Pe NONE AS Regional president Jack Munro addressing the Biennial Meeting of L EB ae ocal 1-363 IWA, Courtenay, September 26, in the Native Sons Hall, & 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