Hi THERE }! Bere PLUMTREE HEKe VE Got A NEW Tow. RENEM BEre ALL THOSE : =)! HORKY PENNY-PINCHING (oe KEc\PES | USED To HAND OUT: By TOM MORRIS The fraudulence and viciousness of the government's ‘‘anti- inflation’”’ Bill C-73 is quickly be- coming clear. Behind it all, stick- ing out from the thin veneer are the desperate efforts of Trudeau and his cronies to make the people pay over and over again for Canada’s economic mess. In this campaign, a bonanza for banks, oil moguls, food chains and other pigs at the trough, the working people are getting shafted as never before. Its shorter-term effects are an all-out attack on unions in negotiation. The one-two punch of the ‘‘anti- infiation’’ board acting as God and back-to-work laws waiting in _ the wings have already severely _ tested the labor movement. Ss mean- Longer term implication: the sabotaging of collective bar- gaining (‘‘the adversary system is _ outdated,’’ wheezed Mackasey). The Anti-Inflation Review Board, led by that paragon of self- Sacrifice, Jean-Luc Pepin and flanked by the laughable Beryl Plumptre, has emerged as sole ar- biter in the lives of millions of working Canadians. By-passing even the modicum of collective bargaining procedures, this cabal of six becomes the fount of know- ledge, issuing judgements and — by the metric WHO ARE THEY? Who are they? What sort has _ Trudeau appointed to his Board? - @ Jean-Luc Pepin, heads up the ‘Board at a salary of $1,038 a _ week. Other sidelines include _ several directorships. Jean-Luc leads the battle for restraint in -_ @ Beryl Plumptre, former chief of Prices Review Board now dis- olved. She receives $770 per _@ Theother four are: Claude Cas- _ tonguay, former Quebec minister of social affairs; Jack Biddell, To- ronto accountant, president of ‘Canada’s largest bankruptcy trus- - tee firm; Harold Renouf, Halifax, Congress. _ dogs fetch $200 per day fee each. URE Mapard bat Toi ect yock anit squanders $1-million every month — money well-spent if _ you're an employer. As detestible and biased as the __ Boards, itis only the tip of a very * iceberg. It’s merely one form now developed by the gov- ernment in its attack on Reon living standards. “I am hoping,’’ Trudeau said on Nov. 10, ‘‘Canadians will use this period as a time to pause, to think, to reflect and to reach somewhat new values where we will be more interested in the quality of life .. This was just before he took the first step to destroy that qual- ity of life for most with his ‘“‘wage and price control’’ scheme. ‘QUALITY OF LIFE? While Trudeau was delivering this sermon, Statistics Canada re- leased its figures ‘for October 1975. Living costs jumped 0.9% in one month with rents, food, tax- es, transport, clothing leading the way. Unemployment stood at 7.3% — highest in 14 years. Quality of life? We learned that the top 20% of Canadians (includ- ing Trudeau, Pepin, Plumptre, Mackasey, most certainly) now receive a full 42.4% of Canada’s total income. The bottom 20% subsist on only 4% of the total income. Quality of life? Newfoundland’s mini-budget which begins July 1, 1976 raises sales tax to 10%, cuts all hospital building,’ reduces teaching staffs and cuts all sports and recreation programs. It doesn’t cut that province’s crimi- nal 18.1% jobless rate. Quality of life? A survey of Alber- - ta’s Native People shows a job- less rate of 79%. Eleven per cent had no education, only 17% ever reached grade 12; none had com- pleted university. Montreal an- nounced Nov. 25 it may be forced to close 88 non-profit daycare centres because of. inadequate government funding. Two weeks ago Canadians learned that half of our 1,800,000 pensioners exist near the poverty level. That level is set at $3,012 per year — what Pepin ‘‘earns”’ in three weeks. INSULTING REMARKS We’re not only being conned and lied to, we're being insulted by cynical politicans who say such things as: “* Making sacrifices for a few years is not for most of us a great problem ...’’ When Plumptre gave us that on Oct. 30 she toughed it out on her $110-a-- day pittance. ‘‘Malnutrition in Canada may be caused more by affluence than poverty,’’ Ontario Health Minister Frank Miller said . on Nov. 18. Miller would know all about eating expensive foods. How is it he doesn’t suffer from malnutrition? PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 19, 1975—Page 6 MY New JoP Is To MAKE You USE THEM Bad enough, you could say, if we stayed where we are. The THE ‘ANTI-INFLATION BOARD’ AND YOUR LIVING STANDARDS ever, the curbs on wage increases will be a help to the food industry difficult, often tragic struggle. by ....”’ millions in this country to get by, even if things didn’t get worse, would cry out for change. But what's in store? What are these “‘restraints’’ and ‘‘sacrifices”’ Trudeau’s ministers are talking about? They jacked their own salaries up 33.3% before the ‘‘restraint’’ and today, under Bill C-52, are plan- ning to raise their personal pen- sions 33.3% to a handsome $18,000 per year. Their man- darines, top civil servants, poc- keted a $6,000 per year wage in- crease just days before Trudeau gave us his Thanksgiving turkey. RESTRAINT? Government supplementary spending estimates show a gener- ous $385-million to subsidize oil companies this year. Bell Canada is seeking $112-million in rate in- creases. Ontario Hydro plans to raise rates 25% on Jan. 1, 1976 (they are exempt from the guidelines). The $3-billion-a-year auto insurance cartel predicts’ motorists will pay from 25-50% more in premiums this year. Natural gas rates in Ontario will go up this month. Gasoline al- ready did — 5.4 cents a gallon. “Controls are fair’’ said Harold Corrigan, president of the Cana- dian Manufacturing Association, Oct. 24. ‘“‘We welcome the gov- emment wage and price con- trols’’ echoed Gerald Bouey, governor of the Bank of Canada, two weeks later. © Their enthusiastic support is un- derstandable. ‘‘Controls’’ are no threat to their quest for super- profits. Worse, controls, as they are being applied to workers wages, guarantee profit gouging. An economist for Wood Gundy Ltd., writing in the Financial Post Oct. 18, said it plainly: ‘‘It isn’t possible for the government to control commodity prices. How- THE PROFIT PICTURE A help it certainly will be. Domin- ion Stores Ltd. declared a 26- week profit figure of over $9- million — 35% higher than 1974. Loblaws shows a 40-week profit of 175% above last year’s. Look- ing at the same figures (and more) Beryl Plumptre said, Oct. 25: “‘Major food firms’ profits have.a relatively minor effect on higher food prices ...’’ At $770 a week, Plumptre will have little trouble filling her shopping cart. Even finance minister Macdonald -showed more candor than Plumptre when he told Parliament ~ Oct. 31: ‘‘The anti-inflation prog- ram will have little effect in con- trolling food prices ...”’ _ BANKS ARE BOOMING Welcoming the ‘‘controls’’, the banking people sure know a good thing for themselves. Banks are booming. A sampling in November of 10 companies’ third quarter profits show this picture: 1974 — $118,800,000; AQIS $177,800,000. That’s a whopping 49.5% increase in one year. For the year ending Oct. 31, 1975 these banks showed the following — profit increases: Royal Bank, 43%; Bank of Monrtreal, 81%; Bank of Commerce, 32%, Mer- cantile Bank, 100%; Toronto- Dominion Bank, 30%. And, if an NDP government scares capitalists, there’s the spectacle of the Bank of British Columbia declaring a beautiful 300% jump over last year. Trust and loan companies aren’t far behind. Eleven companies sampled last month reveal: 1974 $63,600,000; 1975 $86,700,000 for a 36% profit boost in this third quarter over last. These people are certainly taking ‘costs have risen 256% in 14 years _bringing the average cost of a a Mc Trudeau’s “quality of life’’ me sage to heart. EFFECTS ON PEOPLE On the other side of the economic — tracks, the majority of people © have a somewhat more modest — life. More than 500,000 poor in Metro Toronto alone earn less : than $6,000 per year. Housing — single dwelling in that city $56,205. Interest rates since 1961 have in- creased by 85%, raising the in- terest charges by 1000% over the life of a 25-year mortgage. Sm wonder Canada’s banks and tru companies are so healthy. Land costs, due to the activities big developers, have risen by 200% in the same time span Added together, (not counting taxes and utilities, which have — also soared) the hopeful home ~ owner in Ontario needs a minimum $25,000 per year in- come to get into the housing game. ; : Here’s further random sampling of profit gougers: Proctor & Gamble, 250% profit increase over 1974. McIntyre Mines Ltd., over 300%; Voyager Petroleums Ltd., over 300%; First City Fi- nance Corp., over 250%. The list is endless ... ‘ROUGH JUSTICE’ Jean-Luc Pepin spoke to a semi- nar of Ontario executives on Dec. — 3 in Toronto. They paid $150 apiece to figure out how they could work the ‘‘guidelines’’ to their advantage. Each earns be ween $50,000 and $100,000 a year and is stuck with only a $2,400 allowable increase. Pepin told them boldly his Board A intends ‘‘to administer some rough justice’’ in its crusade. They laughed, and the speaker, caught up in the spirit, laughed along with them.