WHICH WAY AHEAD FOR}

UR MUNICIPALITIES?

By NELSON CLARKE

2 municipalities of

Canada range from
great urban complexes like
Montreal and Toronto to
far-flung rural districts
with a handful of people
spread out over hundreds
of square miles.

~ Yet through all this di-
versity they have one thing
in common. They are in
financial crisis, and _ that
ctisis is being deepened now
by the austerity program of
the federal Tory government.
More than that, in every
municipality there is a strug-
gle going on between reac-
tionary forces that wish to
limit municipal democracy
_in order to protect big busi--
ness and democratic forces:
that are fighting to extend
democracy.

These will be the issues
which will be at the heart of
the elections which take
place between now and the
end of the year in most muni--
cipalities across the land.

Municipal government is

. being asked to assume res-
ponsibilities which under ex-
isting methods of taxation
it cannot possibly meet.
The educa-
tion of our
children and
young peo-
Ple has be-
come a com-
plex and
costly _ task,
and yet there
is actually
: an_- urgent
need for newer, better-equip-
ped schools, for the health of
our children, for the contin-
ual raising of the standards
of education by improve-
ments in the salaries and

working conditions of our
teachers.
TMhic ic tha ann af 4 -~ ---4

aamo 25 UlIt ABC ‘UL une aUuto-=
mobile. The rural municipal-—
ity with the smallest popula-:
tion faces the task of pro-
viding good all-weather roads
for farmers and their trucks:
to travel to market towns.
The biggest cities face the:
task of providing express-
way for the vast flow of cars
_in and out of the metropoli-
tan areas, and also for vastly
improving public transporta-
tion so that the centres of
our cities will not be choked
to death by the problems of
traffic and parking.

The workings of capital-
ism, aggravated by the anti-
national policies of the gov-
ernment of Canada, have
created widespread unem-
ployment and privation.
Again much of the burden of
coping even in the most limi-
ted way with these great
human problems, is thrown
upon the municipalities. —

Yet our municipalities are
left to meet these and many
more such problems with the
same sources of revenue
available to them in _ the
“horse and buggy” days of
a past that is gone forever.

Completely unable to meet
the heavy demand upon
them from current revenue,

municipalities ha

> velopment

‘provincial

the debt have been piled
higher and higher upon al-
ready overburdened tax-
payers.

Now the call has gone out
from Ottawa for belt-tight-
ening.

TRIVIAL REDUCTIONS

While only trival reduc-
tions are made in our huge
defense budget, federal ex-
penditures for public works
are ruthlessly sliced. The de-
valuation of our dollar sad-
dles those municipalities
which have borrowed in the
U.S. money market’ with
substantial new costs in re-
paying the interest and prin-
cipal of this indebtedness.

This is what the austerity
program, engineered by the

big monopolies, means to our °

municipalities.

Big business is very in-
terested in municipal govern.
ment. Its interest is in pay-
ing the least possible taxes
for the greatest amount of
services.

It does not want to pay
for the cost of educating the
workers it will exploit in its
factories and offices. It does
not want to pay for the roads
over which its great fleets of
trucks operate. It wants to
wash its hands of responsi-
bility for those workers it no
longer needs.

Therefore, big business has
made great efforts to make
sure that it has its reliable
representatives in municipal
councils, to see to it that
municipal taxation is levied
so as to protect the profits of
big industrial and commer-
cial enterprises, also to pre-
vent a situation in which
municipal councils will ef-
fectively demand the help
they need from senior gov-
ernment.

A whole system of defense
in depth has been developed
to take the heat off federal

and nrarrinaial cracsamnenanda

emu PLUVILICIGL BOVELIMIMELLUS.

It is in this light that the
labor and progressive move-
ments need to develop their
policies on the many plans
already in operation or pro-
jected for the re-organization
of municipal government —
plans that range from the de-
of metropolitan
governments in big cities to
the establishment of county

“systems in rural areas in the

west.

In certain respects such
plans represent a necessary
step ‘to bring municipal
government up to date and in

‘line with the changing pat-

terns of population and pro-

:duction in our conutry.

But developed by reaction-
ary councils and provincial
governments they can be the
means of blocking the reso-
lution of fundamental prob-

‘lems through the transfer of

money from the federal and
governments to
the municipalities.

They can be the means of
making the people in one

‘section of an amalgamated

municipality pay the cost of
improving services in an
other section. They can be
‘used also to mask sinister
moves to undermine munici-
pal democracy by drastical-

urtailing the aes of |

have on municipal councils
and boards of education.
AN URGENT MATTER

All this serves to empha-
size how urgent it is for the
labor and farm movement of
our country, for trade union-
ists, for members of the New
Democratic Party and of the
Communist Party to work to-
gether to elect reperesenta-
tives to municipal councils
and school boards this fall
who will defend the interests
of the working people, who
will: fight for far-reaching re-
forms of municipal taxation,
and to compel the assump-

tion by federal and provin-

cial governments of the costs
of meeting urgent peoples’
needs beyond the financial
capacity of the municipali-
ties.

It is only in the election of
such representatives that
there lies the guarantee that
plans for municipal reorgani-
zation and amalgamation will
be carried through in a demo-
cratic way, in a way that
will place the costs arising
from such changes on those
who can afford to pay them.

In keeping with political
traditions prevailaing in
most municipalities in Can-
ada, the Communist Party
does not officially nominate
candidates, although mem-
bers of the party are active in
the fight for progressive re-
form in cities, towns and

rural municipalities across
Canada. A number of them
hold public office and are
among the most highly res-
pected and effective mem-
bers of councils and school
boards.

FOREMOST DEFENDERS

Our members who take
part in municipal struggles
stand out as the foremost de-
fenders of their cities, towns
and municipal districts. They
present a well worked out
point of view on municipal
elections.

Communists believe that in
order that municipalities can
be freed from the burdens of
high interest rates and the
grip of the U.S. bondholders,
the federal government must
establish a municipal de-
velopment fund _ through
which it will lend money at
cost to municipalities.

We are stressing that the

@
Most m
lems fae
by muni
f palities

conditions created bY
austerity program reinfo?
the need for all thesé 7
forms for which We hay
fought over the past ua
— relieving homeowner! ?
the enormous tax burden
on them through progress
taxation on business 2? bi
dustry, through federal P
vincial assumption ®
costs of education, thr0v?
maintenance of aunemp!0} 7.
ment insurance as long “a
worker is without 4 ii
through rebates of 825?”
and automobile taxatio? .
help municipalities cop?
the traffic problem. wh
Members of our party
take part in the municy
elections will show ™
senior governments can 8
the money to meet the a
of municipalities — bY —
ting the defense budgeb *
by taxing capital gain®

=

Why not crown corp:

for East-West trade?

ANADA’S trade with the
C -socialist countries, con-
trary to that with the United
States, is heavily unbalanced
in favor of our exports.

It is frequently pointed out

that we could sell more io
these countries if we bought
more from them.

During 1961, Canada sold
nearly $123 million worth
of goods to China, mostly
grain, and bought only a lit-
tle over $3 million worth
from China.

In Canada’s trade agree-
ment with the Soviet Union,
they agreed to buy twice as
much from us as we buy from
them, up to an annual total
of $25 million. Last year our
exports to the Soviet Union
were $2414 million and our
imports $234 million.

The new wheat agreement
with Poland calls for export
of 300,000 tons of wheat,
with an option on 200,000
tons more, in the current
crop year. If the option is ex-
ercised, these wheat sales
will exceed $36 million. Last
year our total imports from
Poland amounted to $3 mil-
lion’

Although in these _in-
stances we have not been do-

ing badly, we cannot expect
this very one-sided trade to
last. If we wish to sell more,
we must be prepared to buy
more from these countries.
There are plenty of com-
modities we now purchase in.
or through the United States
that could be obtaineg else-
where, thereby reducing our
deficit on U.S. transactions,
and the socialist countries.
have increasing supplies of
goods we could well use.
One think that hampers the

~ buying side of our trade with

these countries is the lack of
appropriate purchasing  fa-
cilities here.

The excuse is made that
our government has no way
of encouraging Canadian im-
porters to buy more socialist
goods — so our exports to
them are held down. Why
couldn’t a government cor-
poration buy socialist goods
Canada can use, and re-sell
them to Canadian wholesal-
ers and retailers?

The socialist countries
have their state buying and
selling: organizations to
handle important commodi-
ties, or groups of products.

Private businesses over

_ here are ays complaining :

that they’

the big state buyer °F
at the other end of 4.
deal. So why don’t We ° f
similar government tra
bodies? af
The Wheat Board nas é

onstrated that this is the 6
effective way to nandlé
important world coe
today. ;
Why not similar
corporations to handle *

ports?

A. government pody,
cializing in the trade ©
one countrty, or of one i ,
of products, could cel”
become more expert _
than dozens of 1
would-be exporters 2
porters—especially whe us
big ones in Canada inorel
controlled and i
haven’t much interest
veloping foreign pusine a

Furthermore, such ©, 4)
ment trade bodies WY is
be the logical place
mine what trade cr
needed and to handle *
credits effectively.

This is the kind
we should be takin& — 4d
defense against the doe
blocs being establishe® pi
der the domination
countries.

—FROM THE UE
RESEARCH BUL

e

The Soviet Unione
agreements with 24 cot
on direct. bilateral
services. Canada 18 _
cluded.