BRITISH COLUMBIA

HANG INTHERE AND I'LL
LOOK INTO THE POSSIBILITY
. OF TAKING SOME SWIMMING
LESSONS ....

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Hedi etic bu

Nov. 21 municipal elections.

nominates later this month.

Labor Council backs
BCA, ACE,

The New Westminster and District Labor Council has endorsed
the full slates of the Burnaby Citizens Association, (BCA) the.
Association of Coquitlam electors (ACE), Citizens for a Better Sur-
rey (CBS) and the Surrey Alternative Movement (SAM) for the

The BCA slate is headed by mayoralty candidate Lee Rankin, a
member of the Vancouver-New Westminster Newspaper Guild,
and aldermanic candidates Doug Drummond and Elsie Dean.

In Coquitlam, ACE candidates for municipal council include
present school board chairman Eunice Parker, trade unionist Bob —
Donnelly and educator Gloria Levy.

Surrey’s municipal council race is complicated, by two reform
groups in the field, SAM and CBS. The labor council endorsed ~
SAM’s Steve Gidora for mayor, and Vi Swann for school board,
and endorsed CBS’ Betty McClurg, Joan Smallwood, Charan Gill
and Gord Adamson for aldermanic positions.

Other endorsements are: Dan Williamson for alderman in
Langley District; Geraldine Mercer for alderman, Mike Ewan and
Anita Hagen for school board in New, Westminster; John Kereluk
for mayor and Mike Gates for alderman in Port Coquitlam; Bernice
Goring and Marjorie Houghton for alderman in Maple Ridge.

Port Coquitlam mayor George Laking was refused endorsement
for an aldermanic candidacy this year, and tentative approval was
granted the Citizens’ Association of Delta (CITADEL) when it

CBS, SAM

The galling thing about our ex-
cessively high interest rates is that
there is absolutely no justification
or necessity for them. To suggest,
as some of our politicians and
spokesmen for the banks do, that
high interest rates are something
that just can’t be helped and caused
by factors beyond our control is
outright deception.

The rate of interest isn’t
established by economic forces
over which we have no say: it is set
by the government and the banks in
accordance with a formula agreed
to by them, and that formula is
aimed at assuring the banks, the
mortgage companies and other
credit institutions the maximum
rate of profit. It’s working very well
for them too. The Bank of Nova
Scotia, for instance, has just
reported that its profits for the nine
months ending July 31st were up 42
percent over last year, while the
Bank of B.C-reported a whopping
increase of 241 percent! The Royal
Bank, Canada’s largest, reported
an increase of 64 percent. o%

These high interest rates are an
added form of exploitation of the

f

public — the means by. which
money is funnelled out of your
pockets and mine into those of the
banks. For the averagg person and
for the country as a whole, the
results -have been disastrous.
They’ve imposed mortgage
payments that eat up most of the
income of a family, — and yet
the bankers have the gall to tell us
that high interest rates act as a
brake on inflation!

The deceitful nature of Ottawa’s
professed concern over high in-
terest rates is demonstrated by the
fact that recently when interest
rates began to fall, the Bank of
Canada rushed in and dumped
over $600 million in government
treasury bills on the market to suc-
cessfully keep the interest rate from
falling any further. ;

The proposal of the government
and some banks to defer interest
payments where they are in excess
of 18 percent and then tack the

deferred interest onto the end of the

mortgage is also a phony. What is
needed is a complete freeze on all
mortgage rates to#prevent them
from gaing any higher when mor-

tgages come up for renewal and
some quick action to bring down dll
rates to at least 13 percent or 14 per-
cent which can be done by the
government making loans
available at these rates.

You would think that high in-
terest rates would be a major con-
cern to municipal governments

Harry

~ Rankin

too. But this wasn’t reflected at the
convention of the Union of B.C.
Municipalities held in Vancouver
September 21 -25. Its executive had
nothing to propose and most of its
leaders acted as if they felt that high
interest rates were an act of God

about which we could do nothing. “

It only became an issue when the
provincial ledder of the NDP, Dave
Barrett, in his spéech to the conven-
tion, unfolded a five point program

COPE calls for 18 month mortgage rate freeze

to deal with high interest ratesand_ -

housing. But the leaders of the

UBCM and the delegates, most of ©

whom are Socreds ‘or fellow-
travellers, still refused to deal with
the issue.

_ COPE aldermen Bruce Yorke
and Bruce Eriksen
endeavored to get the issue on the

floor through an emergency resolu- -

tion. It -called on the federal
government to put an 18 month
freeze on all mortgage rates coming
up for renewal. And it supported
Dave Barrett’s proposal that the
provincial government proclaim
the B.C. Savings and Trust Act
passed by the NDP government in
1975 and provide mortgage funds
at rates considerably below the cur-
rent market levels. _

then

‘in this country and placing them

~*~ rates and investment policies.

The resolution also urged Ot-
tawa to provide the provinces and
municipalities with more funds for
social housing. It called on the pro-
vincial government to freeze
residential dwelling demolitions for
18 months, to.set up agencies to
build non-profit and. co-operative
housing and to greatly strengthen
rent controls to include all residen-
tial units (at present only one-third
are covered by rent controls). The
COPE resolution never got to first
base. The pro-government majori-
ty at the convention voted down a
motion to even discuss it! No oné
will ever be able to accuse them of »
being concerned either about high
interest rates or the housing shor-
tage!

I] think it’s time that we in
Canada took a long hard look at
the question of nationalizing the
banks and other credit institutions

under public control. They deter- ~
mine the economic climate and this »
isn’t a field that should be left to

speculative corporations with the
power to manipulate our interest”

quarterly to make up for increases in
the cost of living. And four times a year we receive a news
release from the federal ministry of health and welfare an-
nouncing that old age security pensions are being increased
once again. ;

_ However the miserly $15.76 extra which the most disad-
vantaged pensioners will get October 1 — most will receive
less — only serves to remind us once more of a truly
disgraceful condition faced by millions of seniors.

to receive from the federal government is $444.36 per
‘| month, $221.74 of which is the basic old age pension, anda
maximum of $222.62 which is added as a supplement ac-
cording to income. :

Married pensiones receive even less. The most that they
can receive, with the maximum income supplement, is
$393.38, or $786.76 for the couple.

Clearly these pensions are far short of meeting the basic
costs of food and shelter. And in spite of the government’s
claim that it is keeping pensions indexed to inflation to pro-
tect pensioners, in fact, pensioners in Canada are continu-
} ing to fall behind.

To begin with, the 3.2 percent increase in October is
calculated on the cost of living increase for the previous
four months. If that rate of inflation was constant over the
year, pensioners would have a 12.8 percent increase in their
pension income. However the inflation rate'in July hit 13
percent, the highest one month increase in the cost of living
since 1948. Andin Vancouver the inflation rate in July was
_ | 14.2 percent. The higher rate of inflation since July won’t

-be reflected in pensions until the next quarterly adjust-

Id age pensions in Canada are adjusted °

In October the most that a single pensioner will be able

a

Des

People and Issues
ment, but by then pensioners will have gone four months

with reduced purchasing power.
Further, pensioners spend almost all of their income on

food and shelter and in these items the inflation rate as of -

July was 13.2 percent for shelter and 15.6percent for food.
It has often been said that the federal government itself
creates poverty by foredooming senior citizens to poverty

with low pensions. A recent study by the Canadian Coun- -

cil. on Social Development bears out the charge. Of the
poorest fifth of all Canadian families, 33.5 percent of these
poor families are headed by people 65 years of age or over.
In-other words, pensioners are the poorest age group in
Canada, and the federal government is directly responsi-

See eke . 7 .os

Fe the last 10 years of his working life, Sam Alcock
came every week to the Tribune to pick up between 30
to , copies of the paper which he distributed or mailed to
a carefully compiled list of fellow woodworkers and mem-
bers of IWA Local 1-217. ;

Sam died last Saturday, Sept. 24, at Vancouver General
Hospital after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 67.and
only two years retired from a lifetime of work in B.C.’s
forest industry.

Deeply committed to the working class movement of
this province, Sam: also leaves behind a storehouse of
workers who through him were introduced to the ideas of
trade unionism and socialism. Among them are many
subscribers to this paper.

.

Sam helped build the [WA into a major union, working as
an organizer for IWA Local 1-71 and serving on the
’ Anark, one of the boats in the legendary logger’s navy. ©

He spent his last years in the industry working the
booms at the Rayonier Silvertree sawmill in Vancouver, |
now the Western Forest Products mill.

A veteran member of the Communist Party of Canada, }
Sam never failed to represent every progressive cause, be it
the peace movement, the tenants movement, this paper. or |
many others, in his community and union. a

Typically, Sam asked that no memorial service be held.
But he will be warmly remembered by hundreds of co-
workers and by his many comrades and friends in the
Communist movement. Donations in lieu of flowers can
be made to the Canadian Cuban Friendship Association.

‘ * *
I f the thought of another winter in the offing is a bleak
:, #.one for you, you may be happy to.hear that the Canay |
_ dian Cuban Friendship Association will sponsor a holiday
trip to Cuba in Feb., 1982.

The tour leaves Vancouver Feb. 6 for Marazul Beach,
only a few miles from Havana. The cost for two weeks, }
travel and meal costs included, js $1,311 per person. .

The Friendship Association will use the tour as an occa-
sion to visit the Abel Santamaria school for the blind and
make a financial contribution to the school in honor of
Gladise Bjarnason, long time organizer of the friendship
tours to Cuba and of campaigns to support the work of the |
school. a lee

However there isn’t much time to consider the possibili-
ty of joining the tour. Deadline for reservations is Oct. 14.
For more information contact Peggy Chunn, president of

‘the Friendship Association, at 3074 Charles St., Van.
255-6443. :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— Oct. 2, 1981—Page 2

For many years a logger in the B.C. coast, in the 1940’s