th

in th

the labor force!

Last week hundreds of
people attended hearings in
B.C. on Canada’s constitution.
Here, in summary form, are
the views of the B.C. Com-
munist Party on this vital issue,
as they were presented to the
parliamentary committee in
a special brief.

New constitution

6 ee ee eee eee a ne

must recognize

existence of French-Can. nation

The Provincial Committee of
the Communist Party of Canada
last week presented a brief to
the special joint committee of

the House of Commons on the
constitution

The brief states, ‘“The most
serious flaw in the British North

a

America Act is the failure to
recognize the existence of a
French-Canadian nation in
Quebec, and the fact that Canada
is a two-nation state.

“The tragic events of recent
months in Quebec have brought
that evaluation into sharp focus.
They have served to underscore

the pressing need for a new
Canadian eonstitution based on
a voluntary, equal partnership
of two nations. . .

““. , Lét’s face it, a consid-
erable measure of responsibility
for the tragedy — the senseless
acts of terrorism that have left
their indelible mark on the
history of our era — lies with
these profiteering, monopoly
interests and their repre-
sentatives in government who
have stubbornly refused to recog-
nize and take steps to resolve
the constitutional, economic
and social crisis that grows in

intensity with each passing year.”

The Communist Party brief
points out that the crisis of
Quebec has been further
sharpened as a consequence of
the economic and social policies
pursued by . the present
government in the name of
combatting inflation by ‘‘cooling
the economy.’’ These policies,

. Why did

By MAURICE RUSH

For years Canadian workers
have been told that the way to
full employment was to step up
our exports. The Employers
Council of B.C., the media and
government spokesmen have
warned workers that jobs and
Prosperity depend on ‘‘not

Pricing ourselves out of the

world’s markets.’’

_The aim of this propaganda
line was toconvince the public to
be prepared to export anything
that’s exportable. And to be
ready to accept lower wages in
return for jobs which higher
exports were Supposed to ensure,
: Now we are face to face with a

riddle” which no one in Ottawa,
or Victoria has explained: How
1S it that 1970 saw both record
exports and the worst unemploy-
ment in more than a decade?
’ According to Charles Lynch of
the Province News Service, the
back room boys in Ottawa are
wondering how to explain this
big puzzle.” :
_ According to figures released
In Parliament last week,
Canada’s trading boom has
brought with it an unpre-
Cedented favorable trade
balance. In 1970 exports rose 15
Percent over the previous year,
but this did not mitigate the
Serious unemployment problem
Which looms bigger than at any
time in the last 11 or 12 years.
Here in British Columbia
figures show the same trend.

Xports in natural gas, coal,
Copper, zinc, molybdenum, iron
Ore, logs, etc., have shot up
Spectacularly. In’ the coming
year, according to Victoria, it is
801ng to expand even more.

In October-November exports
through Vancouver harbor
punbed by some 38 percent. In

at same period unemployment
-€ province climbed to an
official 76,000 or 8.6 percent of

How to explain this ‘‘puzzle?”’
The back room boys in Ottawa
and Victoria should have no diffi-
culty explaining it. Their only
problem is finding an ‘‘explana-
tion’? which would fit into their
theory. :

Any layman can solve the
mystery quickly, and you don’t
have to be a Sherlock Holmes to
do it. It’s elementary, dear
Watson. The mystery lies in
WHAT we export. The over-
whelming proportion of our
exports are raw materials which
provide very few jobs. The PT
has maintained this all along.
The Establishment has denied
it. Now the evidence is in.

During the debate in Parlia-
ment last week it was pointed
out that in 1970 export of raw
materials from Canada jumped
31 percent — finished goods less
than five percent. There’s the
key to the ‘‘mystery.”’

When you look at what is being
exported from B.C. it is not
difficult to quickly come to the
conclusion that what is ailing
B.C. is not that we don’t have
lots of exports — but that we are
exporting the raw materials
which if processed here would
provide tens of thousands of new
jobs. :

Raw material exports
themselves provide vast profits
for the companies exporting
them, but they provide a
minimum of jobs and add only
marginal amounts of money to
the economy.

Hundreds of millions of dollars
worth of natural gas pours
across our border to the U.S.
through huge pipelines which are
soon to be expanded. Outside of
creating a few new millionaires
in Canada and the U.S., and a
few hundred jobs while the
pipeline was being built, this
export now provides only a
handful of jobs for B.C. workers

Canada’s expo
fail to provide more jobs?

— which is largely manning of
pumping stations.

Hundreds of millions of feet of:
raw logs are pouring out of B.C.
to Japan where a surplus of jobs
now exist. With modern ‘means
of harvesting trees the cutting
of raw logs proportionately
provides a limited number of
jobs compared to what could be
the case if the logs were
processed in B.C.

The same holds true for our
copper, iron ore, coal and other
valuable minerals. A smelting
industry in B.C. for copper and
steel would multiple many-fold
the number of jobs these raw
materials could provide for our
growing labor force in B.C.

But this kind of development
is denied by Ottawa and
Victoria. Instead they prefer. a
resources policy which sees our
workers turned into hewers of
wood, diggers of ore, and
builders of pipelines to carry our
wealth out of the country. There
are fortunes to be made by the
big foreign and Canadian
monopolies in this kind of policy
— but there is only hardship and
loss of our heritage for the Cana-
dian people.

Even the small number of jobs
provided by exporting raw
materials are declining. As raw
material exports become more
sophisticated, the big
companies involved are turning
to cheaper and quicker ways of
exporting our resources. The
name of the game they play is
profit. And that means finding
ways to get our raw materials
out with the least labor cost
possible.

Hundreds of millions of dollars
are being spent by these foreign
companies to devise new labor-
saving ways of getting their

-hands om our resources.
. Pipelines for coal, pulp and other

means are being explored and

rt boom

actively promoted. Ottawa is
now considering an application
for a pipeline to bring coal from
the Crows Nest to Roberts Bank.

Another example is the applica-
tion now before the Canadian
Transport Commission in
Ottawa to permit the building of
a railway from the coalfields in
East Kootenay to the U.S. border
to haul the coal across the U.S.
to the coast, then bring it up to
Roberts Bank for export. Even
the féw jobs hauling the coal
across B.C. is to be denied B.C.
workers if the Kaiser interests
have their way.

The fact that we have booming
markets and at the same time
skyrocketting unemployment
points up the bankrupcy of
present resources policies.

Unemployment is a product of
the capitalist system — it is as
natural to that system as
exploitation and profit. But the
fight for jobs requires that the
present resources policy be
changed and that the people
force on monopoly-controlled
governments a change in these
policies towards greater process-
ing and manufacturing of raw
materials in Canada.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1971—PAGE 3

merging with the cyclical
economic crisis and uneven
development of the economy,
have brought on a Canada-wide
recession, creating mass
unemp. yment and accen-
tuating further already existing
economic and social inequalities
in Quebec.

‘“‘The national, social and
economic aspirations of the
people of Quebec— the source of
widespread dissent and deep-
going dissatisfaction — cannot
be resolved by the military
occupation of Quebec which we
have witnessed in the past two
months... .

“To get at the heart of the
problem, we have to face the
fact the French Canada is
clearly a nation within Canada.
The word nation is sometimes
used to describe a body of people
organized under one government
or state. That it means more
than that is borne out by the
Oxford English Dictionary which
defines a nation as being ‘An
extensive aggregate of persons
so closely associated with each
other by common descent, .
language or history, as to forma
distinct race or people, usually
organized as a separate state
and occupying a_ definite
territory.’

. . . Despite the fact Quebec
was by force of arms made a
part of the British Empire two
centuries ago, French continues
to be the sole language of a large
proportion of the population of
Quebec, which in turn
constitutes a distinct territory
within Canada . . . In addition
French Canadians possess a set
of cultural traditions quite
distinct from other Canadians —
including a fierce pride in their
nationality.

The brief affirms we need a
new, updated, Made-in-Canada
constitution which spells out in
clear and unmistakeable terms
,a new relationship between
French and English-speaking
Canada; a completely voluntary
partnership, recognizing the
right to self-determination and
underwriting the immediate
eradication of long-standing
inequalities and injustices.

FACE REALITIES

The constitution needs re-
writing to define better the
realities as they affect
assignment of responsibilities
between the three levels of
government and the allocation
of financial resources.

Before the end of this century
it is predicted that nine-tenths of
the population will be living in
the large urban centres — a
complete reversal of the
situation when the B.N.A. Act
came into being.

Since very little was spent on
schools, hospitals or welfare, the
Fathers of Confederation saw
no problem in leaving such
services to the provinces, while
leaving them with limited
taxation powers to raise the
money to pay for them, Today
that is changed.

For years, the municipal, and
some provincial governments
have been demanding with justifi-
cation that the federal govern-
ment take over much more of
the costs of education, health
and social services.

The Communist Party at-
taches great importance to the
review and complete overhaul of
the assignment of respon-
sibilities and tax revenues
between the three levels of
government within our country.

It is obvious such services as, ,

See CONSTITUTION, pg. re