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Regional president Jack Munro addressing the Biennial Meeting of L

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ocal 1-363 IWA, Courtenay, September 26, in the Native Sons Hall,

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Courtenay. Group below from left, Karl Lidberg, financial; Munro; Rudy van den Brink, president; Erik Eriksson, 3rd vice-president.

Once upon a time there was a magic
Northern Kingdom which was blessed with
a wealth of nature’s bounties. From sea to
sea the land had an abundance of natural
resources, mineral wealth, oil and gas, huge
reserves of timber, millions of acres of good
farmland, hydro electric power, fur and fish.
This country also had a relatively small
population to share all this wealth and
given these facts no one would guess that
the people of the land would not be enjoying
the highest standard of living to the envy of
their poorer neighbours.

The land was ruled by a rich Lord called
Trubuck who was renowned as an
intellectual, a Lover, a world traveller and
was possessed of scintillating wit. On one
occasion he displayed this wit by telling
striking workers as he crossed their picket
line “To Eat Merde” (which is perhaps some
form of exotic French pastry) and on
another occasion in parliamentary debate
he coined the term “Fuddle Duddle”. The

FROM PAGE ONE

“ECONOMY”

make a positive contribution to stimulating
output and employment. It will also bring
an essential item of consumption more
readily within the grasp of Canadians and
directly enhance their standard of living.
Also because of the substantial unused
capacity in the construction and supply
industries, there is little risk that the
stimulation of demand through lower inter-
est mortgages will simply yield higher
prices. This last point was made in: Canada,
Department of Finance, Inflation and the
Taxation of Personal Investment Income.

Comments on the Proposal Itself: The
net income of superannuation plans run by
the federal government (i.e., the superan-
nuation plans for: the public service proper,
the Armed Forces, the RCMP, and Members
of Parliament) is approximately $2 billion
per year. In an accounting transaction this
money is lent to the Government of Canada
and the rate of interest attributed to new
money entering the superannuation ac-
counts is equal to the yield outstanding on 20
year Government of Canada bonds. Thus
the rate of interest on new money entering

these accounts is approximately 16 per cent
at present. The current rate of interest
attributed to money entering these accounts
is just over two per cent less than the
prevailing interest rate on conventional
mortgages and over long periods of time the
rate of interest on 20 year Government of
Canada bonds runs at just over three per
cent less than the rate of interest on five year
conventional mortgages. Thus, pending the
resolution of certain issues that still need to
be resolved, it would appear that the super-
annuation plans should be able to make
mortgage loans at 2-3 per cent below market
rates with no adverse effect on the financing
of these plans.

Provincial superannuation plans that
also involve the statutory relending of funds
to provincial governments are also generat-
ing net incomes slightly in excess of $2
billion per year. Taken together, the $4
billion in the net income of federal and
provincial superannuation plans represents
44 per cent of all residential mortgage
lending in Canada in 1981 and more than 25
per cent of all residential mortgage lending
in 1977 which was the year of the highest
dollar value of residential mortgage lending
in Canada. Mortgage loans from these
superannuation plans should be targeted to:
new housing construction for middle and
low income earners with a special priority
placed on loans for co-operative and non-
profit housing, and, mortgage loans to
middle and low income earners for existing
housing.

peasants loved him and kept re-electing him
to rule the country, even though under his
rule most of them were getting poorer and
poorer and paying higher and higher taxes
to fill his coffers.

Trubuck was at war with another Lord
called Little Joe who came from the sparsely
settled Western Part of the country where he
had the support of the Oil Sheiks and where
he was able to organize a revolt and defeat
Trubuck’s soldiers. This, of course, divided
the country into Eastern and Western
camps and the division of the Magic land
was hastened by the fact that a minority of
the population in the Eastern Camp spoke a
different language than their neighbours
and that this language was Trubuck’s
mother tongue. Tempers grew short and
debates raged while the people of this land,
so favoured by nature, lost their homes and
their jobs because of policies determined by
Trubuck and his wealthy advisors and
banker friends. The people in the Western
camp even spoke darkly of building a wall to
rival the great wall of China and retiring
behind it with their weapons. Gloom
descended upon the Magic Kingdom and
thousands of unemployed workers searched
for jobs in vain. The great machines in the
auto plants ground to a halt, the mills on the
shores of the Western ocean were silent and
the fires went out in Eastern steelmills.

During these dark days there was only
one gleam of hope. A minor Lord called
Broadside, who was at war with both
Trubuck and Little Joe, called for a united
effort of recovery. He deplored the division
of the land into two warring camps. He
promised that if he were elected he would
change the policies of Trubuck’s which were
strangling the country and bring in new
policies which would stimulate economic
growth. He promised to lower and control
the rate of interest the peasants and small
businessmen had to pay to the money
lenders and to put the interests of the people
ahead of the interests of the banks and giant
corporations. Trubuck said ‘“Fuddle
Duddle”!

I cannot tell you the end of this sad story
about the Magic Land which has so many
advantages, but which is now in the class of
a Southern Banana Republic economically.
You see, this is a continued story. The
ending is up to the people of the land. Ifthey
still love Trubuck’s charm and wit the result
is easy to guess. If they chose Little Joe to
rule them the result is also easy to guess,
considering Little Joe’s performance when
he was on the throne for a short time.
Broadside would seem to be their only real
hope. What do you think?

12/Lumber Worker/November, 1982