“cpometiransi ee SAS STOP CRIMINAL GIVEAWAY OF RESOURCES | Create new industries, jobs 3 y 3 from B.C.’s vast resources By OBSERVER Many charges will be level- led against the Socred gov- ernment during the election campaign, by Communists, NDP, Liberals and Conserva- tives alike. But the most damning of all is one for which the Liberals and Con- servatives share the blame in equal measure: the alienation and mismanagement of Brit- ish Columbia’s fabulous nat- ural resources. When the natural resources of this world were being allo- cated, British Columbia~ was nature’s favourite child. For- ests, fisheries, minerals and power we have in abundance.~ For example, the presently known hydro electric poten- tial of our rivers is approxi- mately equal to the water power thus far developed by _ the United States to serve one THE ABOVE POSTER IS BEING WIDELY DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA COMMITTEE. hundred times our popula- tion! We are already one of the world’s major ~producers of wood products, yet our an- nual cut of timber is only 1.2 billion cubic feet, out of a potential annual commercial- ly usable growth of 3.5 billion cubic feet. Of our major re- sources, only the fisheries can be said to be more or less fully exploited. Yet the great tragedy of British Columbia lies not in the underdevelopment of our resource potential (though that is indeed a fact) but in the criminal, treasonable waste of the resources that have been developed. “The —history of B.C. re- source development under governments of every colour and stripe, but carried to the peak of finesse by the irre- sponsible Socreds, has been the pursuit of the fast buck without regard to long-term interests, industrialization or the welfare of the people of the Province. Most of our resource pro- duction igs now exported in raw or semi-raw form. For example, 65 percent of our pulp output, 70 percent of natural gas, 73 percent of lumber and 100 percent of lead, aluminum, zinc, asbes- tos, copper and iron ore are exported to be used as raw materials for the manufactur- ing industries of the United States, Japan and other coun- tries, instead of being pro- cessed here. The greater part even of our electric energy ends up as raw exports—not as power, but as raw alumi- num, lead, zinc or pulp. FOREST GIVEAWAY The giveaway of our re- ' Cn is {i mas fy B.C. BY THE SAVE THE COLUMBIA FOR sources is an old story. A cen- tury ago, Liberals and Tories were already handing out coal deposits to the Hudson’s _ Bay Company and the Duns- muirs, and in the case of the latter throwing in the forests of the infamoug E. & N. land grant ‘comprising 2,000,000 acres of our best forests. After World War II; the process of alienating the for- est lands was pursued with renewed zeal by the Coalition government through its for- est management license sys- tem. Under the Socreds, this system has acquired a new name—“tree farm licenses’”— The government boasts that 95 percent of the forest area is publicly owned. But, wher- - ever the legal title may re- - ,side, the best forest lands are held under perpetual licenses by the great monopolies. In giving away our re- sources, the governments have not even been true to their own nationality. Of the six great monopolies that hold our forest industries in their grip, five are U.S.-own- ed. In the mining industry, the dominant company is C. M. & S., nominally Canadian, but in fact controlled by U.S. and British capital, and our cop- per and iron mines are now largely in the handg of ore- hungry Japanese monopolies, far more interested in assur- ing their own industries of raw materials than in devel- oping B.C. For example, in 1962 1.7 million tons of iron ore, 140,000 tons of copper ore and concentrates, and over 600,000 tons of coal were shipped out of B.C., all of it to Japan. COLUMBIA SELLOUT The situation in our hydro- power industry is similar. True, the public utilities serv- ing the domestic user in the lower mainland and_ island are publicly owned. But the extensive hydro plants in the Kootenays are owned by C. M. & S. which uses them to extract minerals for export. And the largest completed plant, Kemano, is owned by the U.S. Alcan interests and used to convert foreign baux- ite into raw aluminum for shipment to England and Jap- an. But it is in its plans for the Columbia River develop- ment that the Bennett gov- ernment goes furthest in its another such ad. Will y: “ADDRESS City or Town _unprincipled sellout of our “basic industrial ‘there. We do not need to shiP per can be smelted here, ou! WILL YOU HELP? Last week the Communist Party placed an advertisement in the Vancouver Sun. It cost us more than $600. However, many thousands of B.C. voters read and studied the ad and the policies put forward. ‘Next weekend we want to place ou help? Clip and mail your donation to: Communist Party Rm. 505, Ford Bldg., Vancouver, B.C. ’ September 20, 196 prmbchuetiere Fi ages interests. The scuttling of the McNaughton plan for maxi- — mum development in Canada, | the priority given to storage © dams for U.S. benefit over — generating plants for Cana ~ dian use, the sale of down- — stream benefits to provide cheap power. for the Amerl cans while B.C. is saddled with high cost Peace River power—tThigs is typical of the subservience of the gover ment to American interests. fF What British Columbi@ F sorely needs is secondary in > dustry, developed with Cana 7 dian capital, using our ow” resources and providing jobs | for our people. Proponents of the present — policy maintain that British Columbia cannot. maintain secondary manufacturing in” dustries because of our small population and relative dis tance from markets. This is unimaginative rubbish. The industry of the future is chemistry. Production of chemicals: — synthetic materials, plastics, building materials, etc., etc. — No area of the world 18 more richly endowed for chemical production tha? British Columbia. Wood, coal: gas, petroleum and power — these are the essential ingre- dients of the chemical indus” tries. Where else on earth do they exist in greater abund- ance or closer proximity? On the basis of two of these only, coal and electricity, East Ger many has in the last ten years become one of the world’s leading producers of chemica! products. B.C. is infinitely. better endowed. The possibilities do not end our ores out of the country if raw form. With proper gov™ ernment leadership, our cop" iron can be the basis of 4 steel industry to serve ou! own economy, our aluminu™ can be fabricated into finish”, ed products. The Communists in B.C. are pledged to fight the give away of our resources and fof their full development i B.C.’s and Canada’s welfare: The NDP have promised planning for economic devel- opment if they are elected: Let us hope that if they ar@ they will base themselves 9? the principle of using our Tre sources for industries of ou" own.