By WILLIAM TUOMI HEY call it a bargain-base- Bicecy tt throne speech — the Tot delivered to the opening Bares: Alberta Legislature. And € bec easement it well could in the ane much of what is left Ocial Credit shop is shop- Sub-standard or be- Pe WY provincial electi ea ion Brae S0vernment has to have Ss for almost everyone, Ne Speech ran the gamut "om the q evelopmen : *saurces to a Pment of human alth, to Use in oy Engineering oc- Sing the trust act, to giving fj Tadien ; giving fish A pig board. If anyone hat an ea there is promise Pointed udsman will be ap- But t ae the vast majority who €rned, the government ait Studying tl Iving. There os a Ieee will happen have been | = School boards ( On their own to Ation, tly rising cost of educ- double 3 Speech ignored the : ISIs of 4 shortage of shape tn rents for ombudsman ese are for he proposed he Human bill to establish €sources Research Council will embrace, says the government, ‘educational _ re- search related spheres pertaining to the individual, cultural and social progress of society.” The “special needs and problems of our citizens of Indian ancestry” will be included in this research again. The Bill is a re-wording of the Act that established the. Alberta Research Council. Water pollution in the pro- vince’s rivers will be researched and in this connection the Divi- sion of Sanitary Engineering will be re-named the Environ- mental Health Services Division in recognition of the importance of their job in “our increasingly urbanized and __ industrialized society.” A fourth university is promis- ed in 1972. The proposed and very contro- versial consolidation of the pro- vince’s ten municipal acts will get a first-reading and a heave- ho for a year in the legislature. In the new act provision is made for a provincial govern- ment appointed board that can review complaints where an in- dividual claims hardship caused by a municipal council decision. A short time ago, the Minister of Municipal. Affairs made just such an appeal against a zoning _ decision by the Edmonton City Council, involving land he own- ed in the city. He claimed his hardship could have been sooth- == Bargain basement "= Throne Speech ed over by the City paying him $140,000. Under the new act, he would have appointed the ap- peal board which would have heard his complaint. Another piece of threatened legislation has had no mention yet. A new Power Commission Act was promised — several months ago. Under the act, the regulatory board that in this province is called a power com- mission, would have the power of life and death over municipal-_ ly-owned power systems. The board could veto any expansion of a power system within a mu- nicipality, could regulate power production and _ distribution within policy owned systems. The proposed act shows clearly that the government is doing everything it can to proscribe and limit the development of publicly-owned power as part of its deliberate policy to turn the province into an exclusive do- main of the U.S.-based Interna- tional Utilities. In a rather slow starting ses- sion of the legislature, where the government is proposing re- search on a multitude of ques- tions, the lone NDP member contributed his suggestion for one more research project. He asked the government to “re- search” the business dealings of a nuinber of Social Credit MLAs, including some cabinet minis- ters. He, of course, was unsuc- cessful, -MLA’s talk as if election coming B HE’ are, C. BEECHING katch, Tound in the Sas- etree Provincial leg- remier nS IS Over, ended by hatcher Mister - of - Finance fer hi Udget address, deli- Written Mle this was being ften asked ues . S: Will there be an ee aking any chanc- eir Speeches ate prelimi- y: Shots in oe 80vernment’s Tihs: ™ credit ne Ring goo > blame nee he CCF. Try to he My maaon the defensive, als Claw for which the B2ction of Credit, is the at- / *S: OWnership capi- and royalty re- ‘S. chemical and ‘ = alon al Uctine 2YY for the big Ae F'erests. Company, and service On t : are better in Canada D Li mee the Saskatche- Ponsipi Ss Willingly assume hing j Be aa no harm in itieg @ buoyancy in the ‘onomy asa result of '8 Whe t Countries deals with social- f thin As & 1.0 Whol The “bad” is the serious shortage of adequate medical facilities. Serious everywhere, it has reached crisis proportions in Regina. Regina has grown by 42,000 in the past 20 years, and remains with two hospitals, one, the Regina General, in urgent need of renovation and enlarge- ment. The CCF-MLA mayor of Re- gina. is held responsible by Thatcher, although the CCF gov- ernment had in its plans the building of a base hospital in conjunction with the university before it was defeated. At the heart of the problem is the fact that the federal gov- ernment finds nearly $2 billion a year for war, but not enough to meet the needs of Canadians. That’s another taboo subject in the provincial legislature. The CCF Opposition has done better than in any session since its defeat. Opposition Leader Woodrow Lloyd has been speak- ing effectively. One of his most telling addresses was the tack- ing of the failure of the gov- ernment to live up to _ its lavish election promises — including the creation of 80,000 new jobs. He pointed out that Saskatchewan’s population for the year ending June, 1966, increased by 3,000, whereas vital statistics indicate it ought to have been 9,000. The CCF opposition also pointed out that Saskatchewan ties for sixth place with New- foundland for job increase rate. Lacking is a solid, down-to- _earth debate about the all-Can- adian development of the. prai- ries, including a plan to develop manufacturing and industry. The various contributions of CCF MLAs indicates a diversity of thought within the CCF, with ~ -a reluctance to grapple with such questions as the effects of lop-sided war spending, a clear- cut program for the all-Canadian development of Saskatchewan, markets for Western Canadian- based production, etc. If the Liberals are to be de- feated, the CCF will have to be able to appeal to broad sections of the Saskatchewan population. - Thatcher, depicted as a mod- ern Huey Long in a recent art- icle in Canadian, will gamble on an election this year if he thinks he can win it. Some CCF sup- porters think that people are only waiting for election day to vote the Liberals out. While one can sympathize with this atti- tude, it can only lead to an un- derestimation of what it will take to beat the Saskatchewan Liberal machine. re,| THE ONTARIO LEGISLATURE WEST IN SESSION The election shell game A WEEKLY COMMENTARY By BRUCE MAGNUSON Ontario Leader of the Communist Party EB. 14 was St. Valentine’s Day. Provincial Treasurer Charles McNaughton arose to the occasion. With an elec- tion around the corner he knew something dramatic had to be done. Spending estimates for the. fiscal year of 1967-68 were increased by $361 million to a total of close to $2,000 million making for a deficit over expected revenues of $162 million and no tax increase at the provincial level of government. The largest increase in government spending for the com- ing fiscal year goes for education and training programs, which accounts for exactly one-half, of $1,100 million, of all esti- mated expenditures. This is the area where new tax-sharing arrangements with the federal government has shifted more revenue from federal taxation to the province. But despite this huge amount of expenditures for educa- tional and training purposes, there should be no illusion that the problem of the heavy burden of school taxes is now going - to be lifted from the municipalities and the homeowners and tenants. On the contrary, property taxes and rents will con- , tinue to increase. The provincial budget and the complete ab- sence of any hint about democratic tax reforms make this an absolute certainty. In the Metropolitan Toronto area such an increase in rents and taxes could be very high indeed. Already there are forecasts of up to 20 percent increase. Both the federal and provincial authorities are spending huge sums for educational purposes, for new training pro- grams related to the developments in science, cybernetics and automation. But the bulk of such expenditures is at the uni- versity level. And Premier Robarts has made it clear that de- velopments in higher education for the next five years will be greater than all the advances made over the past 100 years. These developments are part of objective reality and the top levels of governments are going to be called on to do much more than they are presently doing. This is precisely why we need democratic tax reform. For example, from the huge sum of $1,100 million allot- ted to meet educational costs in the Ontario election year budget, only $60 million goes to municipalities in the form of education grants. Moreover, the largest portion of this rela- tively paltry sum is already earmarked for meeting existing debts. Consequently, school taxes to cover cost of elementary and high schools will continue to come from property taxes. The very same day that the Ontario budget was brought down at Queen’s Park, the Metro Toronto Executive Commit- tee, which is the highest body of six borough administrations in the Metropolitan Toronto area, refused to advance $28 mil- lion to meet the capital cost of urgently needed schools. Met- ro School Board Chariman Barry Lowes was told he’d simply have to “take his share of the thin soup.” But the ones who have to swallow the “thin soup” are the 17,000 children who as.a result will be confined to flimsy portable classrooms this coming fall. Last year $36 million was spent on building schools. This year the school board has asked for $151 million. But Metro boss William Allen, who is an appointed official, told the elected members of the school board they must make do with $50 million. Thus the ball is always bounced back to the local taxpayer. The record-size Ontario budget sets aside only $26 million for housing. Of this amount the Ontario Student Housing Cor- poration takes $6 million. Another $4 million goes for operat- ing expenses, Total capital spending for public housing and for land assembly in semi-public housing projects is increased by only $2.7 millioa, making for a total of $16 million. It is’ obvious there is no serious intention to meet the housing crisis, and that the “Home Ownership Made Easy” (HOME) plan is just another Tory election gimmick. Education and housing are vital social needs. Both our resources,.and our productive capacity and technical know- how are sufficient to provide for these and all other social needs. The big question in our private-profit-oriented society is not how we are going to pay for these services but who is going to pay. Next week: the urgency of democratic tax reform.