FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1973

B.C. PROFITS TOPS IN N. AMERICA

Vol. 34, No. 15

BIG BUSINESS PROFITS
FORCE PRICES UPWARD

By MAURICE RUSH
Big business in B.C. is rolling up the largest profits
anywhere in North America and in the process is
pushing up consumer prices here to an all-time high.

Com
MU eat ;
brief g Nist PARTY BRIEF AT CITY HALL. Photo shows provincial leader Nigel Morgan presenting his Party's

t

Page 3

8¥ing fora full ward system for Vancouver at last Thursday’s hearing atCity Hall. See full story on

—Sean Griffin photo

Prices protest continues

hi
Tse * 100d prices continue to
the Co " Unprecedented rate,
M Cerneg cine Committee of
day 3 Organizations met
Paign a to launch a cam-
"Ol back Drieat @! legislation to

e

ae Age S*Mtatives from the Peo-
Men acest Soaring Prices, Wo-
tiphay °2!Nst High Prices. Na.
ati ti-Poverty Organi-
“men at the United Fish-
act, nd ited Workers Wo-
Ihe

Meeting. lary all attended

Dtic, Wa ;
Ces Rete an independent

'€w board with

teeth,’ Elaine Podovinnikott,
spokesman for the committee
said, ‘that willforce companies
to justify price increases. And
if there can be found no justifi-
cation for any increase. the
board musthave the power toen-
force curbs and rolk back
prices.”

Federal consumer affairs min-
ister Herb Gray said Tuesday
that some form of prices review
board was to be setup by the gov-
ernment but gave no indication
whether it was to be an inde-
pendent board and did not say
whether it would have any pow-
ers of enforcement. The board

Gray outlined would pre-
sumably investigate price in-
creases and make recommenda-
tions to the minister of con-
sumer affairs on the basis of its’
findings.

--The best such a committee
can hope to do is embarrass
food companies into lowering
prices and that just isn't good
enough,” Mrs. Podovinnikoff de-
clared. *‘The campaign has to
be stepped up to get an inde-
pendent board that has power to
act decisively.”

The Coordinating Committee
is planning anumber of actions
in the campaign. It intends to
circulate a postcard calling for
a review board to act on food
prices as well as a demon-
stration Friday, April 13 from
noon to two p.m. at Hastings
and Abbott to protest exorbitant
food prices.

The Committee also urged con-
sumers to continue the meat boy-
cotton Tuesdays and Thursdays
as a means of further protesting
high meat costs.

This is the conclusion froma
study of profits made by the 40.
major corporations in B.C., and
from the cost of living index re-
leased last week in Ottawa which
shows that the cost of living in
B.C. is way above the national
average. ~

The profit and cost of living

figures establish beyond dis-

pute the direct .connection
between excessive _ profit-
eering and high prices to con-
sumers. It proves that the big
corporations are the main cul-
prits responsible for high
prices, not the workers or farm
ers.

The study of 40 major B.C.
corporations covered the last
quarter of 1972 and compared
them with the previous three
month period. It showed the fol-
lowing startling comparison:

e Abroad survey of 103 com-
panies across Canada for the
same period showed there had
been an increase in profits of
16.5 percent.

e A similar survey conducted
for all the United States showed
a gain in the three month period
of 17 percent.

e The B.C. study, comparing
the last three months of 1972
with the previous three months,
showed a startling rise of 85.7
percent in profits. And by all
economic indicators, that
profit trend is continuing into
the first quarter of 1973 for
which figures are not yet avail-
able.

The shocking fact which stands
out from the above figures is
that profits in B.C. are more
than five times greater than the
Canadian average, or the U.S.
average for the same period!

Leading the parade of B.C. cor-
porations is MacMillan
Bloedel. In the three months
under review its profits in-
creased by 153.1 percent over
the previous three months. This
was no isolated example.

The survey shows that the for-
est industry has been recording
fabulous profits during all of
1972. In fact eight forest com-
panies made an unbelievable
2,410 percent more profit inthe
last three months of 1972 than
they did in the same three
months of 1971.

See PROFITS, pg. 16

The above postcard is being distributed bythe newly-formed
B.C. Committee of Concerned Organizations. Itis similar tothe one
being circulated across Canada by other consumer groups.