[BRUCE MAGNUSON "t] artificial division of On- nto ten economic re- ites», 4 2 Monopoly device the status quo of un- Unplanned capitalist tent evelopment. This de- bs Tesults in riches and thie ga and stagnation, i deca velopment and eco- Y, all existing side by tive ang eipose another era: ureaucratic buf- ; ent between the pro- UP to ae Municipalities will fentuate local econo- Will ke The local govern- Unit © frozen in a finan- Ming ket. It will be most | Disleg Jf working people f : y hid accepting this Ney . Tap. Particularly es Party should ations Ong second look Who ' Of its responsible My. Rae’ the impression A tatties ® Tory plan for Oval, an NDP-stamp Us ih mae’ @ quick look at ‘ e N facts. Some- Ad a ntario Depart- Mh lie Study carried out by the . “RO0nomics branch < hig “bles of income aled Ontario. This atten) hat 25 per cent Of all income re- i. These i n regions " x "Seshoe fen trot a peshawa, Eastern tro Ss sLake St. Clair be !°D of oe to Windsor. PP teas aA come heap in d on " € millionaires Ointieg Ontario and Ineon €re 6.2 per fy in $10.00 Tecipients eet h the Me Per year. But oy Of inege f° area 23.2 per- m Tecipients got s 4 f, Le ! ite REGINA Thai pro- iy Cher,“ temier, Ross f ele hi A hi **tion 8S called a pro- ‘ i hay co fd nd strength- cot ital j ee * U.S. Overn- t hag POVince, It in ted that the bosses Ae, Skate noPOly. enter- her 1¢chewan lib i. ee et on ah. 0 < elisa the etn order b the pMents, POSition of anit, Mo \ \s bes In Sas- Sut th the Ye the Plan " *SSeq Thatcher Peon h Ney, Ve fa4, Of the ” marker to ee as- less than $2,000 per annum in 1960, and this percentage de- clined to 21.3 percent in 1963. This situation has not improved during the last five years. Seven of the ten Ontario eco- nomic regions are below the Canadian average of income dis- tribution. These regions are Niagara, Lake Erie, Midwestern, Northeastern, _Lake Ontario, Northwestern and Georgian Bay regions. e Recent decades have seen heavy concentration of capital investments and a growing pow- er of monopoly interests. Deci- sions concerning economic ac- tivity and location of invest- ments are made to suit tycoons who operate on a national and international scale. These eco- nomic giants cannot be _ influ- enced by local governments any more, regardless of what tax bribes and concessions may be offered. The power to influence, and to some extent control, eco- nomic activity rests with pro- vincial and federal authorities. To federal and provincial auth- orities belong also all residual. powers of taxation that goes be- yond land and other real pro- perty. A direct consequence of above mentioned economic develop- ‘ments is the financial strangula- tion of municipalities. The old and scattered economic struc- ture is on the way out. It is be- ing replaced by rapid urbaniza- tion which result in the immense growth of responsibilities and costs. placed. upon local govern- ments. Services which compelled only nominal municipal expen- ditures when the present system of local government was first established, such as fire protec- tion, police, sanitation, water, public transit, education, health and public welfare, to mention some main ones, now require katchewan farmers. They have failed to protect the people from high prices and to develop all- round economic growth. In Saskatchewan there is a crisis in housing, in educational, hospital and recreational ser- vices. There is a reactionary and savage approach to social services. And, there is, of course, sup- port for-the US. dirty war against Vietnam, which is bring- ing another round of high prices, and swollen implement and operational costs for farm- ers. The Saskatchewan Liberal government has contrived to give an appearance of “liberal- ism” by skillful window-dress- ing. Without spending very much money, and without doing much of significance, they at- tempt to portray great sympa- thy and help for the Indian population. So bad are conditions on. the reserves (certainly no credit to the 20-years in office CCF gov- ernment) that almost anything done looks good. In addition, while rising pri- ces and taxes eat up incomes, the Thatcher government gives back $50.00 a year in the form of the homeowner grant—truly a device to obscure reality, but enormous expenditures which keep growing every year. Enor- mous concentration of industry and commerce in ever-growing urban areas, and the need for services which take no heed of old and artificially imposed boundaries, obviously calls for structural changes at the local government level. Democratic annexations and amalgamations are inevitable. But it is of ut- most importance that these changes go to the root of the economic and tax structure, in- volve the people in decision making through popularly elect- ed councils. The problem with the Tory plan for regfonal government in Ontario is, that it ignores the needs of the people, imposes more financial strangulation and red tape, and simply brushes democracy aside. The best exam- ple of this is the set-up in Metro- politan Toronto, e As the Toronto Globe and Mail of July 13 of this year said: “The declaration of policy or the strong stand taken on an issue these days may continue to be voiced by the politican, Economic regions no answer but for the most part the reason- ing and shaping of policy and statements issued are based on decisions reached in a closed- circuit network of administrat- ive and technical committees be- yond political reach. “Since the formation of the Metro civic federation in 1953, it has been realized that the real strength of the Metro system has rested with a group of busi- ness executives who attend the same bowling league or join in the same poker playing sesions’’. “The citizens regard them- selves as citizens of Metro To- ronto; I regard downtown Toron- to as my downtown.” Spoke con- troller Paul Hunt of North York on Canada Day weekend. The same paper stated editorially on July 4th, last, that Hunt un- doubtedly spoke for the vast majority of Metro Torontonians. Here is part of what it stated: “Mr. Hunt makes a great deal of sense. Unfortunately, the one city which he sees so clearly and which most of its citizens see equally clearly has been dis- membered by the _ provincial Government into five boroughs and one city, each bidding Ontario farmers demonstration protesting government farm policy. not to be underestimated as a powerful election gimmick. The biggest problem facing the democratic forces in this election is an underestimation of the strength of reaction com- bined with the failure of the CCF party to develop a basic and strong people’s program. _Many left-wingers suffer from the illusion that people are im- patiently waiting for the polls to open to rush down and cast their votes against the Saskat- chewan Liberals. It won’t hap- pen that way. Victory is going to be hard won. This complacent attitude is fed by the personal antipathy progressives have to the image of Premier Thatcher — brazen, crude, boastful, compassionless, arrogant and reactionary — full of contempt for the workers and farmers. He recently expressed this contempt by telling the Estevan brick plant strikers, at an elec- tion meeting, that they were just not going to get what they wanted, and that was that. And if any worker arose in indigna- tion, there was a large gentle- man in plain clothes handy to make him. sit down, which is the democratic way the premier likes to deal with opposition. The Saskatchewan Committee of the Communist Party has is- sued an election call for the unity of all democratic forces— the CCF, the Communist Party, the trade unions and farm or- ganizations, and other sections, to work for the defeat of the Thatcher Liberals. A strong, militant campaign is needed to defeat Thatcher. No doubt the CCF party is the main political contender for public office, but the danger is that its dominant right wing will continue to avoid facing up to the very issues that elected the Liberals in the first place. As part of its election work, the Communist Party has issued the broad outlines of its pro- gram, which says in part: “The Communist Party places at the centre of its campaign the need for the farmers and workers to conduct a democra- tic fight to regain control of our economy from the U.S.A. mono- plies so that we can become masters in our own house and determine our own social and economic development. “This can best be done through the nationalization of these big monopolies. * Saskat- chewan urgently needs a plan for the all-Canadian develop- ment of prairie based manufac- turing and processing industries. against the others for assess- ment and blind to the over-all need. The myopia which Mr. Hunt deplores will continue until amalgamation of its arti- ficially separated parts forces clear vision on all Metro Toronto politicians.” The position of the official labor movement in Toronto, in- ‘cluding the Communist Party when it appeared before the Goldenberg Commission, was in favor of democratic amalgama- tion. Anything short of this is pure farce. This has been proven by the fact that first responsibil- ity for renovation of schools to bring them up to fire safety standards “lies with the six se- parate boards of education in Metro,” as stated by Barry Lowes, Chairman of the Metro Toronto School Board on Sept. 12. e Either the funds for municipal services and general purposes other than service to land and other real estate must come from senior. governments which . possess sufficient power to tax large incomes and_ revenues derived from general industrial and commercial activity, or; New sources of tax revenues to be provided to the municipal- ities through extension of their taxing powers beyond the tradi- tional source, which now puts unbearable taxation on _ the backs of homeowners and sky- rocketing rents for tenants to —, whom the big landlords pass on their tax increase. _ It is the desire to avoid facing up to above alternatives which result in the demagogic proposal for so called regional govern- ments. On Oetober 17, every vote for the two Communist candidates in Toronto and ‘Hamilton will be a sure vote for democratic tax reform and strengthened local self-government. | Thatcher carries ball for monopolies Liberal propaganda is designed to hide the backwardness in the development of Saskatchewan’s . manufacturing industry. “The revolution in science and technology should ‘benefit the workers and farmers, not only big business, by giving the farmers a guaranteed annual in- come, and the workers job secu- rity, higher wages and shorter working hours. The _ people should be protected from rising prices. “There is an urgent need for the extension of democracy to give the trade unions and farm organizations a voice in the eco- nomic, political and legislative fields. “The basic cause for the re- cent rise in prices is caused by the U.S. war in Vietnam. Sas- katchewan doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Saskatchewan farmers buy most of their implements from U.S. sources. Therefore, opposition to that dirty war is a Vital issue in this election cam- paign. “Despite claims to the con- trary, there is an urgent need for good, subsidized, publicly- owned housing, within reach of the average working man, for the extension of tax reform, and a program of rural development and reconstruction.” September 29, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page : Phe 7S we Bo &