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we VICTORIA. Photo above shows Dorothy Morrison
Sega ay. Onaict from the B.C. Peace Council to the NDP caucus last
sued behing e left (top of head showing) is Premier Dave Barrett.

er are highways minister Robert Strachan and
ami h Bob Williams. Photo below shows Burnaby trade
sh McKay discussing the Peace Council brief with

— Sean Griffin photos

Forestry changes fall

e New re

est that Sulations for the for-

Week a. announced last
Willian, g sources minister Bob

but Te “re to be welcomed
Needeg ,--!ar short of what is
Sts ang preserve B.C.’s for-
800d rive the greatest
Malorr Gane from this
Which aires’ New regulations
the fo likely be written int :
Will be estry act, onan ()
laileg equireq to submit “

e
Hons: Sane On their opera-
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builg log Il also be required to
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Million € companies about
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= Needegq °8 of replanting that

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ass
relon e as Williams
lower Station eogre es that the

Costs will be al-
Ower stumpage

a _ tor
PPraisals ¢ ‘
Mpage — which

Hort of what is needed

is the price the companies pay
the government for the timber
— will be reduced to cover the
expenditure.

This is another way of having
the public pay for reforestation
which should have been carried
on by the forest companies, and
is a concession to the big timber
monopolies which the public
cannot accept.

According to a report re-
leased last December, 25 percent
of our forest lands were not
being forested. It was estim-
ated then that 9.3 million acres
of forest lands in B.C. had been
logged off by the companies and
not adequately reforested — an
area larger than Vancouver
Island. The report said at least
$18 million a year was needed to
do an adequate job of restoring
our forests.

The government's latest meas-
ure will fall far short of meeting
the problem, nor does it tackle
the main question: the need for
a basic overhaul of forest poli-
cies which will return Crown
forests to public contro) ae

Peace delegation stresses
need for government action

“If a peace delegation is of
this size, we should have no
trouble in getting world peace, ”
chairman Karen Sandford said
in welcoming more than 60
people from the B.C. Peace
Council who thronged the NDP
caucus room in the Legislature
last Wednesday.

The reception to the peace
lobby indicated the measure of
difference: for 20 years, the
door had been closed to the
Peace Council by a reactionary
Social Credit government.

And among the members of
the government with whom the
council was meeting, there were
two cabinet ministers — educa-
tion minister Eileen Dailly and
attorney-general Alex Mac-
Donald — who had spoken out
clearly and decisively against
Nixon’s Christmas bombing of
Vietnam.

Dorothy Morrison, who out-
lined the brief on the council’s
behalf, noted the difference in
commenting that, for the first

‘ time, a provincial government

could be commended for its
action on peace— for the state-
ments of the two ministers
which were of some influence in
bringing about Canada’s first
resolution of protest against
U.S. actions in Indochina, and
for the proposed allocation of
$2.25 million to medical aid for
Vietnam.

“But we still have a long road
to travel on the way to world
peace,”’ Mrs. Morrisonsaid. She
outlined the Peace Council's
requests for resolutions from
the Legislature -calling on the
federal government to cut
defence expenditures; for a
resolution calling on the federal
government not to renew the
NORAD agreement which
comes up in May; for a resolu-
tion in favor of a total test ban
treaty; for support of the Peace
Council’s campaign for full
diplomatic recognition of the
German Democratic Republic
and the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam.

Mrs. Morrison also emphas-
ized the need for the govern-
ment to addits voice to the grow-
ing world demand for the release
of the 200,000 political prisoners
in South Vietnam, many of
whom continue to be held in the
barbaric tiger cages.

The 2.1 billion dollars for
defence provided in the new
federal budget is little short of
criminal in a period of high
unemployment and a rapidly
rising cost of living,” she said.
‘“We are asking the federal gov-
ernment to divert a large part to
productive work on housing,
schools and hospitals.”

Premier Dave Barrett gave
the only response to the brief
during the caucus meeting. He
reiterated the government's
commitment to medical aid
givenshortly after the ceasefire
was signed. :

“yen though therehasbeena
negative response insomeareas
of the community, we have a
moral obligation to provide
medical aid to Vietnam,” he
stated.

Members of the lobby spoke to
several individual MLAs after
the caucus meeting and ques-
tioned them on their response to
the Peace Council proposals. x

Labor minister Bill King gave
full support to the idea of resolu-
tions on the non-renewal of
NORAD andonatestbantreaty.
On the question of cutbacks in
defence expenditures, he said he
‘“‘would have to think it over.”’

He added that he was “‘recep-
tive’? to support for the cam-
paign to give full recognition to
the German Democratic
Republic and the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam.

Robert Strachan, minister of
highways, was ‘‘generally in
favor’’ of the Peace Council pro-
posals and noted that Canada
should ‘‘examine the function of
NORAD.”’ He fully supported a
test ban treaty.

Agriculture minister Dave
Stupich commented only on
NORAD. “‘I’m with you on that,”’
he told the lobbyists, ‘‘I never

have supported our being in
NORAD.”

Hartley Dent, NDP MLA from
Skeena endorsed completely the
proposals in the brief and noted
with particular interest the call
for a resolution on the release
of political prisoners in South
Vietnam.

The comments of Scott
Wallace, the Socred-turned-
Conservative, were a classic
study in the Tory mind. “‘If we
didn’t have NORAD in the past,”
he declared, ‘‘we’d have been
bombed off the face of the
earth.”

And as the lobbyists were
leaving, Karen Sandford came
forward to congratulate them.
‘‘T’m very, very pleased that you
came,’’ she said, ‘‘I’ve been
working for peace for years.”

Labor Federation

backs Land bill

Cont'd from pg. 1

-announcement assisted. us in

mobilizing trade union support
for the NDP in an _ unpre-
cedented way. The govern-
ment’s prompt action inamend-
ing the Mediation Commis-
sion, establishing a commis-
sion of inquiry into the form of
collective bargaining for
government employees and sub-
stantially increasing the min-
imum wage brought support for
the NDP. And the labor min-
ister’s statements with respect
to organizing the unorganized
were greeted with the same en-
thusiasm.”’

The Federation pointed out
that ‘‘several months have now
passed without further steps to
alleviate some of the more

onerous burdens hampering
unions in their organizing activ-
ities.”

‘‘We believe that immediate
action on the major remaining
points of the eight point pro-
gram would reinforce the faith
of working people in British Co-
lumbia in the bright promise for
the future and would create a
climate conducive to a con-
certed and cooperative effort to
organize the unorganized.”

In another section of the brief,
lands, forests and water re-
sources, the Federation cited
several areas of concern and
called for government action on
them.

“Our forests one of our
greatest resources, have not
been utilized with sufficient
care,’’ the brief noted. It called
for government planning and
management both to eliminate
some of the present wasteful
exploitation of forest resources
and to preserve the ecological
balance of forest resources.

It also called for planned
development of natural gas as
an alternative to hydro power
development and urged con-
struction of natural “gas pipe-
lines under public ownership.

With a view to utilizing fully
B.C.’s resources, the Federa-.
tion noted the fact that dele-
gates to the 17th convention of
the Federation reaffirmed the

policy of urging the government
to embark on a major program
of development of secondary
industry, under public owner-
ship. The brief also called for
government policies to ensure
that -companies who use our
natural resources to contri-
bute to the development of such
secondary industry.

‘‘Further,”’ it said, ‘‘we would
like to stress the importance of
developing the: ship building
industry in British Columbia.”
Strong representations to
Ottawa for the construction of
a drydock for the port of Van-
couver capable of handling
ships of over 100,000 tons.

Other action called for in the
comprehensive brief are:

e Equilization of education
standards throughout British
Columbia as well as_ labor
representation on governing
boards of all universities.

e@ Extension of coverage for
the B.C. Medical Plan to include
all medical and para-medical ex-
penses, ambulance service, arti-
ficial limbs etc. and the estab-
lishment of a system of com-
munity health clinics through-
out the province.

e A significant expansion in
the amount of low cost public
housing and increased avail-
ability of mortgage money for
housing. Amendments to muni-
cipal legislation to provide full
voting rights to tenants.

The Federation, in addition
emphasized. the ‘‘undesireable
nature of the sales tax’’ which,
by its regressive nature bears
more heavily onthe poor than on
the wealthy. ‘‘For this reason,”’
the brief stated, ‘‘we have
vehemently opposed the sales
tax and called for its elimina-
tion.”

We realize that it cannot be re-
moved overnight, but that its
elimination must be part of an
overall realignment of the.
government's tax revenue
structure, the Federation
noted.

‘Nevertheless, we believe it
would be a grave mistake for’
the government to allow the
sales tax to remain as a symbol
of an unjust tax structure.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1973—PAGE 3