FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1972

VOL. 33, No. 37

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FOOD CHAINS ACCUSED
OF HIGHWAY ROBBERY

= =Prices review board

TOBLEss LINES GROW LONGER. Lines at Unemployment Insurance Commission offices continue to grow
Bee Gs jobless total in Canada rose again despite season when unemployment usually declines. Photo

[e} :
—s lineup at Vancouver UIC office.

Unemployment in B.C. jumps
More than 20% in one year

foe Canadian public were on
i, rte end of a double-
oa elled shotgun during the past
Noun days with the an-
Cement last weekend that
D Bes in August had gone
latest Percent, followed by the
GR Statistics Canada figures
ing that unemployment in
pee had taken a giant leap
shoula © in a month when they
Both be going down.
loy Of these evils, mass unem-
pee and inflation, are the
‘ result of Liberal govern-
Bhar eicies which let the big
Miser’ lies get rich out of the
0 Can and suffering of millions
adians,
© month of August saw
U
6 Ployment in Canada rise to
frome rcent of the labor force
rgest Percent in July — the
ficial Jncrease in a year.
n Pies total in Canada
Much ee (It’s really
Bq. employment picture in
In apa tinues to remain bleak.
expe ee when many workers
enough 0 have a job to make

Winter to carry them through

Unemployed periods,

there was a sharp rise in the
number without jobs compared
to the previous year.

In August, 1971 there were
officially 51,000 workers without
jobs in B.C. This year, 1n the
same month, there are 62,000
unemployed, according to

PROFITS TAKE
“HEFTY JUMP

OTTAWA (CP) — The net
‘profit after taxes of Canadian
industrial corporations to -
talled $1.18 billion in the first
of 1972, up 36.1 3

PRRs aah e
cent from $869 million in t
same period of 1971, Statistics
Canada reported Tuesday.
Net profits in January, F

quarter

UNEMPLOYMENT DOESN'T HIT
THEM. The above item which
appeared on September 7 reports
that net profits after taxes for
Canadian Corporations was
$1.18 billion — a jump of 36.1
percent for the first quarter of
1972. High unemployment and
high prices are making the rich
richer.

Statistics Canada— a jump of
21.6 percent.

The Trudeau government
claimed on the eve of calling the
election that the economy was on
the rise, and that by pumping
hundreds of millions of dollars in
tax handouts to the big
corporations that this will create
new jobs. The August figures
prove the absolute bankrupcy of
that theory.

Not only is the government’s
program failing to absorb the
large army of unemployed, but

it is not succeeding in creating

new jobs on the scale needed.
Official figures show that only
73,000 new jobs were created
since April while the number of
new people looking for jobs
during that period was 166,000.

The August figures underscore ~

the need for a new direction in
Canadian policies. What is
needed is a massive economic
program to create new indus-
tries based on development of
resource industries, as well as a
national construction program of
homes, hospitals, schools and
urgently needed public projects.

urged by candidate

The major food chains in B.C. were this week
accused of “highway robbery”’ in their prices gouge of
the consuming public by Vancouver East Communist
candidate Maurice Rush, who coupled his accusation
with a demand for the setting up of a federal prices

review board.

Speaking Monday night to elec-
tion workers in Vancouver East,
Rush drew attention to the latest
figures released by Statistics
Canada which showed another
2.2 percent rise in Canadian food
prices in the month of August.

This increase came on top of
the July boost in food prices
which went up 4.1 percent, the
‘largest rise for any month of
July in history.

The Communist candidate
said a prices review board
should require companies seek-
ing to increase prices to appear
before it to justify such
increases.

Rush said the Trudeau govern-
ment stands condemned for
having failed completely to take
steps to protect the public from
the corporations exploiting
both the producers and the
consumers in their drive to
achieve record-breaking profits.

“If the Liberal government
could bring MPs to Ottawa
within hours for an emergency
session to break the longshore-
men’s strike, it could also have
called such an emergency
session to take strong action to
deal with the corporate profit-
-eers and rising prices.

‘But instead of taking action
to protect the public from ex-
cessive profiteering which is
striking at the standard of living
of all Canadians, and
particularly those on low
incomes, the Trudeau govern-

ment gives these same corpora- —

10-YEAR PLAN
TO BUILD CANADA

—See pgs. 6-7.

tions huge tax handouts as the
finance minister did in his last
budget with his $500 million tax
exemption.”’

Drawing attention to recent
disclosures that Vancouver had
the highest cost of living in any
large city of North America,
Rush said the major reason for
high food prices in B.C. is
excessive profiteering by the
major food chains. He drew
attention to the fact that Kelly
Douglas and Co., a food whole-
sale company for SuperValu
Stores and a part of the Weston
chain, reported a rise in profits
of $393,000 in a 24 week period.

Rush charged that ‘‘the two
major food monopolies
operating in B.C.— the Weston
chain and Safeway, are guilty of
highway robbery. Not only are
they getting away with Setting
high prices at will, but in their
competition with each other are
spending hundreds of millions
each year building unnecessary
supermarkets — the capital cost
of which is being passed on to the
consumers in the form of higher
food bills.”’

As an example of the type of
gouge to which the public is _
subjected, Rush pointed to the
cost of beef. He drew attention to _

See FOOD CHAINS, pg. 12

Canada-USSR |

hockey series

—See page 12