By JAMES LEECH

The outcome of the drama
unfolding around the proposed
; Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline —
and energy corridor — can de-
_ termine the extent of Canadian
~ development, and the way life is
| Shaped for Canadians over much
_ Of the country.

_ It was-expected: by: Canadians
from coast to coast that at last,
With the Commission headed by
Mr... Justice Thomas Berger, all
| the pros and cons would be
} brought out. It was the fond
| hope that the people of Canada
} Would know, finally, whether

- they were getting tied up in a
U.S.-run “Panama Canal Zone”
| Pipeline, or a genuine means of

_ Providing energy for Canada.

_ Justice Berger had given every
Indication that all the facts

Would be brought out.
| _ Now two federal. government
| Ministers have undercut the Ber-
8er enquiry by stating that the
_ 80vernment will not necessarily
_ Wait for its findings before giv-
Ing the go ahead on a Mackenzie

Pipeline. Acting Prime Minister .

_ Mitchell Sharp said’ on March 3

that if the government decides

| that building the pipeline is a
|} Matter of urgency it will not
Wait for the report on the social
_ and environmental impact of the
| Project. More recently, on March
 8,C. M. Drury, minister of Sci-

_ €nce and Technology and of Pub-

Works, cast a similar slur on

_ the hearing taking place in Yel-

lowknife, NWT, and scheduled

to move about the north.

_ Drury is reported to have said:
| the government is not aware
| that the pipeline would cause
| 8ny serious problem and Mr.
Justice Thomas Berger was ap-
Pointed in case of some unknown
factor,

Poland

WARSAW — Preparations for
the 28th international Peace

ace of road cyclists, the largest
amateur contest of its kind in
the world, are in full swing.

_ Applications have been receiv-
€d from 13 countries — USSR,
perman Democratic Republic,
_*0land, Bulgaria, Hungary, Cuba,
Igium, Great Britain, Federal
7 Republic of Germany, Holland,
*Tance, Italy and. Czecho-
| Slovakia,
ane race will have 13 stages
Fk Cie time-trial, and is 1,930
i Ss long. The start is in
Tlin on May 2, and it will end
arsaw on May 8.

a Czechoslovakia
“the RAGUE — Celebrations of
hee anniversary of Czecho-
Ovi Kia's liberation by the
May © Atmy will culminate in
he and are taking various
a Fa,,One of the events will be
Mustva! of Czech and Slovak
_ ¢ (classical and modern)
tradi Spring, culminating in the
_ “*itional Prague Spring Music

Why the big rush to build the pipeline?

Apparently others have very
deep concerns about the serious-
ness of problems arising from
the pipeline construction. In fact,
the opinion is fast spreading that
the Berger appointment was
simply a smoke screen to take

‘off the pressure from environ--

mentalists, Native People’s orga-
nizations and those who believe
that Canada’s energy resources
belong to Canadians and not to
multi-national corporations. The
Berger enquiry goes on, but in
the minds.of many, the govern-
ment is trying to kill it off.
More questions have arisen

than anyone has attempted -to

answer.

_ Back in October 1973, William
Tuomi, Alberta leader of the
Communist Party of Canada, said
of certain continentalists in the
federal cabinet that “it does ap-
pear as if secret negotiations are
under way” for an emergency
pooling scheme, in which Energy
Minister Macdonald urged a
“U.S. to U.S.” pipeline. That and
other fears lurk to this day; and
the effort to play down the Ber-
ger enquiry, which showed seri-
ous intent of getting at the root
of the matter, amplifies that fear.

Puzzle Pieces

Let us look at some of the

pieces of what has become, to
many observers, the Mackenzie

_ puzzle.

1. There is the very large ques-
tion of how the rights and ways-
of-life of the Native Peoples —
Indian, Innuit and Metis. — are
to be settled in any such disrup-
tion of what has been called a
fragile ecological area.

‘2. There is the environment’

itself, as it applies to local peo-
ple, and as it applies to the herit-
age of all Canadians, and as it
contributes as a resource of Can-
ada and the planet.

Socialist

Festival. This year it. will be

- devoted to compositions convey-

ing opposition to fascist ideas,
works which originated during

- and after the war, by composers

from CSSR and other socialist

_ countries. ;

~S

Democratic People's

Republic of Korea

PYONGYANG—Korean work-
ers are striving to fulfill many of

the seven-year plan tasks by

October 10, 30th anniversary. of
the Workers’ Party of Korea.

In transportation, which Pre-
mier Kim II Sung, in a New Year
message called “the front to

which we must direct our efforts
electrification of

first this year,”
railways is going ahead and
diesel locomotives are also being

. introduced. Electrification of the

Pyongyang-Sariwon line is re-
ported near completion; on the
Huinchon-Loin line such work
will be finished by September
and the year’s end will see com-
pletion of electrification under
way. Locomotives and freight
cars are being manufactured at
plants in the republic.

On other fronts, agriculture
will be given a boost with com-

World re

) 3s? BRITISH
§ COLUMBIA

UNITED STATES

smecenesaenees EI Paso Natural Gas
Mapie Leat Line ~
Arctic Gas Pis

— two 48-inch pipes from the
two sources into one 48-inch
down the valley, branching into
three pipelines in the USA. Who
will have priority on that crucial
single pipe down the valley?

It has further been pointed out
that in the “initial years” only
Alaskan gas for the USA will be
carried, Canadian gas to be ad-
ded when “worthwhile” quanti-
ties are found! The company ar-.
gues that only by piggybacking ~
Alaska gas can shipment of Ca- -
nadian gas be made economical.
It suggests to some that only
U.S. gas is really being provided
for. : in

5. There is a proposal by Foot-
hills Pipe Lines Ltd., to be filed
with the Energy Board this
month (March) - which recom-
mends a- 42-inch pipe to carry ~
Canadian gas only, to connect
with B.C. and Alberta pipelines
and serve Canadian centre exclu-

sively. The company, made up

Alberta Gas Trunk Line
eommsencamsememme Trans Canada Pipeline

of Alberta Gas Trunk Line Co.

3. There is the matter of the
cabinet ordering the federal De-
partment of the Environment not
to participate in the hearing the
government itself initiated—and
Environment Minister.

_Sauve doing her best: to defend.
this outrage against the Cana-

dian people’s interests,» aay

4. The plan of Canadian Arcti
Gas Pipeline Ltd. — a 23-com-
pany consortium — would cost
$7-billion (that’s this week’s

i ied ‘The line would travel

600 milés, ‘and carry both Alas--

kan gas from Prudhoe Bay to

“the U.S. west coast and midwest, _
and Canadian gas from the Mac-°

- kenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea
to southern Canadian centres.
Many questions swirl around
pipe sizes and who gets priority

-. pletion of a 36,000-ton capacity
urea fertilizer plant in the west-

ern part of the country, an orlon”

factory with 10,000-ton capacity,
and a polyethylene mill with
25,000-ton capacity.

a

Cuba

_ HAVANA — Cuba is willing
to give aid to other Latin Ame-
rican countries in the training of
art specialists,” said Mario Rod-
riguez Aleman, director-general

_ of Cuba’s Art Schools.

“Thirteen. years after its
‘founding, the National School of
Art has trained art teachers and
artists and can now aid other
countries in this field,” he said.

‘The schools, he emphasized,
‘have eliminated colonialist influ-
ences from culture. “We will
develop culture of and for the
revolution,” he emphasized. He
spcke of the valuable aid in this
. field the Soviet art experts had
' given to Cuba. —

“Many of the graduates of the
Cuban school are taking courses
in other socialist countries,” he
said, “chiefly in the USSR. And
for the first time, young people
from the other socialist countries
are studying art in Cuba.”

Jeanne .

Ltd. of Calgary and Westcoast
Transmission Co. Ltd. Vancou-
ver, says this wili be much cheap-
er than the Arctic Gas plan.

Fidgety Haste

A suspicious-looking tendency
to. haste is seen developing, both’
in the federal government’s
dcwngrading of the Berger com-
mission and in media alarmism
over impending shortages of gas,
in Ontario, for example. It all
tends to urge us into acceptance

Need facts on Mackenzie Valley |

Justice Berger’s careful examina-
tion of all aspects.

But by March 7, the Star had
got fidgety, cited Ontario’s al- .
leged “shortfall” of gas supply
and appealed.: “No one would
suggest that the federal govern-
ment can risk the spectacle of
Ontario industries. closing for
want of gas while Justice Berger
chatted with community leaders
in the North ad infinitum.”

This note of urgency seems to
have pervaded all the pro-mono-
poly circles since the Berger en-
quiry began digging for facts.

What has not been discussed
by the big business media is the
fact that the resources of Can-
ada are rightfully the property
of the Canadian people, not of
the corporations who are trying
to manipulate the whole energy
business in Canada. Questions
arising concerning resources as
a whole, are more than ever
valid for those contemplating
the proposals for the Mackenzie —
gas pipeline. Public ownership
and democratic control of oil and
gas reserves and the pipelines
that carry them is urgently re-
quired to begin resolving the en-
ergy steal by the monopolies.

Adequate time for the Berger
Commission to assemble its find-
ings and report should be guar-
anteed, if the Canadian people
are not to be steamrollered into
a deal that puts dollars into the
pockets of corporations at the
expense. of the land and its peo- _

of what the corporations (with ple. — co za
government supporting roles) say te: " are thane a ee 22k
is good for us. pee acta Oe ae the =

_ Back on March 3, the Toronto
Star, in an. éditorial, “Canada’s*~
$7-billion gamble, seemed pleas-
ed that, “Canada is no longer

ahead on monopoly's say-so, has

kenzie Valley is not a matter

. Tushing ahead to developmentrat:-for»hasty disposal: by fast-buck

any cost.” The editorial heralded —

artists." SRE 2

Artist's sketch of apartments for towns along Siberia’s Baikal- —

Amur railway, where severe climate has to be considered. (See story

below.)

Soviet Union
LENINGRAD — A series of

apartment buildings for the
towns and settlements which are
to: be built in the area of the
Baikal-Amur trunk railway now
under construction in the eastern

' part of the USSR have been de-
veloped by the Leningrad re-—
search and design institute of
model and experimental design-
ing of residential and social
buildings. ; ee

Severe climate, the presence

of permafrost, complicated land-
scape and high seismicity are
taken into account in the course
of the construction of houses in
these: parts. New houses for the
Baikal-Amur railway will be un-
like these built elsewhere in the
country.

PACIFIC TRIBUN

These will be complexes of
buildings including, along with
residential premises, also shops,
schcols (kindergartens, etc. It is |
not necessary to go out into the ©
street to pass from a flat to a ©
school or a shop. To do that, one
has only to go down to the
ground-floor by which he may
pass round the whole complex.
These are going to be 2, 4, 5 and
9-storey buildings. Special build-

_ing-sections have been designed |

to assemble houses to fit the
relief of the terrain; like in a
“make it yourself” kit.

-Among the pioneers of the
Baikal-Amur railway builders in
eastern Siberia, are numbers of
Ycung Communist League mem-
bers who volunteered for this
rugged existence.

E—FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1975—Page 7 _