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Monthly rent
over $1,000

: TORONTO - The average
monthly rent for a two-bedroom
apartment in the Metro Toronto
area hasnowrisen to over $1,000.

Overall, the vacancy rate
throughout the area is 0.1 per
cent, which means thatonly one of
every 1,000 units is available at
any time.

The average rent for a three-
bedroom unit was $1,059. By
comparison, similar units rent for

~~ about half that in Edmonton, Cal-

gary, Montreal or Vancouver.

Tories keep
porkbarrelling

OTTAWA — The Dept. of Na-

tional Defence has released
_ documents showing that the cabi-
" netrejected the advice of govern-

ment experts and awarded a con-
tract to a Quebec firm despite a
technically superior and cheaper
bid by a Winnipeg-based com-

_ pany.

The contract, to maintain the
CF-18 fighter airplane, was val-
ued at $1.3-billion over 20 years.
Canadair of Montreal got it, but it
appears it will cost 13 per cent
moreinthefirstfour years, and 1.8
per cent more each year subse-
quently, than the bid submitted by
Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg.

Montreal cop

to stand trial

MONTREAL - Allan Gosset,
the policeman who killed black
teenager Anthony Griffin, 19, by
firing point blank at the youth from
under 10 metres, is to face a jury
trial for manslaughter Feb. 15 in
Quebec Superior Court.

Black community groups and
others here, including the Parti

- Communiste du Quebec, have

called for an independent public
inquiry into the killing and into
institutionalized racism within the
Montreal police force. Gosset has
a history of involvement in racist

_ incidents.

Tory aid pledge

swung Buchanan

HALIFAX — A top aide to Nova
Scotia premier John Buchanan
says that an 11th-hour federal
promise of financial assistance
for provincial industries hurt by
free trade convinced the premier
to support the deal.

Buchanan, a Tory, is said to
have withheld public support until
hereceivedassurances, inaletter
from Mulroney, that money would
be forthcoming. John O'Brien, the
premier’s press secretary, said
“they're in it for money”’.

Hear land

claims now
VANCOUVER — Native people

_ inthe province are hurrying to get

their land claims actions to the
Supreme Court before the prov-
inces stack the bench with reac-
tionary judges .

Donald Ryan, president of the
Gitksan-Wet'suwet’en Tribal
Council, says he fears provincial

nominees to the Supreme Court,

via the Meech Lake Accord, will
be more conservative and less
sympathetic to Native claims
against the provinces.

Debate remains unsolved

The debate over farm finances remains unsolved as 1988
begins; recent stabilization fund payouts, and deficiency pay-
ments made by a federal government with re-election on its
mind, haven’t answered the real, long-term debt and income
problems of most farmers. Saskatchewan’s Tory government is
pressing hard for its favourite solution -- equity financing -- but
this option has won little support on the prairies.

- Equity financing was put on the agenda by Premier Devine
at the November 1985 first minister’s conference; it was one
item in his ‘‘Partnership for Agriculture’’, a comprehensive
plan to meet the sharp crisis developing in the industry through “‘free
trade’’, greater expansion of the role of agribusiness, and ‘‘incentives
to save viable farm operations’’ (which in plain English means to heck
with those thousands of farmers to deep in debt).

At that time, Devine’s definition of ‘‘shared equity financing”’
calied for ‘‘farmers to issue shares to obtain capital as an alternative
to debt financing’’, and for ‘‘tax concessions to investment groups
purchasing shares from farm enterprises’.

The latest proposals from the Saskatchewan cabinet, and the expe-
riences of other countries, have done nothing to remove suspicions that
the idea will mean an even greater penetration of capital into agricul-
ture.

More Capital Into Agriculture

Last fall, the Saskatchewan government organized a seminar on
farm finance options, drawing a very cautious response from partici-
pants. The ‘‘Western Producer’’ reported that among the main con-
cerns of farm representatives was that the equity finance concept did
nothing to solve the farm debt problems, or meet the needs of the
estimated 30 per cent of producers in serious financial difficulty.

One equity financing proposal presented to the seminar came cour-
tesy of two investment firms, Peat Marwick and Pemberton Houston
Willoughby. It would involve a $200-$300 million ‘‘Saskatchewan
Farm Trust Corporation’’, with shares held by farmers and farm or-
ganizations, financial institutions, pension funds, private companies
and the public. Land would be would be transferred by farmers to the
trust, in return for shares and cash, with lease-back and re-purchase
provisions.

Little Help to Troubled

William Daye of Peat Marwick made it clear that the plan was not
intended to assist farmers in serious trouble: *‘Prospective lessees
should be able to demonstrate financial and management viability...
farmers who cannot demonstrate an ability to access necessary work-
ing capital or an ability to employ appropriate farm management prac-
tices should not be considered as lessees’’.

Reports on similar systems in Australia and New Zealand were

made at the seminar. The ‘‘Australian Rural Property Trust’’ has
grown in eighteen months to cover 43 properties, over 200,000 acres
in total, valued at over $74-million. Its New Zealand equivalent owns
15 properties totalling over 12,000 acres, worth $10-million. The Aus-

Demos support Palestine

Marching for justice

HAMILTON - About 220 people marched for justice Dec. 29, after
a press conference organized by the Palestinian Arab Association of
Hamilton to protest the Israeli murder, maiming and detention of
hundreds of Palestinians on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Deploring Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s statement that the Is-
raelis showed ‘‘great restraint”’, the PAA spokesperson said “‘it is hard
to imagine what our prime minister would consider brutality’.

“The prime minister even disagrees with his own external affairs
department which has joined the universal condemnation of Israeli
atrocities’’, he said.

Calling on the prime minister to reverse his decision, for an end to
Israeli repression, and for an end to the illegal occupation of Arab land,

_ the Association ended the news conference with a march to Terminal

Towers, which houses the Israeli government bond office. A short vigil
was held.

Representatives of various religious organizations were present, in-
cludinga Torontorabbi, several NDP MPPs and MPs, activists from the
labour and democratic movements in the area, as well as representa-
tives of the Communist Party.

Farmers reject equity financing

tralian trust has
taken advantage of
rock-bottom prices
to buy land using
investors’ funds,
MMMM then leasing the
KimballCarioun ==‘ Lae ek AC
| Ap Boos-4 ers; it buys only top
ae quality land in the
best locations, and
imposes supervision on farmers to maximize profits for the investors.
The Western Producer quoted Sask. Wheat Pool president Garf Ste-
venson on the Australian example: “‘It appeared to be real success
story... but when you got into the finer details, interest and enthusiasm
vanished quite quickly. They’re very selective on who they would
assist’’.

Farmers Wary of Plan

Following up on the seminar, the Saskatchewan government held
public meetings around the province to promote equity financing. In
some towns, the turnout was minimal; in others, the idea got a skep-
tical reception from local farmers. At the meeting in Watson, 150 km.
east of Saskatoon, farmers opposed any investor interference in farm
operations and objected to the idea of tax and loan guarantees going to
investors rather than directly to producers.

Another typical meeting drew 200 in Moose Jaw, with many of the
same concerns voiced. Farmers like Dave Watkins of Aylesbury
pointed to the obviously unprofitable situation in the industry, saying
‘‘T frankly can’t understand how people can be attracted to invest”
without government subsidies, which most agreed should be directed
to the farmers.

The proposals also got a rough ride at the Sask Wheat Pool annual
meeting in November, along with free trade and other Tory policies.
Delegates rejected approval of the concept, although heavy lobbying
made the vote very close.

Tories Count on Despair

Still the Conservative government seems determined to proceed
with legislation to establish some form of equity financing this year,
hoping that farmers will seize on it as better than nothing. As one
farmer at the Moose Jaw meeting said, he’d rather feed his children
than own his farmland.

The desperate situation in agriculture is what the Tories count on.
The provincial government’s own figures show that 5,300 of 65,000
farms here have such a high debt they are insolvent, and over 900
foreclosures are expected in 1988.

The province’s farmers owe creditors $5-billion, an average of
nearly $80,000 per farm, withnoimprovementin sight. The record low
for grain means Saskatchewan farmers are harder-pressed than most
right now, but groups like the National Farmers Union note that 14,000
farms or more are in danger today across the country.

NFU Proposes Alternative Program

While rejecting equity financing as a non-viable answer, farm
activists continue to press for meaningfu! government action. NFU
president Wayne Easter, for example, gave a detailed program to the
Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry last Nov. 17.
Tt included: rejection of free trade and the resulting decline over
Canadian decision-making in agriculture; strengthened supply-man-
agement programs and a target of food self-sufficiency; increased
powers to farm debt review boards to impose binding settlements;
phasing out private lending institutions from long-term lending for land
purchases, with crown corporations taking up that role; and the transfer
of farmland held by private lenders to ‘‘public lending agencies for
inclusion in a new program directed toward assisting young and
beginning farmers...”

Easter’s approach, in contrast to that of Saskatchewan Conserva-
tives, would go a long way towards preserving the population base in
rural areas, and to meet the needs of family farms rather than agribusi-
ness. Canada’s farmers are being forced out of business at an alarming
rate; policies like equity financing will not stop that trend.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 13, 1988 e 3