BATTLE OVER IRON ORE TAX Mining lobby would scuttle hopes of steel industry ate mining interests are putting press es € province’s mining laws at the curren international manoeuvres are being intro wa athe mney General Robert Bonner that cd. with foreign countries” Bills 87 and 91, eth Kiernan, should be scuttled. an aa Kiernan is sticking ae guns, and firing back a or shot. Surrounded by . oes more noted for Bees Slveaway” tendencies Pe uK management licenses Bectc : firms, pipeline con- ae €as giveaways, sellout pe schemes) than for de- futine of British Columbia’s ee Kiernan, the one-time io of a little gas station, ie s for the majority of : Be enuce’s citizens when die ys, “I don’t intend to A the present laws. I ae rather be too protective - beople’s interests than - toe generous.” ie heart of the contro- Which Saad tax on iron ore, dea ternan frankly admits the produced to discourage nae = Ade of iron ore to -Ja- mineg e need it here, says the eth, minister, if we are to P a steel industry. ae Japanese government hia several repre- twa iy to Victoria and Ot- Cniinin: have the tax lifted are oe that the amount of (3,000 oa by the contract enough tons) would not be ert, to keep a steel mill op- =n . : for any length of 5 eis tawa has been asked of the at the tax under terms eee NA Act, which gives uel Over trade matters. ye ae isn’t worried over minin ity of the tax. If the it Thies who oppose genni. ats illegal and not a t ne “land tax” then let hem t ak ; courts, ae their case to the hee in fact, has al- thing een taken by two B.C. aed companies (Utah Com- a of the Americas and e.. ie Mines Ltd) which ae ed action last week Ss ae the attorney-general is 2 grounds that the prov- 2 sits no right to levy a Sika in effect, discourages bes S of iron ore from B.C. apan. 3 ie its foreign operations i in Canada, Australia, Cis ae : Columbia, Peru, » Okinawa, Korea, Utah dome truction more than ubled its profits in 1956). Se man in the street ex- the government to use aS natural resources wisely” & S Kiernan. “Iron ore is es- Ntial for B.C’s development and shouldn’t be exported. If we had vast quantities of iron ore the situation would be dif- ferent. But at present our known reserves are limited. No one will establish an iron ore industry here if they don’t know where the iron ore is coming from.” Kiernan doesn’t make such statements only from the safe enclosure of the legislative buildings. Last month he at- tended a panel session on the mining industry arranged by the Vaneouver Board of Trade, heard a battery of mining ‘“ex- perts” attack his legislation, then bluntly told 30 hostile listeners that the laws would not be changed for their con- venience. “fron ore, once mined, is gone for good,” he said. “Min- ing companies took advantage of the three year initial per- iod in which no taxes were levied by stripping the ret sources. All the people had left was a day’s pay and a hole in the ground.” Kiernan believes that B.C. jron ore reserves, if conserved and used wisely, are suffici- ent to maintain a basic iron and steel industry in the prov- ince. — (This has long been the stand taken by the Labor-Progres- sive party, which condemned the shipping of iron ore to Ja- pan and welcomed passage of Bills 87 and 91 last year). Kiernan hints that several firms are interested in estab- lishing a steel industry to con- vert the iron ore for B.C. in- dustry and are carrying on re- search aimed at using Peace KENNETH KIERNAN “Once mined, the iron ore is gone for good.” ure on the Social t session of the legislature, and national duced to convince Premier W. A. C. Bennett “i the interests of industry, trade and amicable brought in last year by Mines Minister VICTORIA, B.C. Credit government to River natural gas to refine the iron, Prospects are bright that a basic iron and steel in- dustry is nof as far away “as most people think.” g During the past year steel magnates from Germany, Swe- den and at least one other European country visited Van- couver to examine business prospects — an indication that they feel a basic steel plant will soon be in operation in the province. One firm Fagersta Steel- works of Sweden, liked the prospects so much that it bought the Vancouver firm of Tungbide Products Ltd. Its interest at the moment is con- Here the huge Japanese ore carrier, Nichiryu Maru, is seen in Vancouver Harbor after loading her cargo of B.C. iron ore for Japan. fined to secondary manufac- turing (detachable drilling bits). Aside from the iron ore de- bate, B.C. mining men charge that the government’s land tax” has caused a sharp drop in mine exploration and dis- couraged risk capital. To stimulate mine exploration, the old. Crown grant system should be reinstituted. While the number of claims staked in 1957 dropped from the number staked in 1956, this happened in other prov- inees, too. And under the Crown grant system, big companies could “sit tight” on properties for decades, thus holding back the develop- ment of the whole province. Now the government has a say as to the deveicpment pro- gram, rate of production and time of production — and that is all to the good. As the current session of the levislatu.e pro-eeds, pressure will mount against the min- ister of mines, as mining lob- byists go to work. Will Kier- nan stick to his guns? We'll know within the next few weeks. Stricken auto city fights for federal full employment policies ¢ Crossing Windsor’s Oullette Avenue at Park Street, By NORAH RODD WINDSOR two middle-aged women are discussing affairs. “What is your husband doing now?” “Nothing at all. He has had no work since. . . In the Canada Building around the corner, the young woman at the elevator is the sole breadwinner for her fam- ily; her husband, a Ford man, has been laid off for many months; her mother helps out with their little son. In the Post Office, despite the No Loitering order, older men gather at the back window to keep warm. At home, the veteran is call- ing again with calendars and packages of adhesive tape. od E would gladly work if I could,” he says, “but there is nothing for me.” : By New Year, the number of unemployed in Windsor had reached 21,000 and the lines in its National Employment Service offices were among the longest in the country. But Windsor labor is not taking. the situation lying down. The older men remem- ber the relief camps of the thirties when for four years an average of 20,000 men liv- ed far from their families and received 20 cents a day In 1956 Windsor District La- por Council set up a Full Em- ployment Committee which called a meeting of unemployed .” and the voice is lost in the noise of traffic. and from the meeting set up an Unemployed Committee. The Full Employment Com- mittee is financed from Wind- sor District Labor Council and the separate Political Action Committee Fund subscribed to by some United Auto Workers locals — those of Ford and Chrysler levying an extra one cent a month for this purpose. When extra donations are nec- essary they come from PAC funds and from the “citizen- ship funds” of the big locals. Aim of the Unemployed Committee is to get adequate relief, prevent evictions and otherwise meet the urgent needs of the unemployed. It is-also organized to support measures to restore full em- ployment. = At a rally held last Octo- ber in Windsor’s Palace Theatre, UAW director George Burt pointed out that while Windsor is the country’s sev- enth industrial city, only five firms employ more than 1,000 men; that the need is for many more industries. Charles Brooks, president of Chrysler Local 444, asked for a federal government tariff structure to encourage secon- dary industry and assist in curtailing the increasing im- portation of car parts into the country in favor of Canadian- manufactured goods. (Figures for .1956 show that automotive parts alone imported into Can- ada amounted to $318,639,000, of which $312,000,000 came from the U.S.) Cards were given out at the rally asking for help in fight- ing evictions, repossessions of furniture, or any other emer- gency. Almost 400 of these cards were signed and turned in to the committee. There have been no evic- tions in Windsor thus far, though at least 30 have been threatened. Now the federal government has issued an or- der to Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation that no evictions are to take place because of unemployment. This order was endorsed by Windsor City Council and sent out to other communities. It has already been endorsed by 14, including Chatham, Sar- nia, Belleville, Sudbury. St. Catharines drafted its own letter going farther than Wind- sor, and North Bay has en- dorsed St. Catharines’ letter. January 31, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 3