By CHARLES BOYLAN Friday night some 200 7ncerned citizens gathered *t Convocation Hall at the (isity of Toronto to hear tel of experts tell them “ing every citizen of this ‘bas known for a long time. Mo's air is polluted. q Alfred Bernhardt, Depart- , Of civil engineering at the 4, made it clear just how ‘And it was enough to ter- Your white shirt to take Bey plunge into a bucket leach. Toronto burns 8.8 tons of coal and oil for 8, and 3 million tons of td diesel oil. This pro- 5.2 trillion cubic feet of fed exhaust gas. Of this “ million cu. ft. are deadly ous. Add to the recipe 65,300 tons of dust and , ve What is known as To- Be air.?’ Te does it come from? claims 20 percent from power plants, 10 from manufacturing “8, 3 percent from garbage Tation and 47 percent Cars, buses and trucks. Y do you stop it? Clean tir. Bernhart says it will $540 million for equipment "move 95 percent of the hous gases and dust.” Con- nN to natural gas heating "Teduce this to $300 mil- Control equipment would 5 million a year to oper- By BRUCE YORKE RAL Finance Minister Mitchell Sharp’s pre-Christ- Was budget revealed his ment to be a “Santa to the big monopolies Veritable “Scrooge” to mil- of working people. Class bias has never been So blatant in government - Consider the new five t Surtax on existing taxes Sharp has introduced. On 1965 returns this will Some $137 millions into deral treasury. Some five taxpayers are involved. Ste are taxpayers and tax- those who are ‘in the to $6,000 bracket it means a $23.75. } those who are in the to $7,000 bracket it means Xtra $30.90 (that is, the = Plan on action against pollution ate. But Bernhart pointed out it now costs citizens of Toronto $120 million a year in damages from pollution. To say nothing of the gritty taste in your mouth when you walk down Yonge Street. An air pollution activist from New York, Mrs. Henderson, made it clear that nothing would ever be done until con- cerned people began to organ- ize political pressure. She de- scribed how her group charged public consciousness in New York about air pollution by per- suading the news media to an- nounce the pollution level daily with the weather forecast. The effect of this, she said,. facilit- ated her group to pressure the New York City Council to ap- point an investigation commit- tee. A smoke control law was also passed and now New York no longer allows coal to be burned within its limits. She said public opinion must be dir- ected to government officials and that some reforms can be won. It wasn’t just the experts who spoke. One member of the audi- ence jumped up and said, “I’m a chimney-sweeper. I suggest chimney sweeping should be more emphasized.” Another chimed in, “All we ever get are studies. What we need is some action.” : Dr. Beringer, an inventor and super-salesman of air-control equipment, agreed. “The equip- ment we are developing has just gone to New York. But where equivalent of a one to 1% per hour wage cut). However, for those whose in- come is over $50,000, the max- imum increase in tax will be -$600. This provision of the new surtax amounts to rank discri- mination in favor of the rich. Using 1965 returns as a base (the latest available), there were 5,659 taxpayers whose income ~ - was over $50,000. If they were charged at the same five percent . rate that applies to the five mil- lion “ordinary” taxpayers they would have to pay $1,357 extra in taxes instead of $600. In other words, those who are in a posi- tion to pay get a special provi- sion which reduces the five per- cent surtax rate for them by more than half to 2.2 percent. Moreover, consider the 10 per- -cent increase in liquor and to- KREASE IN CORPORATION TAXES IF CARTER COMMISSION REPORT IMPLEMENTED (Millions of Dollars) : Payable by Payable by Sf Industry Residents Non-Residents Total ining $ 28 $106 $134 Oil & Gas r 15 19 ife Insurance | ape 32 75 nerai Insurance 9 18 27 aH other industries 183 100 283 a Tota 267 271 538 ~~ ; Maen ager ee a we ee ee CA L Don cALLYOU © Ue UL Et, Otters 4 Ow EE No CHILDREN “t ae Dauner ) there is no legislation there is no interest in control equip- ment,” he said. : Significantly, the ‘meeting did take action. An executive, in- cluding Stanley Burke; John Little, of the Civic Action ‘League; Mrs: O’Donahue, wife of a Toronto alderman; Mrs. Scrivner from the Ratepayers; Dr. Bernhardt and others, will co-ordinate action between all bacco taxes. This is a consump- tion tax, pure and simple. Like all such taxes it is not based on the ability to pay principle but rather on the exact opposite. Those who can scarcely afford it in the first place have to pay re- latively more (in terms of their income), while those who have lots of loose change pay rela- tively less. But the “petty” chiselling in- volved in the above two’exam-. ples is nothing compared to the really big bonanza Mr. Sharp has presented to the big mono- polies. To all intents and pur- poses the Liberal government has torpedoed its own Royal Commission on Taxation — the Carter Report. The table which follows (taken from the Carter Report) shows that the giant corporations which dominate the economy are presently escaping paying $538,000,000 taxes because of special privileges. It is interesting to note that nearly all the expected increase in tax revenue from the 5 per- cent could be secured from min- ing companies alone ($134 mil- lions). Moreover, 80 percent of this $134 millions would be paid by non-residents, mainly United States citizens. Some of the spe- cial. privileges that the Carter Report would do away with are as follows: e Elimination of percentage interested groups. This non-par- tisan group will also try to or- ganize area groups to take dir- ect action. Anyone interested can contact Stanley Burke at the CBC. The meeting ended with -a performance of the Toronto Mime Group. Perhaps more than any other, this silent amateur group touched the source of the problem. A bloated corporatist, depletion on income derived from mining and petroleum, $80 millions in taxes. sae e Elimination of the‘ three- year tax exemption from the in- ‘come from new mines, $80 mil- lions in taxes. : -@ Elimination of the. special provisions defining the income of life insurance companies so that their income would be reported on a basis similar to that other companies, $75 millions in taxes. How The Biggest Monopoly in the Country — The CPR Avoids Taxes Just how big business milks the general public with the aid of government is dramatically shown by considering two sub- sidiaries of the CPR the coun- try’s number one monopoly. First there is Pine Point Mines’ Ltd. CPR owns CP Invest- ments. The latter in turn owns a controlling interest. in COMIN- CO. COMINCO owns 69.12 per- cent of Pine Point Mines. . Three years ago the federal government through the Can- adian National built a railway into the North West Territory at -public expense. This is being used to ship the lead and zinc concentrates out to the United States and Japan. Net profits from Pine Point have been as follows: 1965 (March 1 onwards) $22, 132,090. ; 1966 the entire year $34,- 194,000. £ 90n9-= reading his toilet paper ticker tape and simultaneously pollut- ing the air with his mammoth cigar, was shown in collusion ‘with the politician. A death figure hovered about, spraying the citizens with poisonous air. In the Mime death was trium- ‘phant. As for the citizens of To- ronto, it’s still an open question. Cough. Hack. For the moment. One law for rich, another for poor 1967 to Sept. 30 $24,900,000. Total for 31 months $81,- 226,000. Under the three year tax ex- emption from the income from new mines, Pine Point pays nothing till March 1, 1968. This “gift” has already cost the Can- adian taxpayers $40,613,000 in lost taxes and it is reasonable - to expect another $9 millions by March ST, JOBSi 2 i. - Secondly-there is CPR Bermu- da Ltd., a wholly owned CPR subsidiary, set up in 1964 to operate the deep-sea fleet, con- sisting of 8 vessels, 2 giant tank- ers and 6 modern bulk carriers. . On the profits from this carry- ing trade CPR Bermuda pays $560 a year taxes in Bermuda. ‘All the remaining profits are de- clared as a dividend and return- ed to the CPR in Canada where under Section 28 (1) (d) they are completely tax free. This sort of tax haven, which costs ordinary Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars, would also be eliminated by the Carter Report. It Is Not Too Late Although the Liberal govern- ment plans to get away with their outrageous servicing of the monopolies at the expense of working people, the latter still have it in their power to for e the government to change its course; and failing this to re- place it with one that will put the needs of the people first, not the appetities of monopolies. -) cnpsin DECEMBER 22, 1.967: PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3 AAUIAT DAIDAT--Va2 SS SI9IMIDIG