THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER A four-month pilot project called CHOICES is giving stu- dents in four B.C. schools the chance to ask a computer questions about possible careers, and get back instant- - aneous answers. Guidance counsellors at sec- ondary schools in Abbotsford and Esquimalt, and at Vancou- ver’s John Oliver and Chur- chill, are using the system, which has been developed by the federal Department of Manpower and Immigration. CHOICES stores information on 700 primary occupations and 3,000 related occupations in which about 90 percent of Canada’s labor force is em- ployed. When the evaluation of system is completed in B.C. a report will be sent to all school districts, probably in May, according to John Walsh, pro- gram superintendent for the Ministry of Education. Students can tell the com- puter: “I want a job that re- quires a grade 12 education, pays $15,000 a year, is indoors with no shift work, and which involves no risk situations.”’ The computer will instantly print out occupations which meet the criferia. CHOICES is designed to per- mit students to examine how their personal interests, apti- tudes, preferences, and values influence the range of occu- pations open to them, Mr. Walsh says. In _ essence CHOICES reduces an in- formation gap by relating available careers to individual wishes and characteristics. CHOICES can see the conse- quences of each qualification they send to the computer. They can change their minds and questions at any point and see how any change affects an occupation selection. STIMULATES THINKING “It saves time, is immediate and appears to stimulate stu- dents to think through their situations,’ Mr. Walsh says. Phil Jarvis, CHOICES de- velopment officer in Ottawa, says the pilot may be extended beyond Jan. 31 in B.C. and Alberta, where it is also being tried. It starts Feb. 1 in Ontario and New Brunswick. Jarvis says Choices was de- veloped because most Canadian high schools have in- adequate or ‘no career coun- selling. Manpower job coun- sellors also needed an im- proved technique to help them give effective advice. While CHOICES won’t help create jobs or solve unemploy- ment, Jarvis says it could at least help people establish more definitive goals. John Oliver guidance coun- sellor Diana Spears says the CHOICES program has been enthusiastically received by her students. It requires considerable pre- counselling before the student approaches the machine, and takes up a lot of counselling time. Students fill out worksheets in class with their, aptitudes, temperaments, etc. Then they come in individually and the counsellor has to decide if what they have filled out is accurate. Ms. Spears says 15 and 16- year-olds ‘‘Don’t know them- selves,’ and the counsellor’s input is vital. “They don’t understand what the descriptions mean. ‘Someone who describes herself as ‘Outgoing’ may be out- going with two close friends but not in a crowd.” A complaint she has with the job desciptions is that they don’t give an idea of the number of jobs there are in particular fields. If one of the selections the computer gives is ship’s purser, and one is secretary, a student should be told how many of each are employed in B.C., she believes. Another program yet to be put on the computer, and which will also be of help to guidance counsellors, is an institutions file of information on post-sec- ondary educational and train- ing institutions in Canada . As with the occupations file, stu- dents will be able to search for institutions meeting their re- quirements, compare two or three institutions at a time, ask questions about student body size, tuition fees, admission re- quirements. OTIS WORKERS FEAR FOR THEIR JOBS Elevator workers, saying they fear for their jobs, have asked the Foreign Investment Review Agency to block a foreign takeover. The United Steelworkers of America says neither custom- ers nor employees would bene- fit if United Technologies, Inc. takes over the Canadian branches of Otis Elevator Co. United bought Otis in 1975, but the takeover of Canadian operations has been stalled pending a decision by the re- view agency. ; EY ee kes Local 7062 resident William Davis says the union fears United will cut jobs or even close the plant. Otis has 45% of the Canadian elevator business, but United could service the Canadian market with imports. Production has already been shifted to American Otis plants, says Davis. The union represents 354 elevator and es- calator builders today, com- pared to 580 five years ago. The union cited statistics to show that United’s enormous profits have come at the ex- pense of jobs. In 1976, profits after taxes rose 34% to more than $157 million while em- ployment in the conglomerate actually declined three per- cent, as nearly 4,700 jobs were “INFERNO OF BRUTALIZING TOIL” “In the distance, giant furnaces vomit pillars of fire, line of frame structures, dillapidated and miserable. Th who have created the industrial glory of Pillsburgh, rear and Fricks. “The si ght fills me with hatred of the pe: the lurid flashes accentuating a ey are the homes of the workers ft ed its millionaires, its Carnegies rverse social justice that turns the needs of Sy mankind into an Inferno of brutalizing toil. It robs man of his soul, drives the sunshine a from his life, degrades him lower than the beasts, and betw bliss and hellish torture, grinds flesh and blood into iron an lives into gold, gold, countless gold.” BROADBENT PREDICTS een the millstones of divine d steel, transmutes human _ —Alexander Berkman, describing steelworkers’ conditions in 1892, : FEDERAL MINORITY GOVERNMENT AND NDP HOLDING POWER BALANCE Canadians will probably elect a minority Conservative or Liberal government this year with the New Democrats holding the balance of power, predicts NDP leader Ed Broadbent. Speaking on the CTV program ‘Question Period’’ Jan. 22, the NDP leader said the party would use its position to implement parts of its economic program in ex- change for co-operation with whichever of the two other parties forms the government. Speaking of the NDP’s climb to 19% of the committed voters in recent Gallup polls, Broad- bent predicted that ‘“‘we’re going to elect more seats than we've ever elected before.” ““(What) I’m content with is that we’re talking about the right issues and that we’re going to elect ... if this present trend continues, more seats than we’ve ever done before,’”’ Broadbent said, ‘“‘and we’ll be able to fight for the things that I happen to think are important for ordinary Canadians.”’ The chances of a minority government ‘‘are very good indeed” because of the NDP’s strong showing in recent polls and the acceptance of minority governments in Ontario and in Ottawa before the last federal election, Broadbent said. “Tf and when that (minority government) occurs, we have to work out on a more durable basis a longer-range program with whichever party,’ he said. “One clear possibility would be to work from budget to budget, to sit down and work out a program as they do in western Europe (and a number of countries.” In such cases, the minority party expects that a certain proportion of its program would be implemented, based on the percentage of the popular vote it received. “Certainly in my thinking now, that doesn’t involve coali- tion,’ he said. “‘It does involve a committed kind of program where both sides have to realize the serious nature of Canadian problems and that in fact (it) might well better represent the mood of Canada — to have more than one party — sharing the responsibility for — governing the nation.” * Broadbent said he had no ~ preference as to which of the — other two parties he would — prefer to work with. “One bad — guy is as bad as another.” The NDP leader said the party’s support was increasing because it has been hammer- ing away at the unemployment issue and is the one party to have advanced “both some short run objectives — means of dealing with unemployment — and a long run strategy.” He predicted NDP support would continue to climb as the — expected spring election draws — closer but acknowledged the © support was heavily concen- ~ trated in Ontario and the west. Broadbent admitted the party was weak in Quebec, but predicted that after a province- wide referendum shows support for federalism, many of the people who support the Parti Quebecois for its social ~ programs would support the NDP federally. By ALDERMAN HARRY RANKIN The pension plan _ that members of the House of Com- mons voted themselves is nothing short of scandalous. Any MP who quits or is defeated after being a member for six years immediately gets a life pension starting at $4,700 a year. After ten years as an MP the starting annual pension is $7,800, and if he has been a’ cabinet minister, then after 14 years as an MP he will begin with $15,000 to $16,000 a year. But that’s not all. The Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act also provides that when the retired member (whether he retires voluntarily or is retired by the electorate) reaches the age of 60, a COLA (cost-of-living) clause goes into effect: And it’s a real nice COLA clause too. It doesn’t only provide that his pension will go up in accord- ance with the cost-of-living increase after he reaches age 60; it provides that his pension will be boosted to make up for all the increases in the cost of living from the time he retired until he reached age 60. If, for example, he retired at age 46 after 14 years as an MP and cabinet minister, and if the inflation rate should average seven percent a year, his pension at age 60 would be $40,000 a year and at 70 would be $79,890. If the rate of inflation would average 10 percent and that is also a distinct possibility, his pension at age 60 would be over $62,000. That’s STILL not all! His medicare payments will also be taken care of for life. The plan is contributed to jointly by the member and the federal budget. But of course it doesn’t pay for itself. The deficits for these huge pensions come out of the federal treasury. Compare that to what our senior citizens get. On reaching age 65 — not 60 — they get (at present rates) $153.43 or $1,841.16 a year. They have no built-in COLA clause — they are dependent on the “generosity” of the federal cabinet for any in- creases to meet the cost of living. The last increase was 10c a day! The Canada Pension Plan pays a maximum pension of $194.44 a month (at current rates) or $2,333.28 a year. Many do not get the maximum and many (housewives, for example) do not get any Canada Pension Plan at all. I can see no justification — whatever for any MP receiving a pension for life after “‘working”’ for only six years. They deserve no _ special privileges at the taxpayers’ expense. They should get pensions at age 65 the same as anybody else who pays into a pension plan and the plan should be self-funding. If they quit or are retired by the voters before they reach age 65, they should have to wait until they are 65 before they can get their pension, the same as anybody else. For MP’s to vote themselves such huge pensions while keeping the average citizen down to only a fraction of what they get is two-faced to say the least. The average person who works for a living, works a lot harder and under much more difficult and dangerous condi- tions than any MP. The most ~ dangerous ‘‘industrial’’ ac- — cident that most MP’s So sustain would be falling off a — bar stool. It is to the credit of half of the NDP MP’s that they voted against this feather-bedding pension plan. It is to the dis- grace of the others that they — did not. As for the Liberals, Conservatives and Social Crediters, to t an : better of them would be naive.