‘ood for both

_ Canada and USSR
exchange know-how

By V. VASILYEV

MOSCOW—‘We were accord-
the most friendly reception
i we felt that Canadians are
Crested in mutually advanta-
us cooperation with Soviet
anizations,” Raghad Minga-
ev, Deputy USSR Minister of
Industry, said on his recent
gun from Canada where he
¢ the Soviet delegation to the
Wiet-Canadian Working Group
j Oil and Gas. This group was
-f Up, along with five other
fh bodies, on the basis of the
pyiet-Canadian agreement on
pPeration in the application
we and_ technological
levements in industry which
es governments signed on

27, 1971.

¥ protocol signed in Ottawa
€ Oct. 27 envisages diverse
™s of cooperation, including
Bie agreements between
yivtet and Canadian companies
sl the collaborative elaboration
Scientific and technical prob-
aS. Special attention is devot-
¢ tO the development of oil and
S deposits situated in the
gitth and in permafrost areas,
eich is of great interest both
if Canada and the Soviet
pion.
pe New Deposits
Whe discovery of huge oil and
iS deposits in the North of the
SR and Siberia in the past
pecade has put the Soviet Union
ja the lead of the countries with
Mig largest known reserves of
ofS fuels and raw materials
jf the petrochemical and chem-
t industries. A new oil-pro-
yo©g area, being developed in
western Siberia, will produce
0-120 million tons of oil by
pis’5 and 250 million tons in 10
s2@S time. New gas deposits
7 big enough to meet the re-
ii’ements of the USSR and the
_flalist countries of Eastern
ope and to supply fuel to
ewence, Italy, and Western
armany. Soviet geologists con-
OS, to discover new deposits
nt iberia in the North. Since
ne!" tch 1971 they have found 14
2) Oil and gas deposits.
cl’ The Soviet Union has accumu-
. a wealth of experience re-
ag to the construction of
es'Be Oil and gas pipelines in the
fag th and in places difficult of
" ss. The Northern Lights
to

large-capacity gas pipeline, to
extend for several thousand
miles, is being laid at present.
Work has begun on two major
oil pipelines to transport West
Siberian oil to the Western and
Eastern areas of the USSR. The
western branch of this pipeline
will extend for 2,800 miles and
its eastern branch will have a
length of about 3,600 miles.
Both branches will be made of
large-diameter pipes. They will
incorporate the latest equip-
ment and their control will be
highly automated.

The Soviet Union’s growing
experience in oil and gas pros-
pecting in permafrost areas and
in laying and operating oil and
gas pipelines in the North will
certainly be of ‘interest for
Canadians. In particular, Cana-
dians showed interest in the
Soviet method of oil boring with
the aid of turbine drills.

Canadian Arctic

Soviet specialists who visited
Canada say that the Canadian
experience in oil and gas devel-
opment is of great interest for
the Soviet Union. They have be-
come convinced of this thanks
to the execellently organized
10,000-mile trip over the coun-
try. The Soviet delegation visit-
ed some islands in the Canadian
Arctic Archipelago, situated be-
tween the 75th and 80th lati-
tudes, and went to a number of
oil and gas fields.

Their attention was attracted
by interesting technical solu-
tions used by Canadians to lay
pipelines under the Northern
conditions in Inuvik and Norman
Wells and to develop oil sands
in McMurray, Athabaska, R.
Mingareyev said. Great Cana-
dian Oil Sands uses unique tech-
nologies to develop this huge
deposit. Also of great interest
for the Soviet delegation were
Atco comfortable mobile houses
for drilling crews. Soviet spe-
cialists saw these houses on
Cornwallis Island and elsewhere
in the Canadian Arctic.

The Soviet Union and Canada
agreed to cooperate- in protect-
ing environment from the harm-
ful effect of oil and gas produc-
tion. In view of the economic
importance and urgency of this
problem, the Soviet delegation
proposed, as the first stage, con-

sultations and exchange of in-
formation and know-how to be
followed by joint research and
experimentation projects.
Northern Peoples
Questions of bilateral cooper-
ation will also be discussed
during the return visit of Cana-
dians to the Soviet Union in
March 1972. Along with the
technical problems, it is plan-
ned to study the social aspects
of the development of Northern
territories. Canadians will be-
come acquainted with the life
of the national minorities inhabi-
ting. the Soviet North, including
the Eskimos, Yakuts, Chukchi
and Nenets who lived a tribal

The program for building major pipelines in the current five-year
period (1971-1975) from West Siberia and Central Asia to the cen-
tral districts of the USSR as well as to European countries require an
ever larger number of pipes and the setting up of new capacities.

life before the 1917 revolution.

Soviet experience connected
with drawing these national
minorities into the development
of the mineral wealth of the
North will be of interest to
Canadians. The Komi Autono-

mous Republic is a successful il-
lustration of this experiment. In
the Soviet period industrial pro-
duction has grown by 224 times
there. At present there are 26
doctors per 10,000 of the popu-
lation in the Komi Republic.

POINT OF VIEW -

Various ideas on independence

The year 1972 is going to be
a banner year for public discus-
sion around the central theme
of an “Independent Canada.”
The Trudeau government has
promised a _ statement during
January on the question of for-
eign ownership of Canadian re-
sources and the huge quantities
of invested foreign capital in the
Canadian economy. Also in Jan-
uary, the Committee for an In-
dependent Canada will publish
its first newsletter of the new
year, reporting on the national
convention of that Committee
which was convened last Decem-
ber at the Lakehead University
in Thunder Bay.

The issue of Canadian inde-
pendence, long since pioneered
by the Communist Party of Can-
ada, is beginning to grip the
conscience of the Canadian
population in a rather forceful
manner. It expresses itself in
the inability of the “establish-
ment” to continue any longer to
ignore the problem and its dras-
tic results to the economy. The
Gray Report, if taken seriously
by the government itself, is con-
vincingly sufficient evidence
that urgent priorities need to be
established quickly to start the
process of really making Canada
an independent country in con-
trol of its own resources, ready
and able to begin large-scale
secondary development and
manufacturing.

‘Hon. Walter L. Gordon, hon-
orary chairman of the Commit-
tee for an Independent Canada,
has been of service to the Cana-
dian peop!e in promoting public
attention to the problem. Their
national convention did attract
people from across the country,
Vancouver to Quebec. Participa-
tion was very good in both work-
shops and the plenary sessions.
Young people were well repre-
sented and brought many prob-
lems to be discussed, including
an outstanding contribution on
the fight for 85% of faculty and
teaching staffs in our universi-
ties, colleges and collegiates to
be Canadian. A section of the
Waffle group from Thunder Bay

area sought to have the goal of
socialism imbedded in the report
of the Research and Long-term
Planning Committee without
success. A Thunder Bay trade
unionist proposed drastic legis-
lative teeth, either as new legis-
lation or as additional protective
measures within the scope of the
Combines Investigation laws.
This proposal provoked quick in-
tervention by a government
lobby attending the convention,
seeking to steer away from pro-
posals harmful to monopoly.
Much discussion in one work-
shop centred on an alleged wa-
ter diversion plan in which tes-
timony from a bush pilot and a
23-year old Ojibway Indian from
Ogoki indicates some prelimin-
ary exploration in Northwestern
Ontario is under way in the mat-
ter of water diversion schemes.

Getting down to brass tacks,
how does the Committee for an
Independent Canada propose to
give effect to its objective decla-
rations? It does not intend to
become another political party.
It intends to remain a pressure
group. It agrees there is a ser-
ious problem. Its literature
states it this way: “The extent
of the American economic take-
over in Canada, as we are all
aware, exceeds by far that of
and other industrialized country
in the world.” Then follow pro-
posals which it is hoped an
aroused public could compel
governments to adopt.

It’s all very well for commit-
tees to crop up seeking to pres-
sure governments. Some suc-
ceed. But in this case the
committee and its membership
are not fully united on ways or
means—or even objectives—for
the genuine independence of
Canada.

While we accept the fact that
a contribution to further under-
standing the independence ques-
tion will be made by the Com-
mittee, there are, however,
serious weaknesses to be over-
come in order to render it ef-
fective. Let us remember that
the Watkins Report by eight pro-
fessors had as a main recom-

mendation the establishment of
a special government agency, to
give a degree of management
and co-ordination in policies
looking to some control over the
objetcive movements of mono-
poly and multi-national corpora-
tions. A Canada development
corporation was recommended
and is now a reality.

At the Thunder Bay national
convention, one could discern
the Eric Kierans strategy of bas-
ing himself on the premises of
the Watkins report in order to
weaken the people’s_ struggle
for a really independent Canada.
He repeatedly referred to
“entrepreneurial and manage-
ment functions.” I note that the
economists of the Watkins Re-
port stated, that the Canada
Development Corporation could
act “as a large holding company
with entrepreneurial and man-
agement functions.” Such weak-
nesses within the Committee
itself will be serious distractions
from the achievement of the
main goals, aimed as they are at
protecting monopoly and the
multi-national corporations.

The Communist Party of Can-
ada, at its recent 2lst conven-
tion takes forthright positions
on the Canadian economy and
sees the independence of -Can-
ada asserted when a strong al-
liance of anti-monopoly, anti-
imperialist forces is forged in
the fight for a peaceful, united,
independent, progressive Can-
ada; then a government of such
a coalition of patriotic and
democratic forces, opening the
door to a socialist future, will
adopt a program that will ef-
fectively deal with the monopo-
lies and the multi-national cor-
porations so as to place the
operation of our economy and
our country in the hands of its

people.
Members of the Committee
for an Independent Canada

would agree there is basis for
unity and common activities to
be found in both programs,
from what I was able to gather
from attending both conventions.

—E. Rogers

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1972—PAGE 9