where it shows Socred mismanagement and disastrous investment policy — is in its guarantee of debt for Crown corporations, particularly B.C. Hydro and B.C. Rail, the two note. “It is possible that a lender might enter- tain doubts about the commercial sound- ness of these two enterprises in view of repeated discussions in the media concern- ing Hydro’s tendency to build dams in excess of requirements and the doubtful prospect of B.C. Rail’s new Tumbler Ridge branch line,” the paper states. Because of the “unsound investment decisions” taken by the Socreds in dam- building and Northeast coal development, substantial debt has been incurred which the government has either written off or — in the case of B.C.Rail — has handed over a $470 million sinkng fund to provide for it. “We conclude that there is no good fiscal reason for the government’s policy of res- traint,” the paper concludes. “The policy may have the questionable aim of freeing up funds to guard against the possibility of the government’s unsound commercial invest- ment projects undermining its credit rating. But the damage done to the economy by the government’s unsound investment deci- sions cannot be repaired. What the government’s fiscal policy does is to transfer the resulting losses to the shoulders of those least able to bear them: welfare recipients and those deprived of employment by the ‘restraint’ measures.” “ Two other papers detailed the result of the transfer of that burden, noting that government policies had effectively increased unemployment ‘and. bankruptcies and lowered sales and economic growth. Schworm states bluntly in his paper: “The discretionary fiscal policy of the B.C. government has been a disaster. Almost all _ of the changes in government policy announced in the 1983 and 1984 B.C. budgets have the effect of worsening the recession.” One of the most polemical papers in the series was written by David Donaldson who sets out to challenge the “big government is bad” theory expounded by the Fraser Insti- tute and other advocates of the “New Right.” It is backed by statistical analysis on government spending — in Canada gov- ernment spending constitutes only 42 per cent of Gross Domestic Product compared to 62 per cent in Sweden and 63 per cent in the Netherlands, both of which countries have high incomes and fast economic growth — as well as spending on social programs and public employment. His conclusions drive the point home again: “The government’s arguments about the necessity to reduce government spend- ing really reflects the values it believes in and not a concern for economic performance,” he told reporters at the press conference. “And those concerns are for the well-being of the rich at the expense of the poor.” Although the Institute has no plans to present the papers formally to the govern- ment, they will be distributed widely and are available for anyone who wants them. department intervention and eventually the cancellation of the private laundry contract “is really part and parcel of the whole contracting out issue,” the Hospital Employees Union has charged. The HEU released letters last week from the New Westminster Health Department indicating that evidence had been found of “a severe mouse infesta- tion” at the 300-bed Queen’s Park Hospital. : According to Keith Coueffin, the public health inspector for New Westminster’s Simon Fraser health unit, the origin of the infestation “appears to be laundry return- ing from H & M Laundry.” ; H & M, a non-union, low wage private laundry in Vancouver, got the contract-to do the hospital laundry last year as part of the move by various hospitals to contract out services to private companies. As a result of the incident, the HEU has wired Health Minister Jim Neilson requesting a meeting to discuss the con- tracting out practices of the hospital. Coueffin noted in his Apr. 26 letter to the hospital that a Vancouver inspector _ had confirmed the mouse infestation at H & M and had issued orders to manager John Nguyen to “correct improper methods of handling laundry and to con- trol the mice infestation. A problem of rodent infestation with . hospital laundry that resulted in health, Privatizing hospital’s services brings mice in with the laundry “However more than two weeks after the orders were issued no actions have been taken to comply with these orders,” Coueffin said in his letter. Coueffin did note that he was satisfied with the steps taken by the hospital itself to control the mice, including regular pest inspections and the removal of all food not in covered containers from rooms. But “the problem will never be brought under control until the source, H & M Laundry, is cleaned up,” infection control co-ordinator Andrea Weslowski stated in a memo to housekeeping staff. She added that the health inspector had indicated that mice “may carry such serious infec- tions as hepatitis and salmonella.” Because of repeated failure to clean up, ’ the hospital cancelled the contract with H & M May 2 but moved immediately to another private firm. Other private com- panies have been asked to bid on the con- tract, raising the possibility of similar problems in the future. Laundry for Queen’s Park had been sent to Royal Columbian Hospital where trained HEU members performed the work. HEU staff representative John Doyle said that there is also a major HEU- certified laundry facility at Tilbury Island which services a number of hospitals. But under pressure from Socred government policies of cost-cutting and tal patients. - union, revealed high bacteria levels and ‘tion, coupled with staff cuts in house- privatization, several hospitals including Queen’s Park have contracted out services to low wage operations where often trained staff is not available and the strin- gent procedures specified for hospital facil- ities are not followed. The. Queen’s Park incident is the second instance in which contracting-out has created a potential health hazard to hospi- Last month, the HEU revealed that housekeeping staff had found increased levels of bacteria in the kitchen at Mount St. Joseph’s Hospital in Vancouver, a find- ing which coincided with the contracting- out to a priyate company of the kitchen: services. 2 Doyle said that housekeeping staff had been instructed by the hospital adminis- tration to carry out daily bacteria tests during the month of January. Those tests, the results of which were also given to the coincided with the contracting-out of kit- chen services by the hospital administra- keeping. Although the administration ~ later claimed that the problem had been cleared up, the housekeeping committee which had conducted the tests was notinstructed » to do any further testing. - 10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 9, 1984 Socreds — stepping up resources — giveaway Continued from page 3 involves 900 million tonnes of anthracite coal for export to South Korea and Japan. The deal calls for the building of a 290 km rail line from the mine to Stewart, B.C. The cost of the line will be an estimated $450 million and will be built by B.C. Rail, adding further to the public debt. It’s quite possible that the $70 million in the last budget to pay off some of the debt of B.C. Rail was in preparation for assuming a0 additional debt equal to that amount for the second northeast coal deal now underway. As part of its policy of encouragaing the private sector, the Socred government 1S stepping up the giveaway of B.C.’s mineral resources at an alarming rate. This is true not only of coal, but other minerals as well. Recently, exports of copper ore, which 18 _ one of B.C.’s major mineral resources, have — ~ been stepped up as the world demand for copper grows. But not a pound of copper is processed or manufactured into copper products in B.C. The people of B.C. should demand an end to the policy of exporting of raw mine!- als. Instead B.C. should build at least one — and possibly two — major world class copper smelters. In addition, B.C. should begin now to develop a program 0 using B.C. coal to build a publicly-owned steel industry and coal by-products indus try. The hope for the northeast region lies in turning the present disastrous export deal into a large scale program for building secondary industries and utilizing the rich coal resources for the industrial develop- ment of B.C. To further this program the coal properties should be nationalized and BCRIC should be returned to public ownership and its resources used to pro- mote manufacturing and processing indus-— tries in B.C. Other important resources are endan- gered by the Socred government’s policy of privatization. Discussions are now going on with the big oil companies for the offshore exploration of oil. More recently, Peter Pearse, author of the reports on forestry and the fishing indusry which strongly favored private enterprise, was appointed chairman of a commission to study B.C. and Cana- dian water resources. Significantly, this appointment comes at a time when there is renewed pressure from the U.S. for diver- sion of Canadian and B.C. water resources - to the U.S. Under its present policies the Socred — government is engaged in the most massive — sellout of resources to private corporations - ever to take place in our history. Unless — these policies are changed future genera- — tions of British Columbians will live in a province of denuded forests, flooded valleys and farmlands behind dams built to gener- ? ate hydro for the U.S., a destroyed fishing __ industry, and whole mountains sheared off _ and huge holes left in the ground where rich mineral deposits once abounded. | The 25th convention of the B.C. Com munist Party held in April called foranew — economic policy in which the province . would use its resources to create manufac- turing and processing industries; to utilize B.C.’s rich resources in a way which will provide jobs and economic security for our people and a future for our young genera- ’ tion. The key to achieving this is the nation- alization of the major resource companies and restoring public controhover resources which are now being alienated on a gigantic — scale to the multinational corporations.