hose who read our item in this column last week on Tallulah’s Treats, please take note. We er- red. We didn’t check our information and as a result, we were off base. In fact, Tallulah’s Treats is not a South African company. All of its products are made either right here in British Columbia or come from elsewhere in Canada. Acall first thing Monday morning from company director Glynis Sive and a subsequent phone conver- sation with vice-president Sarrel Barwin set us straight. Both were critical of us for not checking our facts although Barwin did acknowledge that some of the problem lay with a company salesman who had told prospective clients that the company was South African. It was through the apparently misin- formed salesman that our original information came. Sive was also particularly dismayed with the report since she herself is South African but left the country because she could no longer tolerate the apartheid system. Although we did check with the registrar of com- panies in Victoria, we erred in not following up after an initial phone call to company offices in Van- couver was unsuccessful in reaching a spokesman. The Tribune apologizes for the error and for any t it may have caused for Tallulah’s reats. * * * rom the pages of the October Economic e Review, the departmental review put out by employment and immigration Canada, comes yet another illustration of the massive folly of the Socred government’s Northeast coal project. According to the report, Japanese steel mills on which the NE coal project depends for sales now have more metallurgical coal than they can use. In fact they have reduced purchases for the July to September period by a whopping 35 percent. “Unless there is a sharp upturn in world steel pro- duction, Western Canada will have a large surplus of metallurgical coal,’’ the review states. “‘At the same time, the demand for thermal coal (also slated for export from the NE fields) used in electricity generation has been cut by reduced energy con- sumption and softer oil prices.”’ Of course, the directors of Teck Corporation scoff at the plummeting economic indicators but even the government’s own economists admit that the less demand for coal, the longer it will take for the project to pay for itself. Given the magnitude of the public subsidies that will go to provide infrastructure including roads, rail lines and townsite development, it was always in question whether the project would ever pay for itself — or whether taxpayers would pay for years to come to export coal to Japan. And now the huge world surpluses of coal serve to underscore that original deal for just what it was — a sellout. T he same-report also has a startling glimpse of ‘the automation plans of the U.S. automakers — and the drastic consequences for the workers in the industry. Quoting from Occupational Outlook Quarterly, published by the U.S. labor department, it states: “Research has shown that nearly 500,000 operative workers in U.S. manufacturing of automobiles, electrical equipment, machinery and fabricated metals could be replaced by non-sensor based robots, and servo-controlled robots could replace up to three million workers over 20 years.”’ Closer to the present, it estimates that 100,000 auto workers will be replaced by robots within only the next eight years. And already, of course, the big corporations are absolving themselves of social responsibility. ‘Although industry is assuming some of the respon- sibilities for . . . worker retraining,”’ the report says, ‘‘it cannot be held responsible for the entire problem of unemployability . . .”’ Some might recall a well-known conversation bet- ween Henry Ford and Walter Reuther many years ago when the two men were touring a Ford plant. Pointing to the workers on the assembly line, Ford told the United Auto Workers president. ‘‘Some day these people will all be replaced by machines.”’ Reuther stopped him and asked: ‘‘Who, then, will buy all your cars?”’ As the auto industry. prepares to embark on a new, job-cutting automation program, that ques- tion still remains. * * cd or years he was a familiar sight at meetings and rallies organized by the progressive move- ment and he was just as frequent a contributor to the Tribune and the peace movement. But last Wednes- day, Oct. 27, Nick Stooshnov’s life came to aclose at the age of 81. Although he was born in Saskatchewan, he got his political education in this province in the midst of the depression, and in 1931 he joined the Maxim Gorky club, a Russian language workers’ organiza- tion that later became part ofthe Federation of Rus- sian Canadians. After the war he began a small trucking business known as Three-Quarter Transfer (the name was often ametaphor for the state of repair of his truck,) and over the years he managed to keep it going, in- cluding delivery of the Tribune among his many jobs. He continued his support for Tribune after his retirement and was many times listed as a honor press builder during the financial drive. A memorial service was held Oct. 30 at which Walter Gawrycki paid tribute on behalf of the FRC. Nick had asked that donations be made to the B.C. Peace Council in lieu of flowers. Harry ~ Rankin Davis is ‘haywire’ | on ALRT figures Sol Jackson is a town plan- ner who lives in Vancouver. He’s also a COPE aldermanic candidate in the current civic elections. One of his chief fields of interest is public tran- sit. He put together some of his ideas in the form of an article and asked to publish it as a guest column. Here it is: I’m not a forecaster, I’m a planner, but Ican see that Jack Davis, the chairman of the government appointed Rapid Transit 1986 Committee, is just a day-dreamer when it comes to transit in the Lower Mainland. _ I’mso sure that this political soothsayer’s dreams will turn into a nightmare by 1986 that I’m quite prepared to have this article together with Davis’ predictions, placed in concrete under one of the guideway pillars along Terminal Avenue, to be opened in 1987. Then we’ll see who is right — Davis or his many critics. In the meantime let me point out how haywire Davis’ predictions really are. He claims that the number __ of passengers in the first year of operation will be 30 million. + Michael .O’Connor, : the, government-appointed -pro- ject administrator for B.C. Transit makes an even wilder prediction - 40 million! These pipedream figures are politically motivated, wishful thinking at best. The actual number will be much closer to 15 million. Bob Bose, head of the GVRD’s transit committee predicts that the figure will be as low as 5 million! Jack Davis claims the cost of the elevated transit system will be $718 million. Anyone COPE ‘FOLK BENEFIT’ Folk and labor songs, fiddle music and dancing Sat. Nov. 13, 8 p.m. Ukrainian Hall, 805 E. Pender with Frosty Mountain String Band, Threesome Reel, Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebsaat, Tami Lundy and Jill King Election Day Get-out-the-Vote = Tickets $4/$2 Election Night who knows anything about the — cost of the ALRT system knows that this is also a politically motivated figure, based on wishful thinking and not on facts. The system will cost over $1 billion. As Ma Murray would have said: “‘That’s for damn sure!”’ The $718 million figure is based, among other things on | the hope that Ottawa will lend | B.C. Transit $600 million in- terest free. Can you imagine finance minister Marc Lalonde, after his recent | speech in parliament about the |) national deficit, increasing | that deficit still more by a gift — of this magnitude to B.C.? You haveto be off your rocker to entertain this kind of an illu- sion. The $718 million figure does not include cost overruns | which are absolutely inevitable because the contract does not include a fixed price. Unspecified extras are yet to be determined. The $718 million does not include the cost of taking an elevated system across the Fraser River to Surrey. Nor what it would cost to build an” ALRT system in ‘Surrey and Coquitlam. Nor’ the cost of : Park and Ride facilities. I could go on and on. But the conclusion would be in- escapable. The ALRT system forced down our throats by Bill Vander Zalm when he was minister of municipal affairs threatens to choke all of us. __ Itshouldbescrapped before | it’s too late. The section now | being built along Terminal Avenue could be the federally- funded ‘‘people mover”’ plan- ned for Expo ’86. We should get on with | building a conventional transit system now with immediate provisions for extending it to Surrey and Coquitlam. It will cost half as much and the ex- perience of Toronto and other cities proves that it will work | very well. \ oe @ e Civic meetings | An all-candidates meeting fo! civic candidates Nov. 8 jointly sponsored by the Canadian Unio# of Public Employees and the Vat" couver, Municipal and Regional Employees Union, is one of sev slated over the next two weeks. will be held at 7:30in the Plaza Hotel, 12th and Cambie. A day earlier, on Nov. 7, COPE incumbents Harry Rankin, Wilson and Pauline Weinstein # Campaign Door knockers needed! The most important thing you can do for the COPE campaign is to get out and door-knock for COPE on election day. Contact the COPE office at 873-5221. Phoners and scrutineers also needed. PACIFIC TRIBUNE— NOVEMBER 5, 1982—Page 2 Centre Vancouver Indian Centre 1607 E. Hastings after 8 p.m. All welcome well as mayor Harcourt will a0 dress a meeting at 2 p.m. in Walt Moberly School gymnasium, 5%! and Ross. The meeting is spo?” sored by the Support COPE Co” mittee of Indo-Canadians. Not directly related to the ele tion but focussed on the issue transit is a meeting, set for Nov. 14 7:30 p.m., called by the Indepe® dent Canadian Transit Union. It slated for Templeton auditoriu™