Pre

For peace and
social advance

In order to bring our readers the Statement of the National
Executive of the Communist Party of Canada on the situation .
in Czechoslovakia, the publication of this edition of the Pacific
Tribune had to be delayed for a day. The Statement follows:—

zk

The Central Executive Committee of The Communist
Party of Canada is deeply disturbed by the fact that the
situation has developed in Czechoslovakia which the five
parties of the Warsaw Pact judged to constitute a threat of
counter revolution: and to necessitate military intervention,
and who have declared that this intervention was undertaken at
the request of the majority of the Presidium of The Communist
Party of Czechoslovakia.

In our view there were involved in the Czechoslovakia
situation not only intrigues of enemies of Socialism, but —
facilitating these — the presence of unsolved problems of
socialist development and socialist democracy, efforts to deal
with which we warmly greeted in the decision of our April 1968
Central Committee meeting.

The CEC of The Communist Party of Canada strongly urges
that all concerned should act to ensure the consolidation of
socialism in Czechoslovakia, the unity of the socialist countries
and their communist parties, the early withdrawal of all
Te foreign troops from Czechoslovakia, the upholding of her
{ sovereignty and independence, pursuit of the policy of
deepening and extending socialist democracy embarked upon
by The Central Committee of the Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia in its decisions of January, 1968.

3 Arising out of the events in Czechoslovakia, a situation has
sg developed enabling the forces of Imperialism to laynch a
i Be political-ideological offensive against the countries of the
socialist world — a campaign of anti-Sovietism with which we
refuse to associate ourselves in any way whatsoever.

We call upon our party, the labor movement and all
democratic Canadians to do all in their power to combat all
efforts aimed at diverting the struggles of the Canadian people
for peace and social advance.

School days will soon be here again for B.C.’s children, but not for the

children in many bombed areas of Vietnam. While the U.S. warhawks
‘talk’ peace in Paris, deaf to American and world protest, intensify their

murderous bombing on Vietnam cities, towns and hamlets. The picture
_ shows Vietnamese children who should be in the classroom or playing
in school, waiting and wondering where the next merciless shower will
strike. (Tassphoto) : EAE FESS Parke

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1968

mier has a choice—

Profits vs. Pollution?

_ private

Tribune

_ VOL. 29, NO. 33

By BEN SWANKEY

<<

10c

Premier Bennett has still to prove that his latest proposals for cost-sharing in pollution control will

be of any substantial benefit to taxpayers or that they will spur action on the growing menace of pollution.

They provide that where a municipality installs sewage treatment facilities, the municipality will
levy a two mill rate tax to cover the costs with the balance being shared 74-25 between the province and

the municipality.

The premier will also remove
from the assessment rolls any
land or equipment used by
industry for air or water
pollution control.

Three questions immediately
arise.—

Will the two mills amortized
over 45 or 50 years cover all or
almost all of the cost of installing
facilities, leaving the provincial
government with little or nothing
to pay?

Is the provincial government
prepared to include sewage
trunk lines in his costssharing
scheme?

Will even the premier’s
generous tax concessions cause
industry to install
pollution control facilities?

' Premier Bennett’s latest

scheme still doesn’t get at the.

heart of the pollution control
problem. Pollution of the air, the

-announcing his .new proposals.
But will either private industry
or the municipalities be
interested in his carrots?

“The solution to pollution
control is not that difficult.
Three steps are required.

e—A recognition that pollution
can’t be solved on a municipal or
regional basis. It requires action
on a provinceswide scale.

e—We must have provincial
legislation with real teeth in it to
compel private industry (pulp
and paper mills, saw mills, oil
refineries, wineries, fruit
processors, etc.) to : install
pollution control equipment.
They have made and are making
millions from our resources and
owe it to the people of B.C. to end
any further contamination.

@—The municipalities too must
be ordered to proceed with
Sewage treatment plants, with
the proviso that the
municipalities’ share of the costs

-will be limited to 25 percent with
. the balance paid by Ottawa and

the provincial government.

If there is any one thing on
which the people of B.C. are
practically unanimous, it’s the
need for action to control
pollution. Premier Bennett
knows this, but is still pussy-
footing on the issue. If the
pressure continues to mount
however, he will be compelled to
act more decisively and with less
talk about carrots or clubs. His
government is no longer so
secure politically that he can
afford to continue
public opinion on this issue, so
oe to the health and future of

Return E&N lands

Fraser and other rivers, our -

lakes and the sea comes from
two main sources — private
industry and municipal dumping,

Premier Bennett and his
cabinet have consistently
refused to do anything to compel
private industry to instal contro]
equipment. That would cost
money and might cut into
profits, and the premier isn’t
prepared to make this demand
on the big corporations
responsible for pollution.

In fact his cabinet is now
passing the buck by demanding
that regional district boards take
over responsibility for pollution
control. This would effectively
take the government off the
hook, and regional boards would
be even less likely to tackle the
big corporations thaa is the
provincial government.

; Last year the cabinet told the
municipalities that they must
instal sewage treatment

facilities without undue delay.

Since then the order has been
modified and the time extended
so much as to render it almost
worthless.

And now the cabinet has set up
a Pollution Control Board to
study and investigate the
problem some more, but there’s
still no sign of action.

; ‘‘We prefer to use the carrot to
‘the’ club;””’ said Bennett in

to people of B.C.

By WALTER TICKSON

The E. & N. Railway Co.,
(C.P.R. owned) plans to
discontinue passenger service by
October 12th. An application has
been filed with the Transport
Commission in Qttawa to end all
passenger Service on Vancouver
Island. If the Transport
Commission approves the.
application the action will be
illegal on two counts. Firstly, the
Transport Commission has no
right to decide this matter as the
agreement of 1886 was made
with the Provincjal Government
and not the Federal
Government. This agreement
provided that the Si. aN:
Railway Co. woul]d construct the
railway and provide “adequate”
rail transportation in perpetuity
in return for a cash, mineral and
land grants.

The ‘“‘grant”’ provides that the
E.&N.R.R. Co. would receive
over $2 million cash; lands
amounting to 20 miles on each
side of the railway, including the
timber and all the minerals
‘‘therein, thereon and
thereunder’, for ever. In the
event the company found that the
lands along the raijroad were not
suitable they could take an

-equivalent amount of choice...

lands elsewhere; and so they did,
the Choicest timber and mineral
holdings on Vancouver Island.

Just imagine, a strip of land 40
miles wide from Nanaimo to
Esquimalt; Nanaimo to
Courtenay; Nanaimo to Port
Alberni, with all the timber and
minerals tax free, for ever.
Under one condition that the
company must not sell these
lands. However, after the turn of
the century, the company still
having good friends in
g0vernment, was allowed by the
legislature in Victoria, to sell
these vast holdings to the C.P.R.
The conditions of sale was that
the new owners, the CPR.

would pay 12¢ per acre per year
taxes.

Over the years the C_P.R. did
sell numerous parcels of land to
Private individuals but the
company retained all the
mineral rights on all the lands
sold. Purchasers of C.P.R. lands
found that immediately after the
Purchase their lands were
reclassified and were made
subject to the going rate of

taxation obtaining in the

municipalities. A prospector
May stake mineral claims on

C.P.R. property but he must do -

assessment work on these claims
‘See E & N; Pg. 8 ©

ignoring —