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Carney hit for lack
_ Of free trade debate

Federal cabinet minister Pat Carney
claims there has been ample opportunity to
debate the free trade issue — even though
her Conservative government forced clo-
sure on debate in the House of the free trade
legislation after only 2¥2 days last week.

_ That, and the fact that a 15-member par-
liamentary committee now studying Bill C-
130 will hold all its hearings in Ottawa
Tather than tour the country, brought boos
and catcalls to a townhall meeting in the
Treasury Board president’s Vancouver
Centre riding July 7.

tey also told an incredulous audience
she wasn’t aware that virtually all of Cana-
da’s health care services are included in the
Pact, even though these are listed in coded
numbers in the draft text of the agreement.

Carney, back from a tour of Asian
Pacific Rim countries, faced a barrage of
questions from representatives of the B.C.-
based Coalition Against “Free” Trade,
Citizens Concerned About Free Trade and
others who oppose the loss of Canadian
ey under the U.S.-Canada trade

Coalition spokesman Jean Swanson
asked Carney if she would support a request
that the parliamentary committee, chaired
by Tory MP Jack Ellis, hold hearings across
Canada. Swanson acknowledged that her
group presented a brief to a travelling
Committee last year, but pointed out that
was before the government released the
draft text of the pact to the public.

To Carney’s response that “the concerns
of your group are well-known to committee
members” and a charge that free trade
Opponents are using the pact “‘as a whipping
boy” for the Conservative government,
Swanson asked again if Carney, “in the

interests of democracy,” supported the call
for a travelling committee.

Carney, the former international trade
minister chiefly responsible for negotiating
the deal, said she had no authority to gua-
rantee that, but promised she would “take
your concerns” to the committee.

Wendy Holm, president of the BC;
“Small” Small Business: Association and of
the B.C. Institute of Agrologists, challenged
Carney to put into writing a guarantee that
water exports are not included in the free
trade pact.

_ “We demand that you sign a protocol
exempting water, or call an election,” Holm
said.

Holm, along with prominent Canadians
who have been involved in Canada’s water
and trade treaties, has warned that Article
409 of the pact does not exempt Canada’s
vast water resources from being included in
the deal. Critics note that the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
defines water as a “good,” and that the free
trade pact, which deals with goods, is writ-
ten to conform to GATT rules.

Free trade opponents and environmen-
talists fear that the pact, which already
allows the export of bottled and mineral
waters, could be utilized to push through
massive water diversion schemes continu-
ally touted by private consortiums and
urged by thirsty southern U.S. states.

(Those fears were heightened last week
with the call by the governors of several
Mississippi Valley states for increased water
outflows from Lake Michigan to raise the
level of the river. A loophole in water trea-
ties apparently frees the U.S. from seeking
Canadian government approval, but the
proposal affects Canada because it entails

ff

David Orchard of Citizens Concerned About

Free Trade said the Tory governmentis

selling out Canada at townhall meeting of Vancouver Centre MP and Treasury Board

president Pat Carney (inset).

lowering the levels of all five Great Lakes,
and it underscores the pressure placed on
Canada to export vast quantities of water to
the United States.)

Holm told Carney that Clayton Yeutter,

the senior U.S. trade representative, has
been selling the pact to Congress and the
Senate on the basis that it allows the United
States access to Canada’s water supplies.
And she quoted free trade proponent John
Crispo as agreeing that the inclusion of
water diversion makes the pact an issue of
Canadian sovereignty.
- Holm cited recent correspondence she
had received from International Trade Min-
ister John Crosbie that acknowledged that
water may be included in the pact.

Carney cited Environment Minister Tom
McMillan’s comments that the government
has specifically excluded water diversion in
a policy statement read in Parliament last
fall. But Holm, who no longer had access to
the questioners’ microphone, retorted with
a reminder that the free trade deal overrides
all conflicting Canadian government legis-
lation.

The Treasury Board president raised
eyebrows when she denied that social servi-

Late June saw the real start of cam-
paigning for the Oct. 26 civic elections in
Saskatchewan. Several plebiscites are on
the ballot in different cities. And the pro-
vince’s Tory government, in defiance of
Overwhelming public opinion, has legis-
lated an end to the current ward system in
Cities of more than 30,000, in hopes of
changing the balance of power on some
city councils.

An impressive petition campaign has
gathered more than 8,900 names in Saska-
toon to force a plebiscite on a bylaw to
declare the city a nuclear-weapons free
zone. The carefully-worded petition, pre-
pared by members of Lawyers for Social
Responsibility, calls for a bylaw to make it
illegal to make, store or distribute nuclear
weapons, or their components, in the city.

Uranium yellowcake from northern
Saskatchewan mines, which is trucked
through Saskatoon, may be classed as
such a component.

The campaign is sponsored by the
Inter-Church Uranium Committee and
Project Ploughshares, and supported by
other peace groups. United Church acti-
vist Ben Smi-lie, chair of the campaign,
estimates that 75 per cent of those
approached signed the petition. Plans are
afoot for an intense door-to-door canvass
for a “tyes” vote in the fall.

A different issue is creating a political
storm in Regina. The Regina Business
Alliance, which is campaigning for
reduced business taxes, has garnered 8,500
signatures on its call for a three-year, 10-
per-cent cut in city spending. If approved
it will cut $17 million from Regina’s 1988 |

operating budget of $169 million between
1989 to 1991.

The Business Alliance and similar
groups in Saskatchewan cities compare
their efforts to the Proposition 13 cam-
paign in California a decade ago, which
led to massive tax cuts, reduced govern-
ment services, and a wider gap between
high- and low-income groups.

In Saskatchewan the 1982-83 recession,
followed by years of drought, low grain
prices and falling farm incomes, has devas-
tated many small businesses and fuelled
the “tax revolt.” But labour leaders and
city councillors supported by working
people fear the straight 10-per-cent cut will
inflict grave damage on city programs and
jobs.

Several members of Regina city council
strongly advocate increased provincial
and federal support for municipalities to
ease the burden on local taxpayers. Their
refusal to drastically cut city spending was
one factor leading the Devine government
to give cities only two choices of electoral
system: either a full at-large system to elect
city councilors, or a “half-and-half” sys-
tem, with half selected from wards and
half from the city at large. The Tories

Saskatchewan civic races crucial —

passed the second option, despite having
recently suffered landslide defeats in two
May byelections in Saskatoon and Regina
that revealed little support for their right-
wing agenda.

That agenda will be on the ballot in
another form in Regina. Seeking a politi-
cal resurrection, former Tory social servi-
ces minister Gordon Dirks is running for
mayor. Dirks became notorious while in
cabinet from 1982-86 for his ultra-right
views, which are strikingly similar to those
of B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm. His

_ crushing loss to the NDP’s Bob Lyons in
Regina Rosemont in the last election drew

cheers from virtually every people’s organ-
ization in the province.

In his initial statements, Dirks has made
seemingly contradictory calls for lower
property and business taxes, and for major
improvements in the city’s roads.

So far Dirks has two opponents: city
councillors Mark Hanley and Doug
Archer. Both are associated with the loose
anti-Tory majority on council, with
Archer seen as more closely tied to the
NDP. There are fears they could split the
vote, allowing Dirks to win with less than
40 per cent of the total ballots cast. Sucha
result could mean a clear shift to the right
on council, with negative consequences for
working people’s interests.

If a federal election takes place this fall,
Saskatchewan’s cities will become an
arena for political battles on several levels,
as the labour and progressive movements
vie with the right wing for control of the
political agenda over the coming period of
time.

ces were included in the pact. Questioner
Liam Grayer pointed out that page 204 of
the draft text listed several Statistics Canada
industrial classification codes that includes
one for the management of health care ser-
vices.

“Give me the numbers and I guarantee
that Ill look at them,” Carney replied.

“Are you telling me that this is the first
time you’ve heard of this?” Grayer asked.

He said private U.S. firms will be able to

’ take over hospitals, clinics, laboratories and

almost all other aspects of Canada’s largely
publicly run health services under the pact.

Want service,
not profit

WINNIPEG — Seventy per cent of
Canadians believe Canada Post should
provide the best service possible, even if it
means losing money. A poll released
recently by the Winnipeg-based Angus
Reid Associates found that only 22 per
cent believe the top priority should be to
avoid losing money.

Let claimants

work: lawyers

TORONTO — Fifteen immigration
lawyers say the federal government
should let refugee claimants work so that

the huge backlog of applicants ‘can get —

off welfare. People who have applied for
refugee status are not allowed to work
until after a formal hearing on their
claim.

Applicants in Toronto — especially
from regions such as Central Amer-
ica — usually have wait for more than a
year while CSIS does security checks.
Those fleeing socialist or progressive
countries are processed almost imme-
diately.

Anti-Communist
rule opposed

An Alberta New Democratic Party
MLA has called on the province to refuse
tax-exempt status to the Royal Canadian
Legion brancli headquarters in Calgary
because the veterans’ group discrimi-
nates against Communists.

Gordon Wright (Edmonton-Strath-
cona) said the tax exemption, granted by
a private member’s bill, should be with-
held until the Legion changes its policies+
regarding membership.

The Legion’s national constitution
lumps in fascists along with Communists
and anarchists as groups whose members
are prohibited from joining the organiza-
tion.

Pacific Tribune, July 13, 1988 « 3

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