MEANING OF OTTAWA’S NEW HYDRO POLICY

YANKS GRAB FOR CANADA'S POWER

By TIM BUCK

ON OCTOBER 8 the Minister
of Trade and Commerce,
Hon. Mitchell Sharp,  an-
nounced in the House of Com-
mons, on behalf of the govern-
ment, a new ‘national power

’ policy.”’

The Right Hon. John Diefen-
baker promptly challenged the
Suggestion that this policyis new.
He claimed that ‘‘the long dis-
quisition by the Minister of
Trade and Commerce” was only
a cover-up for the Liberal’s be-

~ lated acceptance of the national
energy policy that was introduced
When Diefenbaker was Prime
Minister.

John Diefenbaker should have
listened more carefully to the
3 text of the gov-

ernment’s an-
nouncement.He
would have re-
alized that, by
a change of
emphasis, al-
most buried in
the wordy text
that the Mini-

; ster read, the
Pearson government has changed
the main objective of its national
Power policy. In fact, it has
Changed its reason for having a
Power policy.

This change isimplicit inthose
Provisions which are new; they
are the keys to the real purpose
of the Pearson government’s an-
Nouncement.

For example, following a wordy
repetition of the reasons that
the Diefenbaker government ad-
vanced for adopting its ‘‘National
Energy Board Act’’ in 1959, the
Pearson government’s statement
announced adoption of ‘‘a flexible
€xport policy which, among other
things, would permit the export
of large blocks of power to the

United States for a relatively
long period of years,’? Note well:
“a relatively long period of
years’’, Apparently the govern-
Ment intends to stretch it even
beyond the 25 year limit set by
Diefenbaker,

This is a marked change from
the cautious approach of the
Diefenbaker policy. But, while
this proposal for long term ex-
Port of power is placed as though
it were the main feature of the
New policy, this is only a decoy.

% * * *

The export of power is actually
@ carry-over from the Diefen-
baker policy which already re-

Versed the 52 year rule that con-—

tracts to export power must be
Tenewed every year,

The Pearson government uses
the question of export somewhat
as the thin edge of the wedge of
its new policy.

Today there are variations
from the conditions which used
to make it almost impossible to
Stop supplying electric current
ONce export became established.
Today large systems in U.S, and
Canada could “trade”? current in
Periods of peak demand with
Mutual advantage. Because of

- this there has developed a con-
ict between the so-called ‘‘in-
formed opinion’’ and the broad
Ody of public opinion which is
~°Pposed to the export of power
_ ©n the ground of national con-
trol of our power resources,

_ As though to apologize for its
Tepudiation of this broad current
public opinion the govern-
Ment’s announcement admitted
the next paragraph: ‘‘The
Policy now being announced re-
€cts important changes which
have taken place in the cir-
CUmstances affecting export of
\ er,’?

Instead of the old policy of encouraging American industry to.
locate here Ottawa now invites the Yanks to take over our rivers and
export cheap hydro power. This is the meaning of the new power policy
recently announced by the Liberal government. In this article; Tim
Buck, the Communist Party national chairman, discusses the meaning
of this new policy for Canadians.

The Minister refrained from
describing the changes because
even a hint at the revolutionary
advance that has been made in
the generation and trarismission
of electrical energy would dis-
credit the main arguments by
which the government tries to
**justify’? its new policy—such
as its pretence that a national
grid is impractical because
Canadian distances aretoo great.

* * *

Counting on all parties in the
House of Commons to go along
with that pretence, the govern-
ment announced its decision to
encourage ‘‘power exports and
inter-connections between Cana-
dian and United States power
systems where such induce early
,development of Canadian power
resources.”’

Elaborating on that radical re-
versal of state policy, the govern-
:ment’s announcement continued:
.*¢More specifically, our policyis
as follows. The government, ...
desires to encourage intercon-
‘nection agreements and‘ maxi-
mum utilization of inter-tie
‘facilities between electrical sys-
tems, both publicly and privately
owned...’’

‘In cases in which Canadian
utilities enter into appropriate
interconnection agreements with
United States utilities, the gov-
ernment will be prepared, upon
recommendation of the national
energy board, to give favorable
consideration to the authoriza-
tion of the export of power to
United States utilities . . .’’

There it is — a new power
policy which invites the giant
electric power monopolies of the
United States to take over Cana-
dian rivers, develop their hydro-
electric power potential, and
transmit ‘‘large blocks of power
for a relatively long period of
years’’ to serve power hungry
industries in the United States.
This is instead of the previous
policy of allowing industry to
move into Canadato secure abun-
dant cheap electrical energy
here,

These excerpts illustrate the
cavalier manner in which the
Pearson government informed
the House of Commons of its
plan to repudiate the essential
principle of national policy which
has been held sacred by all feder-
al governments of both parties
since 1907. The excerpts in-
dicate, by implication only, but
unmistakably, the government’s
intention to ‘* ENCOURAGE” al-
ienation of the remaining great
undeveloped potentials for hydro-
electrical energy in this country.

* * *

The Minister of Trade and
Commerce announced the new
policy to the members of the
House of/Commons casually, as
though it was a routine adminis-
trative detail. But, the real sig-
nificance of the new policy was
revealed in Washington a day or
so. afterwards when Stewart
Udall, Secretary of the Interior
in President Kennedy’s cabinet,
told newspaper reporters that
the Pearson and Kennedy gov-
ernments are ‘‘moving in the dir-
ection of creating a gigantic pool
of their combined natural re-
sources.””

Udall added that the combined
gigantic pool would make it pos-
sible to achieve maximum pro-

OF

duction efficiency by exploiting
the resource in cross-border
trade.

He failed to add that the deal
is between the wolf and the lamb.
Unspoken but quite definite in
his attitude was his understand-
ing that the ‘‘gigantic pool of re-
sources’’ that he aims at, istobe
for the use of United States in-
dustry and that it will make the
development of industry in Cana-
da less and less ‘‘necessary’’.

In short, he looks upon the
merging of the natural resources
of Canada and the U.S. in his
**sigantic pool’? as another step
in the subordination of Canada’s
national development to the con-
tinental ambitions of the United
States,

It is noteworthy that, when re-
porters. asked him what would be
the effect of such pooling of re-
sources, the first thing henamed
was ‘trade in hydro-electrical
energy.’’

presses and protects the inter-
ests of this country and its
people, we could secure substan-
tial benefit by exporting power
without endangering our sov-
ereign control over its generation
or our ability to stop exporting
it when the growth of consum-
ption creates a market for it
here. ;

Such a law must require as a
minimum that;

(a) The federal government
may authorize the export of elec-
trical energy from Canada only
by distributing systems in which
are combined the power made
available by several generating
stations.

(b) The amount of power of
which the government authorizes
for export shall not at any time be
greater than the actual surplus
of power available to the system.
in excess of current demand and
after adequate allowance has been
made for forseeable growth of

NEWS ITEM! |
Power boss suggests to Canada _

) | LET'S POOL ENERG

Y-U.S!

' This is not the first time that
President Kennedy’s Secretary of
the Interior has revealed his am-
bitions in relation to Canada’s

hydro-electrical power
sources. About a year ago he

ordered a special study of the
most advanced methods in use for

the transmission of electrical _

energy over long distances; spe-
cifically from sources in Canada
such as the Yukon, the Peace, the
Nelson and others in Ontario,
and the Hamilton River in Lab-
rador, to power-hungry in-
dustrial centers in the United
States.

The special study completely

discredited the assumption that _

transmission over long distances.
is uneconomic—the main alibi
for the Pearson government’s
rejection of an east-west grid,
The special study revealed that,
in theSoviet Union, power is being
transmitted quite economically
over distances exceeding 1,300

miles.
* ok *

Canada could export electrical.
energy. If such export is govern-

ed by Canadian law which ex- _

Pers

demand in Canada,

(c) Every contract for éxport of
power entered into by a dis-'
tributing system in Canada shall
include mutually binding provi-
‘sions for the withdrawal of the
power from export at the end of
any period contracted for.

(d) Contracts for the export of
power from Canada shall be for
periods up to but not longer than
15 years,

(e) Authority shall not be
granted for any single generating
establishment in Canada to con-
tract to export its power or part

.of its power directly. Export

shall be by central distributing
systems only, No contract for
the export of power from Canada
may tie a specific generating
establishment or power genera-
ted in such an establishment to a
specific importer of power.
* * *

Such provisions as these need
not inhibit the export of power
from Canada to the United States
in any amounts that are surplus
to Canada’s needs. Provincial

-Power Commissions could pro-

ceed with large scale develop-

November 15, 1963—-PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7!

ment of new sites, including
rivers which are now considered
remote.

By exporting the over-all sur-
plus that will be made available
they can help pay for the new
power development and trans-
mission. In this way very large
amounts of power can be made
available for export to the United
States and Canada can benefit
without endangering any Canadi-
‘an interest.

For example, if the Ontario
Hydro-Electric Power Commis-
sion developed the power poten-
tial of the Nelson River and
thereby built up a surplus for
years ahead, export of part of the
surplus to a public utility in
the United States would not be
a specific commitment of power
from the Nelson river. If the
other provisions suggested above
were observed such export could
not injure the HEPC or anyother
provincial power-commission.

In this way Canada could se-
cure real and substantial advan-
tage by controlled export of
power.

*

In principle oats has been.
written above about the export
of power applies to natural gas,
petroleum and coal. It will apply

‘to uranium and atomic or nu-.

clear power in the near future.

There is one type of power
however to which it does not
apply; namely the flow of rivers.
This is illustrated by the issue
of the Columbia river today.

If all its future power were
generated in Canada and part of
it exported to the U.S., its ex-
port MIGHT be stopped at some
future time when it can be used
in Canada, But, if the flow is
diverted and generating plants in
the U.S. depend upon this new
greater volume of flow, Canada
can never re-capture that flow
again,

The above is particularly im--
portant today because one of the
aims attributed to President Ken-
nedy’s Secretary of the Interior,
Stewart Udall, is to build hydro-
electric power stations in the
Alaska Panhandle, generate
enormous power from the Yukon
and other Canadian rivers which
flow through that anomally, then
secure permission from the gov-
ernment of British Columbia to~
transmit the current, generated
in U.S. territory from Canadian
rivers, across the province of
B.C. for delivery in the U.S.

If this is allowed to happen,
Canada will lose control of sour-
ces of power which are literally
priceless and, by the same sur-
render, will surrender a measure
of sovereignty over the trans-
mission lines and the land that
they cross,

The new power policy an-
nounced by the Pearson govern-
ment leaves the door open for.
Udall to carry through his
scheme—not only does it leave
the door open, it proclaims the
government’s ‘‘desire’’ to en-
courage such schemes.

5 * * om

The specific proposal in the.
government’s announcement
which reveals its essential aim
is the following:

**The government also believes
that it would be in the national
interest, in suitable cases, to
license the export of large blocks
of firm power to United States
utilities to permit the develop-
ment of large scale remote
hydro or other power projects
which would not be viable un-

‘less supported by THE EXPORT

FOR LONG PERIODS OF A

SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THE _

See BUCK, pg. 8