| ro oe iit oe een | * -SOCRED SCANDAL Public to pay millions for dams to store water Bennett gave to U.S. Has Premier W. A. C. Bennett been taken in by the Yankee horse traders south of the line on the Columbia River deal? Has his anxiety to carry through the sellout treaty with U.S. saddled the people of this province with a huge debt to pay for dams to store the waters of the Columbia for the benefit of the U.S.? So far Bennett has remained mum on this question, but behind the scenes one of the biggest scandals in the history of the Socred government is cl Vile coaa dt FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1966 VOL. 27, NO. 18 CLC Congress Report —SEE PAGE 8 shaping up. Speaking in Fernie last week- end NDP Opposition Leader Robert Strachan charged that B.C. will face a $200 million debt when the Columbia River project is completed. Strachan told the meeting that under the Columbia Treaty, B.C. received $273 million for thepro- ject from the U,S., but this amount plus the interest on the principal remaining after each year of con- struction will total only $302 million by the end of next year, ‘while the project will cost over $500 million. The B.C, NDP leader was re- peating charges raised inthe B.C, legislature recently by Nanaimo NDP member David Stupich, which the Socred government has ‘Should be Srovd of what we’re doing’ — McNamara These were the words of U.S. defence secretary Robert McNamara at recent hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The photograph above shows a South Viet- namese youth strung up by his feet during questioning and torture. The torture is being : carried out by special Chinese squads brought from Tawain by the U.S. for this job. They ore noted for their extreme cruelty in questioning Vietnamese. Protest is rising across Canada against McNamara's projected visit to Montreal to speak at the Newspaper Editors Convention meeting May 15-19. never attempted to refute, In the House, Stupich gave fig- ures which showed that the Amer- icans had literally swindled B,C. out of the Columbia River, During negotiations on the Col- umbia deal Bennett claimed that U.S. payments on the scheme meant Canada would get free dam, In the last provincial elections he told the voters the “new dams wouldn’t cost the people of B.C, a cent,” He further claimed that the Americans would pay five mills for every kilowatt of extra power generated on their side of the river as a result of the storage of water in B.C, But in the final treaty the Americans did not pay five mills. In his 1965 budget speech Ben- nett said the three dams on the Columbia River would cost $448 million, The cost of putting turbines into the great Mica Dam he estimated at $106 million, This totalled $554 million, of which $501 million was to come from down-stream benefits paid for extra power, accrued interest on advances on these payments, and flood control benefits of about $70 million, Stupich estimated that by the end of 1967 all the original U.S, down-payment on the project — $273 million plus interest — will have been spent. Flood control benefits, he said, will begin to come in by 1968, but “we will be at least $100 million short of the money required to build the three dams, let alone do any machining on Mica,’”’ And still worse, he added, by 1978, when power is due to be produced on the Columbia, B.C. will be carrying about a $250 million contingent liability onthe deal and will be paying $12,500,- 000 annually in interest charges. Answering Bennett’s attempt to shift the blame on the con- struction union for the scandalous situation his government had got B.C. into, the Carpenters’ Union in Vancouver issued a statement which made the following point: “Before contracts for the Col- umbia project were let, warnings were sounded by competent en- gineering firms that if there was an error of 15% in engineering or finance requirements there would be financial difficulties, . “The smokescreen now being projected (by Bennett) attempts to conceal the fact that the $273 million paid under the terms of the Columbia River Treaty, which was to be capitalized to earn $501 million by the end of the ten See SOCRED, pg. 3 CITY COUNCILS “UNREAL' A press release bulletin dated May 3 issued by the Vancouver Civic Employees Union (Outside Workers) states that *Members employed by the City and Parks Board will be on strike as of 12:01, Saturday, May 7— thatis — one minute after midnight on Fri- day. “Acting on membership in- structions, the Negotiating Com- mittee has offered, over. and again, to negotiate. on the basis of the Lawson, minority report, that is: a wage increase of approximately 40¢ over two years, with the understanding that the demands for special ad- justments will be negotiated sep- arately. When we go on strike, we will return to our original demands, *The regular membership meeting for the monthof May will be held in the Garden Building, Pacific National Exhibition, Hastings and. Renfrew, at 8 p.m, Friday, May 6, Should the City decide to reopen negotiations be- fore this meeting and submit in writing an offer to the union, over and above what has been rejected by the membership, it will be placed before this membership meeting.” STAND PROVOKES STRIKE Union spokesmen have further intimated that all “offers” made by the City during the course of negotiations will come before this. important meeting. All through negotiation andi conciliation proceedings the un- ion has indicated it readiness to reopen negotiations at any time, in an effort to avoid the necessity of strike action, The majority of City Council, on the other hand, has made “offers® which it knew would be regarded as unrealistic and un- acceptable, while at the same time seeking out opportunities to create division between the Outside Workers and City Hall Employees (Inside Workers), By effecting a settlement with the inside workers, by a very small marginal vote of accep- tance, the City hopes thereby to isolate the Civic Employees Un- ion (Outside Workers) and drive its membership into acceptance of its unrealistic “offers,” or face public disapproval for a strike- bound stoppage of an urgent public service, described by labor and a large segment of the public as “a form of NPA political black- mail,” :