150. Friday, January 16, 1976: VOL. 38, No. 2 Young Angolan soldier of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) stands on guard for his newly independent country’s freedom. The MPLA, headed by president Agostinho Neto, has been recognized by many African and European states as the sole legitimate government of the-new republic. PLUMPTRE MAKES IT CLEAR By MAURICE RUSH The federal government’s anti- inflation board has no intention of freezing food prices. This was’ the message which Beryl Plumptre, vice-chairman of the board brought to Vancouver Monday. She Was in the city to attend a seminar to “‘explain’’ Ottawa’s ‘‘fight against inflation.” The Vancouver seminar is one of a series being held in major Canadian centres by officials of the board to sell the federal govern- ment’s program. Speaking at a press conference, Mrs. Plumptre said the board’s program “is not a price freeze program.” Instead, she explained, the board is limiting itself to monitoring food prices in 13 cities in the same way as the defunct federal food prices review board which she headed before it was dissolved. “The board will examine the profit margins of the processing and distributing firms concerned,” she said. The public can expect ICBC protest gathering with petitions, meetings Petition campaigns against the huge increase in Autoplan_in- Surance premiums are well un- derway throughout the province and several demonstrations and meetings have been planned to protest the government’s action in hiking rates. Promises of ‘premium relief” announced by the minister responsible for ICBC, Pat McGeer, have done little to diminish the Protest as the government has given no indication as yet that there will be any significant reduction in the massive rate in- creases announced earlier. The B.C. Federation of Labor which last week began circulating its petition through. its several hundred affiliated unions, has called on premier Bennett and members of the cabinet to roll back Increases “‘to less than 20 percent over the 1975 premiums.” The petition urged that revenue from gasoline taxes be used to © make up the remaining portion of ICBC expenses as was originally Planned by the NDP government. The Federation noted, “motor vehicle owners in British Columbia ve for the past two years enjoyed the benefits of a publicly-owned and operated car insurance plan with lower rates than would have been Possible through private ‘M§Surance companies” and em- Rate of unemployment ‘highest in 14 years’ Statistics Canada reported last week that 7.5 per cent of B.C.’s work force were without jobs in December. This compares with an unemployment rate of 7.3 per cent for December of 1974. The British Columbia rate was up from the national rate of 7.1 per cent, and represented the tenth consecutive month in which unem- ployment ran at more than 7 per cent, the highest jobless rate in more than 14 years. Not surprisingly, in view of the lack of government action in providing jobs, the unemployment rate is generally expected to get much worse, before it gets any better. It is with this cheery prediction that Statistics Canada ushered in the new year. about the same level of inaction on food prices by the present board as it got from the old board she headed. During the period in which she headed that board food prices in Canada rose to their highest level. And while the anti-inflation board and its staff are busy “examining”’ food price increases, it has already made it abundantly clear that it intends to do much more than ‘examine’ when it comes to wage increases. Last week Jean-Luc Pepin, chairman of the anti-inflation board, was red-faced on a TV program when an_ interviewer pointed out that since the board was set up it has brought down 10 rulings against wage increases which resulted in rolling back wages for tens of thousands of Canadian workers, but it has yet to make a single ruling against a price increase although prices across Canada continue to rise. Pepin’s only reply was to admit that the box score looked onesided but said in effect, “‘remember it’s easier to control wages than prices” and pleaded for more time. “Give us a year and then we will see,’ he said. It’s becoming increasingly clear both from the action and words of leading members of the anti- inflation board that the govern- ment intends to impose a solid freeze on wage increases, while continuing the ineffective per- formance of Mrs. Plumptre’s old prices review board on controlling price increases. This explains why labor across Canada has opposed the Liberal government’s anti-inflation program and has boycotted the seminars being held across Canada. All unions in B.C. with the exception of a few, boycotted the seminar held in Hotel Vancouver which was attended by about 200 businessmen. This is part of the continuing campaign of labor against the federal government guidelines ‘which labor has branded as a hoax and an attempt to impose a wage freeze on workers while allowing prices, profits and interest rates to rise. Stung by B.C. labor’s effective boycott of the seminar, Mrs. Plumptre hit the Canadian Labor Congress stand as “hardline” and whistled in the dark when she said the rank and file of the labor See PRICE FREEZE, pg. 12 ‘No price freeze’ . .. Mrs. Plumptre Noranda Mines Ltd., a major mining company in B.C. with large holdings in the province’s forest industry, has concluded an agreement with the Chile junta to survey, develop and exploit Chile’s copper deposits. The announcement came this week from a top Chile government official in Santiago. The an- nouncement said Noranda will own 49 percent of a company being set up by the Chilean government to raise funds to help the military regime. Noranda will join in exploiting the Andacollo deposit, which is one of the largest in Chile. The agreement signed with the Chile junta is the first of a series being negotiated with foreign companies. Socreds to payoff mining barons B.C.’s new Socred mines minister Tom Waterland went before a meeting of the B.C. Chamber of Mines Tuesday to tell them the Social Credit government is paying off its debt to the mining barons for their support in the last election. He announced that the mine royalties would be scrapped and replaced by a profit-based tax. As was to, be expected, he received tremendous applause when he said he did not believe in. the province collecting royalties on its. minerals, and thatthe, mining industry should be able to make good profits to attract capital. Two other statements made by the mines minister are of added significance. One was his emphasis in repudiating the previous stand of the NDP government that minerals were a non-renewable resource which should not be depleted. His statements indicate that the Socred government in- tends to open B.C.’s minerals resources to intensive exploitation by private corporations. - His other. point of.significance. was that the government has no intention of becoming involved in mining ventures. This obviously refers to development of a copper and steel smelting industry in B.C. The direct implication of this is that there will be no development of processing and manufacturing in B.C.’s mining industry. The big emphasis will be, as it was under the previous Socred_ ad- ministration, massive extraction and export of raw and semi- processed minerals. ..» Elimination of the royalties by _ the Socred government will make B.C. the only province in Canada which does not collect royalties from mining companies for ex- traction of Crown owned minerals. Abolition of the royalties act and its replacement by a tax on profits would represent an outright gift to the big mining corporations of scores of millions of dollars. A recent study in The Financial Post gave the example that if the royalties in B.C. are abolished and an additional 15 per cent profit tax.