Canada Minister rejects environmental Warnings _ The new minister of state for Interna- tonal Trade, John McDermid, has tejected a report prepared by 90 Cana- dian and U.S. environmental groups out- lining the implications of free trade on the Canadian environment. Speaking in the House of Commons, cDermid called the report, prepared by the Environmental Law Association, 4 Campaign of total distortion.” Under Questioning from Windsor MP Steve angdon, McDermid refused to meet With environmentalists to discuss their concerns, He also rejected suggestions that future Canadian governments may be charged under the agreement for such Programs as assisting business with pol- Ution controls or reforestation projects. It was precisely government's role in forestry management which led to the a and shingles showdown. Canada Bridge named for Riel One hundred and two years after he Was hanged, the man who brought Mani- ‘ba into confederation is being honoured In his home province. In response to a Campaign from area residents, a bridge _ Tossing the Red River at Ste. Agathe will be named after Louis Riel. The bridge is _ Ppropriately in the federal riding of TOvéncher which ‘elected him to Parlia- Ment three times. Despite taking the _ Vath of Allegiance, Riel was never ~ allowed to take his seat. ‘Family’ in Alberta shuffle ollowing remarks from Premier Don Getty that he intends to introduce poli- “les to encourage mothers to stay home with their children, a cabinet shuffle was —4nnounced. A new “family” portfolio aS been created, and the minister responsible is Jim Dinning. Child care 4s been moved out of social services and Placed under the new ministry. €dia attention has not been unfa- Vourable to the premier’s campaign. It as helped created public sympathy for Sa Since the arrest of his 31-year-old son ale on possession of cocaine for the Purpose of trafficking. The personal suf- “ting the incident has caused the pre- mulcr evidently makes Getty feel so Te omtely about strengthening fami- Subsidies to Private operators In one of the largest rallies ever held in Tont of the Manitoba legislature, angry Child care workers protested earlier this Month against changes in the province’s child care program. Under the guise of ©xpanding spaces, community services Minister Charlotte Oleson made public Unding available to private operators. Child care workers, who average 15,000 annually, are worried that Spreading limited funding into, the pri- Yate sector will put an even greater Squeeze on non-profit centres. Dorothy Dudek of the Family Day Care Associa- Hon called the minister’s policy changes Misguided, saying the government should 90k at conditions in existing centres and €lp improve the quality of care there. o baad Mike Phillips One of the most-repeated claims by the federal Tories in their campaign to hood- wink Canadians into supporting their free trade deal with the U.S. is that, inevitable dislocations and adjustments aside, the deal will open up a new era of prosperity for Canada. In their more ardent moments they invoke Mulroney’s 1984 election battle cry of jobs, jobs, jobs, and point to free trade as the golden road to this promised land. Since the government has never been able to give any concrete ideas of how many of these jobs will actually material- ize, and since labour’s analyses tend to be reinforced by gloomy government projec- tions both public and secret, Canadian workers have remained skeptical. So it is in this context that a conference last week, billed as a forum to “discuss the de-industrialization of Metro Toronto,” sparked the interest of trade unionists and others in the region. Sponsored by the Industrial Develop- ment Institute, it brought together labour, academic, government and some business - representatives to project their views on what’s happening to the economic face of cities like Toronto in the wake of capital- ism’s global-shakedown and re-organiza-: tion? ** Set ra a Ge For example; one of the rarely discussed: » facts to emerge from the conference is that while the city is booming economically, low paying, part-time jobs account for nearly half of all the new employment LABOURIN ACTION created in Metro in the 1983-86 period. And this points directly to the thesis advanced in the conference’s opening ses- sion by Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology professor Bennett Harrison. He stands among a select group of labour- oriented economists who challenge the idea that capitalism, particularly its North American variant, is entering a “post- Industrial” stage. While careful to note that the logic of contemporary economic development is blurring the distinctions between eco- nomic sectors (citing as an example that in the U.S. General Motors and Sears Roebuck are the largest consumer finance banks in the country), Harrison warns “the urbanely revitalized service centres of North America (like California’s Silicon Valley) do not hold the key to the evolu- tion of economic life in the late 20th cen- tury. *At least,” he emphasizes, “not if we want to maintain — let alone expand — our standard of living, and share it more equitably among the members of civil society.” It isn’t a post-industrial society we are entering, but “a new, more complex form of. decidedly industrial society.” The explosion in the services industry, particu- Jarly in the late 1980s, is just anexpression of how much more complicated and indi- “rect the production process has become. Manufacturing and distribution now occur within companies that not only span io manufacturing, no jobs continents and national borders, but even different economic sectors. “The co- ordination of such complex activity creates enormous new demands for every- thing from photocopying services to man- agement consulting and businesses special- izing in language translation,” he told the conference. What countries like Canada have to guard against is precisely the kind of eco- nomic policy direction the Tories would drag us into with the free trade agreement. It is precisely this services-will-take-up- the-slack philosophy of the neo-conserva- tive economic clan that spells disaster for this country and its working people. Harrison shows us that manufacturing in the age of high tech matters very much indeed. He names at least four reasons why this is the case. Manufacturing has stronger buying and selling links to the rest of the economy,.so that dollar for dollar money spent by government, business or consumers on manufacturing generates more output and creates more jobs than the same spent in the services sector. Secondly and thirdly, more technologi- cal innovation and skill development takes place “in the process of making things, on the shop floor.” A country that loses its manufacturing base also loses its ability to make technological advances, and this is a » key danger posed by the free trade sell out. Finally, wages and benefits on average tend to be higher in the manufacturing sectors than in services, and there are pro- portionally fewer very low-paying jobs. We don’t have to buy the de- industrialized, low wage service strategy of Reagan and the transnationals. Canada can have a strategy for jobs and independ- ence that rests On a strong; modern (pref- erably ~ publicly-owned) manufacturing base — a strategy more in tune with people’s needs than the low wage, de- industrialized future international big bus- iness has in store for us. Tax freeze dominates Regina vote With only a few weeks to go, the cam- paigns for municipal elections in Saskat- * chewah (Oct. 26) are in full swing. Regina is the focus of attention as right-wing forces © try to impose drastic tax cuts and to wina majority of city council. Earlier this year, the Regina Business Alliance successfully petitioned for a plebis- cite ona 10 per cent tax cut and three-year freeze on the city’s business and property taxes. The “tax revolt” has hit other com- munities across the province, fuelled by economic hardships faced by thousands of small business operators. Government fig- ures show that retailer in Saskatchewan had an average net income of $10,792 in 1985, below most other occupations. ~ But business and community leaders have focussed the debate over high taxes in Regina onto “wasteful spending,” rather than examining serious alternatives to meet- ing the city’s budget difficulties. A “yes” vote in the plebiscite would benefit large corporate interests much more than the average homeowner or small business. — The giant developer Cadillac Fairview (with total profits of $140-million over 1984-87) would save $106,000 a year prop- erty taxes. Altogether, the 50 largest prop- erty owners in the city, and the 50 biggest business taxpayers, would save over a $1- million a year if the plebiscite passes. In contrast, the average homeowner might save $100 per year, and lose many city pro- grams in the process. As the Social Justice Coalition’s Regina branch points out, “there are alternatives” to the tax cuts and budget rollbacks. The Devine government’s municipal grants to Regina have dropped from $29.4-million in 1984 to $19.4-million this year, placing extreme pressure on city council to boost taxes. As the staggering range of cutbacks faced by the city if the plebiscite passes becomes clear, opposition is mounting. An itemized account of the impact of: the tax cut, pre- pared by the city administration, takes up six pages. Of the four mayoralty candidates, only one, New Democrat Doug Archer, has clearly rejected the tax cut. Community groups and progressives are beginning to rally around Archer’s campaign as the best alternative to the right-wing’s leading can- didate, former Tory social services minister Gordon Dirks. Although Dirks is unpopular for his role in Grant Devine’s first term (he. was badly defeated in 1986 election), he has the Tory machine backing him, and the advantage of a potential split between Archer and another candidate, councillor Mark Han- ley, who has also been generally associated with centre-left majority on council. The plebiscite and election are clearly crucial for Regina. Regina council, whatever its weaknesses, has been a centre of opposi- tion to Devine’s attack on working people. Now the Tories have scrapped the ward system against the wishes of urban resi- dents, and they have some strong candi- dates looking to take over city council. The 10 per cent tax cut would give them a perfect weapon to attack the social infrastructure of Regina, to put the city completely in the hands of big business over the next three years. People’s organizations, and NDPers and others on the left, should work for unity to beat the tax cut and to return the anti-Tory majority to city hall. That would strengthen the demand for real tax reform, and for full restoration of municipal grants slashed by the Conservatives. This election could be a turning point in _ the fight against Devine. Now that it seems there will be several weeks between Oct. 26 and the expected federal election date, it should be possible to stop the Tories at the local level, and then make sure they lose all three seats in Regina federally. Pacific Tribune, October 10, 1988 « 5