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Vol. 7, No. 24

1)
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Pietce bo lea el ead

Vancouver, B.C., Friday, June 11, 1948

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100 percent compensation

FL

PAY TOTAL
OODLOSS

SEE PAGES 2 AND 12

GOV'T MUST

The Coalition failed through the years to
harness ol’ man river. It refused till too late
to take the emergency measures that could
have stemmed the flood disaster. To this
shameful record of criminal negligence a new
crime is being added.

Traditional political trickery is being used
in an attempt to sidetrack the needs of the
to placate the nation with

flood victims, Ss
nents and token relief.

meaningless state!

Nothing short of 100 percent compensation
for all ood victims is good enough. Thous-
ands have lost the toil of a lifetime. Their
whole existence is uprooted.

Homes must be rebuilt and repaired.
Furniture and all household goods need re-
placement. There must be compensation for
loss of income until flooded lands can once
more produce. Cattle have to be replaced,

forage supplied for herds till pasture land is
restored, new equipment bought. And in the
meantime, mortgage and other financial com-
mitments have to be met.

After seventeen days of disaster even the
simple promise that this will be done has not
been made. Statements made at Ottawa or
Victoria are so general they mean nothing
and are classic examples of the old-line party
run-around technique.

Wednesday’s big announcement of the
agreement between Premier Johnson and
Prime Minister King falls into this category.
The two governments split temporary emer-
gency relief costs, Ottawa. pays 75 percent
of emergency dyke expense. But on compen-
sation for flood victims? “The cost of even-
tual rehabilitation of affected areas will be
settled by later agreement after the

report of the Fraser Valley Relief and Re-
habilitation Commission.”

This is the preparation for a sell-out that
will leave the people bearing the brunt.

Now is the time, while national attention
is focussed on the disaster, to compel the
governments to guarantee 100 percent com-
pensation—dollar for dollar—for all flood
losses, and to set up the machinery to carry
that into effect.

And if the people are to go back into the

valleys, they must know that equal or worse j

disaster cannot sweep upon them in 1949. A
Fraser River authority must be set up and

control over all B.C. rivers established, with |

priority given to building adequate dykes.
Such a program must include conservation,
power development, irrigation, runoff control
and all anti-flood safeguards.

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CCF gains herald gov't defeat

SEE PAGE 12