_ ByH.K.
a WARREN

€n the public outery against

- Unprecedented Teas in
which ine’ reached a point at
Bivent € women picketed the
ia department stores,
eee Affairs Minister Ron
ahs allowed his regional
ne Mr. P. Dionne, to be
‘findin n the local daily press as
eougi § no evidence of price-
Paohaa” Mr. Dionne was also
Brice ae Saying that the recent

.s ee had occurred in
hi comme Price area only. I have
that ee previously that I felt
gated oy ue had not investi-

is quoted fish
© prove
Poultry
Price
: 1 Prop

and poultry prices
My point. Both fish and
3 Were Subject to the same
Renee in the same
: es as beef. Choice cuts
display, (sirloin steak) was
Stig De in the meat cases at as
ic . 2.30 per lb. Up to this
; 5 Ae Bes been no increase
i Weight price to the
P ee for slaughter cattle,
inctea . up to that time no wage
ta ne had been awarded to
Clerks or meat cutters.

mcr
Bastora © of these prices, Mr.
ae accepted his regional

tha ae S statement as fact and
ministy ho effort within -his
oa mits, to correct what was

aa a price-gouge. Mr.
“if he 2 Publicly announced that

Price-goury, any store guilty of
therm one he would ‘‘name”’
the: sq T. Basford has access to
amateur figures that this

Livesto, researcher has. The
& es ‘Reports of othe
‘ment of Agriculture, the

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HELP FROM BASFORD

Consumer action
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Oncouver 4. B.C. "

local advertised prices, and the
prices displayed in the depart-
ment store shelves.

I am sure that the Department
of Agriculture would be glad to
see that Mr. Basford gets a copy
of the Livestock Review in which
all figures pertaining to the
purchase, slaughter and
wholesale prices of slaughter
livestock is quoted in very
minute detail. That he has
access to local advertisements
and to the prices displayed on

local shelves goes without
saying.
Yet, Mr. Basford “named”
nobody.

A personal check of retail
shelves a few days after the
women picketed the stores,
showed a marked moderation in
rices, Sirloin steak dropped
from $2.30 per lb. to $1.85;
halibut from 85 cents to 69 cents
per lb.; ling cod from 79 to 49
cents, and sole from 72 cents to
43 cents per lb.

Poultry and pork showed no
moderation in any of their
in fact, in some cases

prices,
was higher. These were the
substitute products the

consumer was supposed to buy
instead of the choice cuts of beef.

There is no question in the
mind of this writer as to what
was responsible for any
moderation in prices at that
time. The public outcry, topped
by the demonstrations by the
women picketers had some

effect. It was certainly not by ’

any action of Mr. Basford’s
Ministry. Mr. Basford’s ministry
“must become a Ministry for the

Consumer, not for big business. _

If it takes a few more women
on the picket line to effect this,
to make his ministry function as
such, then the sooner the women
get on the picket line the better,
for, there is no doubt that it was
them, and them only, that kept

Federal-provincial parley

lay plans for new taxes

By PHYLLIS CLARKE

As Prime Minister Trudeau
and the 10 provincial premiers
emerged from their secret
sessions, the direction of their
thinking could best be summed
up in the words of Ontario’s
insurance companies’ darling,

Premier John P. Robarts,
“There'll be no more
medicares.”’

And along Bay Street the talk
was ‘‘there’ll be no more of that
free stuff.”

When there is jubilation
among monopoly’s representa-
tives, there is obvious cause for
concern about what new
gimmick is now being employed
to augment profits at the
expense of the working people.

New powers for the provinces,
new forms of taxation for them
— that’s the essence of the com-
munique issued after the two-

day meeting.
Traditionally in Canada,
monopoly has utilized the

federal structure to minimize
any concessions to the people
and to maximize profits. This
also enables them to avoid any
solution of the constitutional
relations between Canada’s two
nations. Successive Quebec
politicians have settled for
increases in provincial rights as
a way of superficially
“solving’’ the question of
Quebec sovereignty.

For monopolists, a decentral-
ized taxation system also makes
it much easier for them to

OBITUARY

EUFIM KOZAK
Eufim Kozak, a pioneer
supporter of the working class
movement and press, and who,
as the PT reported in last week’s
issue was the largest contributor
in the recent drive, died last
Thursday in his 80th year in
Vancouver General Hospital.
Born in Bessarabia, he came
to Canada as a young man in his
early twenties. Soon after he
moved to B.C. where he has lived
for nearly half a century, taking
part in building up the province,
working as logger, miner and
railroad worker.

, Throughout his life he liberally

: supported the trade union and
Communist movements. He was
‘also a large contributor to
various movements for peace,
and progressive cultural activi
ties.

A warm tribute to him was
made by B.C. Communist Party
leader Nigel Morgan at a

_ memorial service last Saturday

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ce

Eight page PT
for summer

In keeping with past years,
the Pacific Tribune will publish
an eight page weekly edition
during the months of July and
August. The Canadian
Tribune, from which we
publish our centre pages, is
also going over to an eight
page paper during the
summer months.

The first eight page paper
will appear next week. We
will revert to the regular 12
page paper in the first week of
September.

at Bowle Memorial Home in ,

escape paying what they should
in taxes. Last week’s sessions
when enacted will assist again in
this direction.

On the eve of the conference a
letter from the Central Execu-
tive Committee of the Commu-
nist Party to Prime Minister

Pierre Elliott Trudeau outlined j

the real problems upon which '
federal initiative is needed now.

“They include,”’ the letter
says, ‘‘tax reform, rising living
costs and public housing.”

“These problems,’’ it contin-
ues, ‘‘are also bound up with the
crisis relating to urbanization,
the status of local governments
and their relationship to the two
senior levels of government.

“The constant reference to the
British North America Act as an
obstacle in the way of resolving
the above mentioned problems is
not valid, neither as an answer
nor an excuse. It is neither
necessary nor
postpone action on any of these
matters until a new constitution
is agreed upon. What is needed
now is action. People need
prices they can afford, and they
need those homes now. The run-
away prices, rents and interest
rates must be curtailed now. A
new policy on taxation, based on
the principle of ability to pay, is
needed now. None of these

problems can wait,’’ the letter .

said.
Among specific proposals the

Communist Party suggested the
following:

e ‘Immediate tax reform
directed to increase taxes. on
corporate wealth and high
personal incomes; to introduce
tax on capital gains at full
income tax rates; to cut taxes on
incomes below $10,000 per year,

as recommended by the Carter |

Report, and, to drastically
reduce and eventually abolish
taxes on consumption and low
incomes.”

‘e ‘‘The cost of such services
as education, health and welfare,

possible to,

- deliberated over.

pollution control and urban
transit must be removed from
the municipal property tax and
placed on senior governments.”’

‘e ‘Federal-provincial action
now to establish Prices Review
Boards broadly
representative of all community
groups and empowered to
conduct public hearings in all
cases of increased prices, rents
and interest rates.

‘What is urgently necessary is
democratic control over the
corporate and monopoly giants
of industry and commerce so
that Canadians who work and
produce wealth can become the
beneficiaries rather than the
victims of scientific and
technological change. The
absence of such control is the
reason why at least one
Canadian in five lives in grinding
poverty— a disgraceful reality
inourCanada.” |

e ‘‘Funds must be provided for
construction of at least 100,000
public housing units annually for
the next ten years for rental
purposes. Housing to be treated
as a public utility, and expansion
of public housing to go together
with basic reforms in public
housing operations, bringing
tenant control to all levels of
administration and decision
making through the means of a
Tenants’ Bill of Rights.

‘‘A federal fund is needed to
provide -housing loans under the
NHA interest rates not to exceed
three percent for individual
home owners. Such loans should
be made available directly to
purchasers through the Bank of
Canada.

“A cut-back in the present
defense budget by 50 percent to.
provide about $1 billion
immediately for public housing.”

But it was not these urgent
economic needs of the Canadian
people that the Ottawa sessions
No, indeed!
Just new ways were. being
devised to increase the burden
on those who can least afford it,
to increase the wealth of the
giants of U.S. and Canadian
monopoly. :

And now that it’s over we
still have the: need of a proper
conference on the constitution
that will provide for an ending of
the inequality of French Canada,
for the sovereignty of Quebec
and for the type of fiscal
proposals which will curb
monopoly and open the door to
social progress in Canada.

—

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