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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

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f,
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ite REGINA
Thai pro-
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f ele hi
A hi **tion 8S called a pro-

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hay co fd nd strength-

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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
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In Sas-
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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 :

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