TORONTO — The Com-
_ Munist Party of Canada has called
_ Sn its membership to undertake
| Massive campaigns to prevent the
as government from proceed-
ing with its plans to privatize
Petrocan. In a letter sent to all
Provincial committees, the Com-
tte National, PCQ and to all mem-
bers and alternates of the Central
| ittee of the Communist
| Party, _the Central Executive
Committee noted:
. As you know the Conserva-
Ve government is proceeding
With plans to privatize Petrocan.
Wever faced with widespread
©PPosition to this proposal the
80Vernment has undertaken to
x the back of this opposition
| oY aseries of manoeuvres. One of
Mis the proposal to ‘‘achieve
: Jan control’ through sale of
: as to individual Canadians.
€ other is the proposition that

| Sold to private enterprise with
f trocan assuming responsibility
Or exploration and tar sands
E development both involving huge
€xpenditures. of funds..which
lan taxpayers will have to
bear. The end result of both these
| Objectives wil be a further in-
‘Tease of multi-national control of
4 decisive sector of the Canadian
uomy,.
byte Liberals and NDP have
| oth declared their strong opposi-
On to the privatization of Petro-
fan and have declared their inten-
n to move a vote of non-con-
Nice in the Government when
ment convenes in October.
The pane Government of
0 been compelled to
| Pose the sale of Petrocan and
Sd appreciable increase in
: Thr Prices for gas and oil.
S Opposition represents more
Con. Shadow boxing within the
‘it owe camp, reflecting as
Mone S_ the deep concern of
With Poly interests in Ontario
Which we drastic price increases
Tise ‘inevitably would lead to a
nde wt, Production costs and
ndermine the competitive posi-
hess Ontario manufacturing in
the cond market. This bears out
becj utention of the draft policy

Vinton which stated ‘the Tory
| Was (in the federal elections)
Mona. w2de possible once
nopoly Kagptents in. Canale and
in arly the financial interests
| Star giti and Western Canadain
to majo stable alliance, decided
their € the Conservative Party
the 7rreferred party’. Whether

Pa this alliance through

out oy Government can smooth
es hee which are ~

| the profitable parts of Petrocan be .

‘Solution for the 24th Party Con- ”

_ PUBLIC
OWNERSHIP OF
OIL & GAS

DON’T PRIVATIZE. . .
- CANADIANIZE!

some form of compromise on
prices remains to be seen.

“The forces. ranging on both
sides of Petrocan objectively re-
flect two contending lines — one
is the line of Canadianization of
energy resources which could
open the door to weakening
multi-national oil corporation
control over energy resources
and could also lead to its public
ownership. Whether they are
prepared to go that far, those
forces supporting Petrocan may
be compelled to move more and
more in that direction. The sec-
ond line, that of ‘free enterprise’
and the sale of shares to private
investors, willy nilly opens the
door to further multi-national
control of this decisive sector of
the economy. This is the line of
the Conservative Government
which also appears to opt for
further measures of continen-
talism with the USA, proposals
for free trade, a common energy
market with the USA and so on.
These matters may be the subject
of discussion and perhaps de-
cision. with President Car-
ter when he visit Ot-
tawa the early part of
November, The To-
ries today are the
government of
give-aways to the

THE CON TINEN TAL

corporations and sell out to U.S.

*‘Coincident with our appeal to
the NDP and other democratic
forces, the NDP has decided to
undertake a countrywide cam-
paign in defense of Petrocan with
the aim of rallying public support
for its motion of non-confidence.
If the Liberals and NDP maintain
their position in Parliament it
could lead to either a forced retreat
by the Tory Government or even
an early election, although Social
Credit support for the Tory posi-
tion makes that doubtful. We
welcome the public campaign
being undertaken by the NDP
while noting its limitations. The
NDP sidesteps the question of
price rises and of public owner-
ship. The CIC favors increases in
prices and so does the Tory
Government in Ontario, despite
the fact that such increases up to
the world price whether in one fell
swoop or piece by piece, will
immediately affect living stan-
dards, threaten jobs and further
aggravate an already serious
economic situation brought on by
the U.S. recession. This em-
phasizes the need for the trade
union movement to take a clear
position on the issue which will
have serious consequences for
the working class. It should call
for a domestic price for gas and
oil, public ownership of energy,
the extension of Petrocan into all

ENERGY SHARING

fields, such as refining, distri-

- bution as well as exploration.

This is directly tied up with the
defence of the living standards of
the working people and with the
future of the country.

Two additional factors enter
into the campaign around Petro-
can. One is the continuing and
growing demand of the Indian and
Inuit people for a solution to their
land claims. Land claims and
ownership and development of
resources are inextricably bound
together. The democratic forces
must give all out support to these
land claims and to the demand for
regional self-government put for-
ward by the Inuit people of the
North West Territories, a de-
mand which parallels closely the
proposals on self-government in
the Party Program — the Road to
Socialism in Canada.

‘*The second factor energy re-
sources has brought sharply to
the forefront is that of the Con-
stitution. The BNA Act gives re-
sources to the provinces. The
multi-national corporations have
been able to achieve dominant
positions of ownership and con-
trol of energy and natural re-
sources under cover of provincial
rights. At the same time the
Canadian people have been made
the victims of so-called provincial
rights. The Communist Party of
Canada has long ago called for
public ownership of resources
with Federal-Provincial Crown
Corporations or other joint forms
established to ensure the benefits
of ownership and development
will accrue to all Canadians in-
cluding the provinces where the
resources are to be found. This is
all the more reason why Canada
needs a new made-in-Canada
constitution which must spell this

out.
‘*As can be seen the issue of

Petrocan goes beyond the limits .

of the question in itself and
encompasses questions having to
do with an all Canadian energy

DERL EXPLYOWeE Db

policy, Canadian independence,
public ownership, defence of liv-
ing standards, curbs on monopoly
power, and economic economic
development. We need to inject
these ideas into the debate while
undertaking as strong a campaign
as we can mount around the
following main ideas and slogans:
‘Don’t can Petrocan’’. “‘Freeze
domestic oil and gas prices’’.
‘Public ownership of oil and
gas’’. ‘“Don’t Privatize ... Cana-
dianize!’’ and ‘‘People’s needs
before profits.’’ In view of the fact
that during this month and
perhaps October the Party state-
ment — ‘An Appeal to Reason”’
will be distributed all over the
country, we propose: the CEC

_ appeal to the NDP, CLC, etc., be

spread as widely as possible these
ideas and slogans will be printed
in the form of stickers by the CEC
and sent to all provinces for wide-
spread use. We believe this
should make it possible to coor-
dinate efforts around the distri-
bution of the “‘ Appeal to Reason’”’
with effective utilization of the
stickers.

**At the same time particular at-
tention should be paid to winning
the trade union movement and
other democratic organizations in
support of the main thrust of the
campaign.”’

TORONTO — A demonstra-
tion to demand that the Clark
government cease in its plans to
dismantle Petrocan will take

In Toronto, transportation
for Ottawa will leave from 24
Cecil St, at 7:00 a.m. Inquiries

St. E. at 6:00 a.m. Please
549-5993 or 389-1702 for
further information.

- SASKATOON — Ina press
statement issued by the Na-
tional Farmers Union, the
NFU president James Mayne
said he ‘‘is appalled by the
backward steps being taken by
the Conservative government
in selling off parts of Petrocan
and he said any move to dis-
mantle Petrocan flies in the
face of common sense in re-
gard to the world approach to
energy issues. :
“NO other oil producing
country is reversing from ana-
tionally owned oil industry to
privatization of the industry.
Among world oil producers the
trend is to nationalize and most
countries are now considering
more public control of energy
resources. The decision by the
Clark government to put the
Canadian industry back into
private hands runs counter to
global trends,”’ Mayne said.
Mayne stressed that there
should be more public control
of energy in Canada, not less,
because “Canada’s economic
stability and national interest
are so closely tied to the av-

ailability, use and cost of ener-
gy. The farm leader said it
makes absolutely no business
sense to privatize because
privatization means the corpo-
rate sector will gain control of
the profitable parts of Cana-
da’s oil industry essentially
giving private companies con-
trol over our economic
policies.

Canadians will be left hold-
ing the bill for the costly high-
risk operations of research and
development of the oil indus-
try, Mayne said. “The only
way the federal government
can really know what the situa-
tion is in terms of reserves is to
ensure that we are in control of
the complete oil industry.
Petrocan was originally estab-
lished as a Crown corporation
so that the profits made from
the marketing of Canadian oil
would pay for the development
of new reserves. It makes no
economic sense to have Cana-
dians lose the profit-making
end of the business and then
require them to continue pay-
ing for expensive non-pro-

NFU ‘appalled’ by Tory policies

fitable oil exploration ven-
tures,” the NFU president

argued.

Mayne said the development
of energy resources should not
be left in the hands of multi-
national corporations because
their private objectives will be
in conflict with the best in-
terests of national public need.

In order to protect our
energy resources and develop

them for national purposes,
Mayne said the federal
government, in co-operation
with the provinces, should
take full ownership and control
of the petroleum industry.
‘*That means Canada should
manage the exploration,
production, transportation,
refining, research and sales of
the Canadian oil industry, in
line with other oil producing -
nations,’’ Mayne concluded.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 5, 1979—Page 7