Use CPR line
for commuters
in Valley — CP

MISSION PORT MOODY
— Communist candidate Jim
Beynon Monday called for im-
mediate action on urban tran-
sit to serve commuters in the
sprawling Fraser Valley riding
of Mission Port Moody.

Beynon called for an im-
mediate commitment from the
federal government to provide
funds for a light rapid transit
line from Vancouver to New
Westminster and Coquitlam.

The Communist candidate
also called on the federal
government to take control of
the Canadian Pacific rail line
in the interests of a ‘‘rational
transportation system’’ and to
institute a low cost commuter
train on the CPR tracks from
Vancouver to Mission.

Beynon suggested that sta-

Coquitlam, Haney, Ham-
mond, Whonnock and Mis-
sion to provide a fast com-
muter service for workers.

A shipyard worker on the
Vancouver
Beynon said that- action on
transportation for Fraser
Valley workers is desperately
needed and would provide
jobs and economic stimulus
for the entire region. He
reiterated the CP call for na-
tionalization of the CPR.

Last week the Tribune er-
rored in listing Beynon as an
executive member of the
Marine and Boilermakers

€ activist in the union.

“| Union. He is, however, a long

tions could be established in

waterfront,,.

= Federal election scene

GARY SWANN
Swann nominated
in Nan.— Alberni

NANAIMO-ALBERNI —
The Communist Party an-
nounced this week that
37-year-old school trustee
Gary Swann has been
nominated in Nanaimo-
Alberni.

Swann replaces long time
CP candidate in Alberni Mark
Mosher. Mosher was expected
to run again, but the election
call caught him on vacation
outside of the country.

Swann was the Communist’

Party candidate in the last pro-
vincial election in Alberni, and
since November has been a
member of the Alberni school
board. 3

A graduate of the B.C. In-
stitute of Technology in
forestry, Swann has written
several papers on forestry pro-
blems. He is former B.C. vice

president of the Public Service
Alliance of Canada.

Feb. 4 deadline

for voters list

VANCOUVER — Com-
munist Party campaign chair-
man Maurice Rush has called
on all members and supporters
of the party to ensure that they
are on the 1980 voters list.

With no official enumera-
tion, the onus is on the in-
dividual to be placed on the
voter’s list before Feb. 4, he
warned.

To be placed on the voters
list, electors may contact the
returning officer in their con-
stituency or one of the courts
of revision which will be
established in each area:

The Communist Party of-
fices will advise voters how to
get on the list.

UE gives NDP

critical support

TORONTO — The United
Electrical Workers Union
general executive board has

_ called for the election of ‘‘a
large number of New
Democratic Party candidates
to ensure that neither the
Clark Conservatives or the
Trudeau Liberals are able to
achieve a majority in the
House of Commons.”’

The UE qualified its support
for the NDP, however, with
the recognition that ‘‘existing
NDP policy does not ade-
quately reflect the labor move-
ment’s policies on several key
issues now facing the Cana-
dian people, including the

. critical ‘questions of foreign
Ownership, public ownership

of energy and natural
resources, and Canadian uni-
V2

The union statement went
on to call on the NDP to “‘give
full backing to organized
labor’s policies and programs
of economic and social
reforms, including making the
question of bringing the
petroleum and natural
resource industries under
public ownership and
democratic control a key issue
in the current election: cam-
paign,”’

Whatever the outcome of
the election, the statement
said, there will be an even
greater need for the labor
‘movement to continue to in-
dependently develop its own
policies and to step up
pressure on all governments
for political and social
reforms, ‘‘while at the same
time reserving the right to be
critical of the NDP whenever
its policies run counter to that
of the labor movement.’’

TWU sponsors

election forum

VANCOUVER — The
Telecommunications Workers
Union (TWU) announced
Monday that it would be spon-
soring all candidatés meeting
for the federal. election cover-
ing eight ridings.

“The policies of the last two
government’s have been
disastrous for our members,”’
TWU president Bob Donnelly
said,

In only seven months the
Conservatives have managed
to equal the disastrous_

‘Ridge Theatre, 16th Ave. and

economic

power, and introduced @
budget which will cost many
TWU members more than 4
$1,000 per year.

Donnelly said that the TWU
meetings would be designed to
find out the position of all par-
ties onkey economic issues.
Meetings have bee set for Jan.
16 in Nanaimo Alberni; Feb. 4
for Burnaby and New
Westminster-Coquitlam; Feb.
11 for North Van-Burnaby;

Feb. 12 for Mission-Port }

Moody and New Westminster-
Coquitlam; and Feb. 13 for
Vancouver Centre and Van-
couver East.

Arms debate

VANCOUVER “At
What Cost? Armaments for
the 80’s,’’ is the title of an
all-candidates meeting set for
January 27 at 2 p.m. at the

Arbutus, Vancouver. Speakers
will include Art Phillips of the
Liberals, Bob Wenman of the
Conservatives, Pauline Jewett
of the NDP and Bert Ogden of
the Communist Party. The
meeting is co-sponsored by the
United Nations Association
and the Coalition for World
Disarmament.

CP on CBC

TORONTO — The Com-
munist Party will have a free
time political broadcast on
CBC television’s ‘‘The Na-
tion’s Business’’ program. The
broadcast wil be aired J an

record of the |
Liberals over 16 years of |

27 at 11:15 p.m.

CITY OF VANCOUVER
RAPID TRANSIT

NOTICE OF
PUBLIC MEETINGS

The Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) has recently
released its major study of High Capacity Rapid Transit.

The study has recommended that the first priority corridor for
Light Rapid Transit (LRT) be between Downtown Vancouver and
New Westminster with extensions to Surrey and the Lougheed
Mall. The recommended second priority corridor is between
Downtown Vancouver and Richmond. Along each of these cor-
ridors, the study has identified several alternative alignments that
will have differing impacts on the neighbouring communities.

Vancouver City Council has arranged a series of meetings to
review the study results and discuss specific alignments, stations
and related planning issues within the city along the first priority
corridor. Public meetings to discuss alignments within the city
along the second priority corridor will be arranged shortly. Van-
couver citizens are also encouraged to visit the Open House spon-
sored by the GVRD prior to the Vancouver City meetings.

SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS

. Jan. 14 to Jan. 18
Open House

—12 noon to 8:00 p.m.—GVRD, offices 2034
West 12th Avenue. Open House for in-

terested citizens to review study results.

. January 23

—7:30 p.m.—Robson Square Media Centre.

Vancouver Public Meeting: to discuss alter-
native alignments and stations in the

Downtown.
—7:30 p.m.—Trout Lake Community Centre.

. January 30

Vancouver Public Meeting to discuss alterna-
tive alignments and stations from the Down-
‘ town to Boundary Road.

—12 noon—Vancouver City Hall Committee
Room. 1. Joint meeting of Transportation and
Planning Committees chaired by Mayor
Volrich to review city wide concerns.

. February 19

—7:30 p.m.—Vancouver City Hall. City

Council Meeting to deal with the recom-
mendations of the GVRD study.
Citizens wishing to address the Trout Lake and Robson Square
meetings may sign up with the Chairman at the meetings. Delega-
tion requests for the City Hall meetings should be submitted as.
soon as possible to the Clerk of the Transportation Committee
(Mrs. Joyce Thomas), City Clerk’s Office (873-7652).

W. H. Curtis
City Engineer

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 18, 1980—Page 2

Socred mortgage plan aimed’

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Let’s not be under any illu-
sions about the motives behind
premier Bennett’s $200 million
housing mortgage scheme. It’s
not all what our worthy premier
would like us to believe.

It is not designed to overcome
and in fact will not greatly af-
fect the severe housing shortage
in the province, and least of all
in Vancouver. It is not designed
and will in fact do little to stim-
ulate the lumber industry which
is in a bad slump.

It is designed primarily to re-
store the somewhat tarnished
image of a government and par-
ty involved in dirty political
tricks, the mishandling of elec-
tion funds, and the sheltering of
one of its prominent MLAs
from court charges over alleged
influence peddling based on evi-
dence gathered by the RCMP.

It is a political move, design-
ed to take the heat off a govern-
ment that has become badly dis-
credited. Our premier hopes
that this move will still enable
him to come up smelling like a
rose. Let’s just look at some of
the facts about the scheme.

@ The scheme will do
nothing, absolutely nothing, to
provide affordable housing for
the people who need it most,
those in- the lower income
brackets. It will provide a small
amount, a very small amount,
of high-priced housing.

@ The 3,000 or so housing
units that may be built under

the scheme will, according to
one report, use some 35 million
board feet of B.C. lumber. But
the B.C. lumber industry pro-

duces 1 billion board feet a .

month and has a huge’stock on
hand so that the 35 million
board feet will hardly make a
dent in this.

@ Because of the above, the
scheme will do little to alleviate
unemployment among the 4,900
loggers, 1,750 sawmill workers
and 1,100 plywood workers that
have been reported as laid off.
(Some reports place the total
layoffs at 11,000.)

@ The government is not
spending $200 million on new
housing. All it is doing is mak-
ing this amount of money avail-
able in loans at a lower interest
rate. It is doubtful if this project
will cost the government any-
thing, because the extra money
it gets back in taxes of various
kinds will more than make up
the difference between the rate
at which it is loaning the money
to credit unions (8% per cent)
and the rate it would receive if it
invested the money elsewhere.

Why were the credit unions
selected to carry through this
scheme of Bennett’s when it is
well known that he and his cab-
inet are both politically and eco-
nomically closely tied in with
the banks. :

There are probably two good
reasons. One is political. The
credit unions are patronized
mainly by little people, not by

big corporations. It is good pol-
itics for the government to ap-
pear as a friend of the little peo-
ple.

The other reason is economic.

The margin of profit allowed —

the credit unions under this
scheme is so small that the
banks are just not interested.
The credit unions will be lucky
to break even.

Having said all this, I must

also add that the scheme is not
all negative by any means. Some
1,500 people will get mortgage
loans for three years at rates of
9% per cent when normally they
would have to pay a rate of 14
per cent or even more.

Some new jobs will most cer-
tainly be created in construc-
tion. The new housing will use
some B.C. lumber, even if the
amount is small in comparison
with stocks on hand and pro-
ductive capacity. But even if it
keeps some men working for a

few days longer, this is to the ©

good.

What should be done, of
course, and this has been point-
ed out by the International
Woodworkers of America and
other unions involved in lumber
and construction, is for govern-
ments at all levels to undertake
a.massive program of construc-
tion of affordable housing. It
will only be done if govern-
ments initiate and finance such
a project — private enterprise is
just not interested.

.

=

at restoring Bennett's image _—

seitliaaa