ECONOMIC FACTS >)

Shifting trends in.
| foreign ownership

~ Aprevious issue of Economic Facts drew attention to a significant in-
Crease in the extent of foreign control of Canada’s largest corporations,
between 1976 and 1979, as tabulated by the Financial Post’s annual
Survey. That increase relates to control of the 300 largest companies.
Ale More comprehensive data published by Statistics Canada in its
Calura”’ reports, indicates that the increase referred to, while valid for
the largest monopolies, contradicts the trend of ownership for Canadian
al Capital as a whole. The latest such report, for the year 1976, shows a
ii eduction from 37 percent in 1970 to 31 percent in 1976 im the percen-
| . | '€8e of non-financial corporation assets controlled by foreign interests.
|_ By industry, the reduction in foreign control applies across the board.

Control has dropped from 70 to 55 percent of assets; in manufacturing,
| from 59 percent to 54 percent, retail trade, from 23 percent to 16 per-
Cent, and so forth.

Also, when coporations are classified by size, apart from the top»300
Companies referred to above, the drop in foreign control appears to ap-
Ply to all size groups:

| | Size of Company

i Percentage of Foreign Control
N terms of Assets

1970 1976

: Under $1 million 1% 3%
1-5 Million 30° 8
5-10 Million a1 oe
10-25 Million 55 47
25 Million & over Ale 3).

_ In part, at least, this change is a statistical illusion. Thus, for example,
© Weston group of companies was formerly classified .as British.
€cause leading members of the Weston family have now established a

Tesidence in Canada, the two hundred companies they control have now
en reclassified as Canadian-controlled, although there has been no

| | hange in ownership. : ; ~

_ Similarly, Inco was formerly treated as U.S.-controlled, but is now

Classified as Canadian, because 58 percent of the shares are held in

anada, although the controlling interest is still where it always was, on

all Street.

Despite these qualifications, it appears to be true that the trend is to

8reater Canadian ownership of industry.

/ A highly significant aspect of the change is that, although the share of

|, Canadian capital in the ownership of industry increased substantially

during the six years, the total volume of profits earned by the foreign-
| |Ontrolled companies increased considerably more than Canadian-

Owned profits:
Millions of dollars

: 1970 1976 Increase
Profits of foreign-controlled 3,170 8,886 180
Profits of Canadian controlled companies 3,295 8,297 150
Canadian Government Companies 654 1407 1D

: It the Americans have been reducing their percentage share of Cana-

dian enterprize, therefore, it would appear that they have been selective-

ly withdrawing from thé less profitable ones and concentrating on the

More profitable. This can be seen from analysis of the rates of return on
anadian and foreign owned capital:

Companies with over $25,000,000 in Assets

\ Shareholders’ Profit _ _Rate of Return

Equity before tax Profit before after

Millions of dollars aftertax tax tax

Foreign-controlled $30,967 6877 4025 22% 13%
4nadian-controlled $34,602 4818 ° 3086 14% 10%

Even the reduced percentage of 31 percent, concentrated as it is in the
ager and more profitable areas of investment, represents a hugh
&Mmount of foreign control over our economic destiny. Moreover, it con-
ftonts Canada with a serious balance of payments problem. In 1976,
Payments to non-resident owners of Canadian companies amounted to

229,000,000. In subsequent years, this has increased substantially.
To balance our international accounts, therefore, we have to generate
oe year a trade surplus sufficient to pay that amount, In addition to
Nterest on the foreign-held national debt. Such international obliga-
‘Ons greatly reduce the Canadian government’s power to regulate the

In Mining, historically the most foreign-dominated industry, foreign }.

Onomy, ay

SUPPER

Monday, September 3, 5 p.m.

Guest speaker: Jack Phillips
=e Labor secretary, Communist Party of Canada
£ Kinnaird and the B.C. Federation of Labor — a year later.’

oak. Musical program with: Steve Gidora s
Buffet supper — $5 Ukrainian Hall, 805 E. Pender St.

Unde ie sored by: Greater Vancouver :
eg ES Sh. POSE Committee, CPC

’

Million U.S. auto workers
strike in energy protest

By MIKE GIOCONDO

NEW YORK, Aug. 22 — A
million-and-a-half auto workers to-
day halted production lines in
plants across the country to protest
President Carter’s energy policy
and the ripoff by oil companies in
the phony gas crisis.

The stoppage, backed by the
United Auto Workers Union, was
held to give workers time at their
workplace to sign cards to be sent to
Carter and legislators.

It was the first nation-wide stop-
page ever called by a union to pro-
test a non-contractual issue. The
stoppage came as auto layoffs
soared past 77,000.

About 10,000 Chrysler plants are
closed.

Local UAW offices in the New

York area said that the protest went -

smoothly on schedule. The stop-
page was scheduled to last for six
‘minutes. Over six million protest
cards were distributed nationally by
the UAW.

The union has made it clear that
the present employment crisis in the
auto industry is the result of
Carter’s energy policy to decontrol
the oil industry.

That policy has sent gasoline
prices to over a dollar a gallon and
caused a serious slump in the sale of
U.S.-made autos.

The union pointed out in a full

_page ad in the N.Y. Times today

that oil companies have raked in for
the second quarter of this year
record profits at the expense of the
workers. The ad notes that Texaco
profits were up 132 percent, with
$365 million, Gulf up 65 percent
with $291 million and Exxon up 21
percent with $830 million.

At a press conference in Detroit,
Douglas Fraser, UAW president,
said, ‘‘The whole lack of an energy
program has cost the auto workers
thousands of jobs, and I’m afraid
that’s not the end of it.

“Never before in U.S. history
have so many workers taken such
action on a political issue.”’

Keep Petrocan, halt
oil, gas prices — VLC

The. Vancouver and_ District
Labor Council has sent a sharply
worded protest to prime minister
Joe Clark protesting the Tory
government’s intention to return
Petrocan to private hands.

VLC delegates gave unanimous
approval August 21 to a resolution
demanding that the federal govern-
ment retain ownership of Petrocan

and’ *‘expand its role into the pro-—

cessing and distribution of oil and
natural gas.’’ A second part of the
resolution called for ‘‘an immediate
freeze on the price of domestic oil
and gas in Canada.”’

Marineworkers delegate. Walt
Jacobs urged the VLC to do more
than send occasional protests to the
government on energy matters.
“We've got to get involved in a real

way with this issue,’’ he said,
“because we’re being ripped off
every day.”’

The VLC had earlier written
Clark and opposition leaders ex-
pressing its concern over the future
of Petrocan, but only NDP leader
Ed Broadbent replied to the Coun-
cil.

In other business before the
VLC, delegates gaye:a warm hear-
ing to Lee Leichman of Rape Relief
who outlined plans for the
establishment of a transition house
for rape victims in Vancouver.

OTEU delegate Opal Skillings
reported a significant breakthrough
in the organization of white collar
workers with the signing of a first
contract at Crown Life Insurance in
Vancouver covering some 60 office
and clerical employees.

Communist Party calls
for new energy policy

“The energy crisis in the
capitalist world has raised in the
sharpest fashion the overriding
need for a truly all-Canadian energy
policy,” the Communist Party’s
central executive declared in a state-
ment August 14.

The CP statement warned that
the Conservative government’s
policies to allow the price of
domestic oil reach world prices and
‘to ‘‘privatize’”’ Petrocan will only
make the crisis worse.

‘Privatization of Petrocan will
not resolve the energy crisis,’’ the
CP said, ‘‘All it would do is hand
over a publicly operated body to the
very multinational oil corporations
that are responsible for the present
crisis and whose insatiable demands
for more and more profits have led
to ever increasing prices for energy.

“Neither will raising the price of
energy to the world level help the
economy. Higher prices for energy
will inevitably lead to further infla-
tion and unemployment. Moreover
increasing the price of energy leads
to increasing the cost of production
and weakens Canada’s competitive
position in the world market. This
will immediately affect industry and
agriculture. The only beneficiaries
of such price increases will be, as
before, the multinational oil com-
panies.”’

The CP proposed a new all-
Canada energy policy to be
operated jointly by federal and pro-
vincial bodies. It included:

e@ Extension of Petrocan into
refining and distribution, under
joint federal, provincial control.

@ Maintenance of a two price
system for oil.

e Construction of two
pipelines, gas and oil, from coast to
coast to ensure energy supply to all
parts of Canada.

e@ Additional funds for energy
developmen to be taken from the $4
billion defense budget.

Groups urge Bates

to hear Natives

KELOWNA — A conference of
public interest groups participating
in the B.C. Uranium Inquiry

~ meeting here August 17-19 called

for the Bates Inquiry to hear
testimony from Native organiza-
tions in B.C. :

“We recognize the right of the
Native people to self-determination
in their homelands and will offer all
active support in their efforts to
realize their legitimate aspirations,”’
a unanimous resolution declared.

The union members are calling
for a five-point program. They are
demanding a publicly owned
federal energy corporation to pro-
duce and market oil and gas as a
yardstick to measure private oil
companies.

The five-point program also calls
for re-imposing price controls on
crude and heating oil removed by
Carter in June, for public control of
oil imports, for a strong windfall
profit tax, and for measures to in-
sure that oil companies operate
refineries at full capacity.

CLASSIFIED
ADVERTISING

COMING EVENTS ~

SEPT. 2 — 3:00 p.m., Italian
Cultural Centre, Honourable
GIULIANO PAJETTA, former. CPi
member of Italian Parliament, will
speak on political and economic

crisis in Italy. Sponsored by Circolo.

Di Vittorio. -

SEPT. 3 — Third annual YCL
volleyball tournament;
a.m. Labor Day, 805 E. Pend-
er St., Vancouver. Food, re-
freshments, free admission.

SEPT. 3 — Labor Day supper
with guest speaker Jack Phil-
lips, sponsored by Commun-
ist Party. See display ad this

page.

SEPT. 16 “STORIES -AND
SONGS OF CHILE”, Canadian
artists salute the Chilean
struggle for_democracy on the

sixth anniversary of the fas-

cist coup. Queen Elizabeth
Playhouse, 8:00 p.m., Admiss-
ion $5, Tickets in advance or
reservations call 254-9797 or
321-3529. Sponsored by Cana-
dians for Democracy in Chile.

NOTICES

AUUC announces 1979 schools of
dancing, music and language.
Registration Saturday, Sept-
ember 8, 9:30 a.m., Ukrainian
Hall, 805 E. Pender, Van.
Montly fees: dancing $5 ([pre-
schoolers $2.50]; music $6;
language $2.50. For further infor-

mation - call Dianna Kleparchuk

at 879-2089. j :
LEGAL SERVICES

Rankin, Stone, McMurray. Bar-

risters and Solicitors. Preferred
areas; labour law, criminal law, im-
migration, personal injuries, con-
veyances. 500 Ford Building, 193
East Hastings St., Van. 682-7471.

BUSINESS PERSONALS

ROOF REPAIRS — Reasonable.
New roofs and alum. gutters,
277-1364 or 277-3352.

TRADE UNIONIST seeks re-
search, writing work. Phone Ron
Sostad —. 980-5157.

HALLS FOR RENT

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME —
Available for rentals. For reserva-
tions phone 254-3430.

WEBSTERS CORNERS HALL —
Available for banquets, meetings,
etc. For rates: Ozzie, 325-4171 or
685-5836.

UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CUL-
TURAL CENTRE — 805 East Pen-
der St., Vancouver. Available for
banquets, weddings, meetings. Ph.
254-3436.

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 31, 1979—Page 7

41:00:-.

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