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jected 63. ot +4 1990. As a result ot this
increase in volume even if no grain at all
was handled by CPR the existing tracks
and facilities are inadequate and would
need a large capital investment.

CPR is putting pressure on the federal
government to force the farmers to pay
for rail expansions for the purpose of
shipping more coal.

In 1881 when the CPR was formed the
Canadian Government gave the railway
25 million acres of land and mineral
rights. This included vast amounts of
natural resources including coal. CPR is
heavily involved in the production of
coal through their interest in Fording
Coal (60% owned by CPR and 40%
owned by a CPR subsidiary, Cominco)
which exported 3.6 million tonnes of coal
in 1980.

Today for every one trainload of grain
CPR handles six of coal.

The National Farmers’ Union claims
that the government has a vested interest
in “‘getting rid of the Crow Rate Agree-
ment’’. The NFU states that ‘‘The 1897
Crowsnest Pass Agreement (Section 15)
vested 50,000 acres of coal bearing land
in the Crown which it is committed to sell
to the public at not more than $2 per ton.
The government can’t legally develop
these coal reserves unless the Crow
Agreement is scrapped. These lands bear
between seven and eight billion tonnes of
coal. At $60 per ton that’s about $450-bil-
lion.’ (Note: Older documents use tons
avoirdupois (2,000 Ibs).

Grants Built CPR Empire

It was the massive land grants and
financial assistance in 1881 that provided
the long-term financial strength of the
CPR. Since 1881 government grants
have amounted to over $1.2-billion to
this giant multi-national that has built up

: co a

CPR-Liberal planned attack

an empire of over 300 corporations ac-
ross the capitalist world. This is a far cry
from the reasons for building a Canada-
wide railway system. The CPR wants
only to re-negotiate or scrap the 1925
agreement that established the Statutory
Crow Rate but not the Railway Act of
1881.

The National Farmers’ Union, in a

brief to the minister of transportation, -

Jan. 27, 1982 stated: “If every Act of
Parliament involving economic advan-
tage or disadvantage to a particular class
or corporation were, from a position of
hind sight, to be re-negotiated, one can
envision the possibilities: For example,

‘the Railway Act of 1881 might be
reopened and the mineral rights on 25
million acres of land in the west gifted to
the CPR and which now form the assets
of Pan Canadian Petroleums Ltd., might
be returned to the Crown and integrated
with PetroCan.”’

aa a ac al astm ee leet

The direct effect of eliminating
Crow rates will be to reduce the price
grain in Western Canada. Again CPR hi
a direct interest, for in-July of 1980 U}
Enterprises added Maple Leaf Mills toi
vast empire. Maple Leaf Mills’ oper
tions include oilseed processing, anim
and poultry feeds, turkey and chic
growing and processing and flour millin|
All these operations will gain directly b
lower grain prices paid to farmers,
boost already inflated profits. %

The position ~taken by the fede:
government is quite clear; they intend!
force western Canadian farmers to
for the cost of improving and expandif
the facilities of the CPR to effect 4
considerable increase in coal exports:
This policy will not only destroy the :
ily farm but contribute to the export 0
even more jobs as our resources are pre
cessed in other countries.

The solution to the problem
transportation is not the scrapping of th
Crow Rates but by the nationalization 0
the CPR and the establishment of 01
comprehensive railway system to if”
clude the CPR and the Canadian Né |
tional under democratic control. He

NFU leads fight to save Crow

Special to the Tribune

Of all the farm organizations in Cana-
da, the National Farmers Union has car-
ried on the most determined and consis-
tent fight to protect the economic and
social position of farm families and farm-
ing communities and to create conditions
to allow them to have a full say in deter-
mining their own futures.

Central to this struggle in recent years
has been the battle to preserve the
Crowsnest Pass Statutory Freight Rates
which were originally set more than 80
years ago to protect, economically,
Prairie farmers shipping their grain to
export points in Canada. ~

With the railroads, mining companies_
and the federal government stepping up
their offensive to put profits first by try-
ing to abolish “the Crow’’, the NFU has
responded by intensifying its fight, par-
ticularly against the recommendations of
the Gilson Report on Western Grain

_ Transportation with its pre-determined
results and its effect of splitting the farm
community.

“Our basic position is that the Crow is
non-negotiable,” Says NFU national
board representative Goldwyn Jones of
Manitoba. ‘‘It’s a historic right of west-
ern farmers.”

Gilson Rehash

“The Gilson report is nothing but a
rehash of government policy which
we've been hearing for the last 10 or 15
years. It’s a plan to create enormous
profits for the railroads (particularly the
CPR) and pass the total burden of trans-
poration costs gradually onto the backs
of the farmers.”’

(The report, issued in June, 1982, re-
commends abolition of the Crow rates
and, eventually, payment of so-called
transportation subsidies solely to far-
mers, leaving the railroads free to set
their own rates. The NFU, the Com-
munist Party of Canada and other pro-
gressive forces point out this will ulti-
mately put farmers in the position of
2ACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 3, 1982—Page 8

being gouged for grain transportation,
while the railroads and mining com-
panies profit immensely by not having to
pay their full share for rail improvement
and coal shipping.)

The medium-term result will be a
sharp increase in farm bankruptcies;
migration to the cities where high
unemployment makes a secure future
impossible, increasing costs, per family,
for rural services and the resultant
dwindling of those services, and the ul-
timate destruction of many rural com-
munities, says Jackie Skelton, also an
NFU national rep for Manitoba.

“These basic questions are what we
are trying to grapple with in these com-
munities,’ says Skelton. ‘‘It’s more than
economics, it’s a broad social issue. . .”’

The disaster which will strike Prairie
farm families and their communities ap-
pears to be exactly what Agriculture
Minister Eugene Whelan and the fed-
eral Liberal government favor, she says.

**Even large farmers will be caught in
the squeeze,’’ Skelton says. ‘‘And they
will react in predictable fashion, trying to
push the economies of scale even furth-
er. This is basically what Whelan is cal-
ling for in his ‘‘agri-food’’ strategy.

““He’s advocating a_ branch-plant
economy in agriculture, something
which will be good for agri-business. It
will completely cut out the small farmer
and put control in central locations.
“Branch plants’’ will be moved in and
out at the whim of corporation heads.

‘There will be an influx of seasonal
labor, with no guarantees of job security.
And, eventually, it will bea question of
no guarantee of the security of the food
supply in Canada,’’ she says. —

As well as demanding retention of the
Crow rates, the NFU, which has more
than 8,000 farm-family members drawn
from all agricultural sectors, calls for im-
proving and expanding orderly market-
ing systems and establishment of
comprehensive stabilization plans.

Jones says badly needed rail line
improvements should be done at the ex-
pense of the railroads. ‘‘The CPR never
lost money on its total operation since it
was founded. There is lots of money out
there to upgrade the rail system.”

If the federal government becomes in-
volved in paying for rail line improve-
ments, the NFU says it should also de-
mand equity in the CPR. But that is only
a step toward the NFU’s firm demand
that the CPR be nationalized.

Nationalize CPR

“Right now, our end goal is that we
should have the two railroads integrated
into one and run as a public utility. Until
that time, the government should take an
equity position (in the CPR),” says
Jones.

(NFU members often sarcastically call
on the federal government to ‘‘national-
ize’ Canadian National, which operates
no differently than the CPR.)

The Coal Association of Canada is the
other main monopoly culprit behind the
drive to abolish the Crow rates.
“They've come to the front in recent
years,’’ says Jones. ‘‘Improvements to
the rail system are going to generate tre-
mendous profits for them.’’ The CPR,
with its extensive mining interests, is
also a strong party to this aspect of the
push against the Crow Rates and Prairie
farmers.

In their battle to maintain the Crow
Rate farmers are getting the support of
labor on a broad scale. Leading this fight
in the labor movement are the grain
handlers’ unions — at Thunder Bay, on
the Prairies and on the west coast. Also
on record for saving the Crow are the
Canadian Labor Congress and the fed-
erations of labor in the prairie provinces.

The NFU is carrying on its Political
fight to save the Crow in Ottawa and is
calling on provincial governments in the
west to take stronger public stands in
support of the Crow and to conduct their
own political and educational campaigns

in farm communities and in talks with the
federal government.

“The Manitoba Government shoul
be conducting speaking tours to explait
in the province and elsewhere, what til |
effects will be on the Manitoba econ |
omy,’ says Skelton.

Unity among farm organizations is &
sential to the fight. For this reason, thé
NFU is working to expose the false bas!
of the alliances among the largest fal
mers, many livestock groups and UW )
commercial grain companies to suppo#
abolition of the Crow and the eventu
payment of transportation ‘‘costs”’
farmers directly.

At its annual general meeting in Regist
during the latter part of November,
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was conside!
ing a resolution sent in by 13 of its
districts, which parallels the NFU pos!
tion. It says that under no circumstanc®
should the Crow Rate be changed. Th’
outcome of the meeting was not kno
at press time.

As an assist to non-farm readers

Clay Gilson, University of Manito-—
ba, recommended in its June 1982 |
report the scrapping of the |
Crowsnest Pass Statutory Fre
Rates.

* * &

The Crowsnest Pass Agreement, |
setting freight rates for grain W9 |

operative in 1899.

* * &*

The National Farmers’ pa?
(NFU) referred to in these articles, §
meeting in convention in Saskatoo™)
Nov. 29 to Dec. 2.

s- * *