Don't

If you have been having trouble
deciding whether to support prime
Minister Trudeau or premier Ben-
Nett in their dispute over the patria-
“on and amendment of the con-
stitution, you have missed the
Point.

_ Choosing sides between Ottawa

and Victoria in the constitutional
bate is about the worst thing the

Working class movement can do.

Maurice Rush, provincial leader
of the Communist Party, is con-
cerned over the number of people,
Including many progressives, at-
tempting to figure out which camp,
al or provincial, they should
_ Toget entrapped in that choice

8 to limit yourself to a capitalist
Solution to the constitutional
Crisis,” he said in an interview this
Week,

The working class movement

_ Must approach the constitutional

debate from its own independent,
class position, he said.
ton-that score, he said, he
las also run into a wide spread at-
titude that workers should fight for
Teal constitutional and social
Change, and ignore the proposals
disputed by Trudeau and Bennett.
Thatis an equally wrong approach,
he said.

Working people must get into
the debate on the constitutional
energetically, especially around
three key areas: ‘‘First, to point out
that the process is passing over the
fundamental issue of the national
tights of French Canada. Instead
of a new constitution to create a bi-
National state, Trudeau is propos-
ing to bring home the old BNA
Act, with all of its inherent ine-
Quality and chauvinism, . and
amend it slightly to create a bil-

Energy

When ‘federal finance minister
Allan MacEachen rose in the
House to introduce ‘the Liberal
8overnment’s budget and accom-
Panying National Engergy Pro-
gram, he took little time to come to
the main point. At a time of rising
Oil prices, he said, the existing tax

_ System results only in ‘‘excess pro-

fits for the industry and an inap-

Propriate balance between govern-
ments 2 ”

From this day forward, under -

his budget, he declared, that would
change — although he added em-
Phatically that, in establishing its
New fiscal regime, “‘the govern-
Ment has been careful not to in-
ttude into areas which the pro-
vinces regard as their own.”’

With those comments, the
Tudeau government revealed the
t of its long-awaited budget
and the sweeping energy program
> It was aimed not at the country’s
ailing economy, but at the
Liberal’s constitutional package.
Significantly, the budget offered
NO programs to alleviate high
Unemployment which is expected

~ tO get worse over the winter mon-

ths. In fact, it increased the burden
Of UI premiums. If offered nothing
to curb inflation — in fact, the
Various oil and gas price increases
Will feel it. And it offered nothing
to halt the de-industrialization of
Ontario which has reached a scale
Unprecedented since World War II.
For Trudeau, MacEachen and
the Liberals, the budget and NEP
@ more important purpose: to
Provide the economic ammunition
for Ottawa’s offensive to get a

‘Patriated constitution which would

_ nitrench the status quo in Quebec

' producing provinces,

ad
ingual stater-That has not satisfied
Quebec in the past and it won’t
now.

“Second is the struggle for a
charter of rights. Trudeau’s charter
is a toothless cease Heh
bypasses many basic ights -
dians want. Trade union rights,
Native rights, women’s rights,
human rights like the right to a
jOb!.;- . these are just a few.

“Third is the contentious ques-
tion of economic policy and con-
trol over resources.”

porations in the post World War II
period. As the U.S. corporations
took control of resource develop-
ment, particularly in Western
Canada, rival groups within the
Canadian capitalist class began to
take shape.

The dominant, established sec-
tion of the capitalist class, based in
Ontario, support Trudeau’s efforts
to patriate the constitution, he ex-
plained. ‘‘They want a strong cen-
tral government that will get them a
larger share of the profits from
natural resources which now go.

It is the third area where many
people have been confused by the
contradictory demands of Ottawa
and the provincial governments.
The NDP’s endorsement of both
Trudeau’s constitutional package,
with Broadbent’s amendment, and
the demands of the provinces, has
only made the issue more difficult
for many to understand.

Historian and educator Ben
Swankey traces the dispute over
resource control. to. sell..out,of
Canada to U.S. multinational cor-

plan linke

but which would also give the
federal government greater control
of resources and the revenue from

them. ;

But the reaction of Tory premier
Peter Lougheed in announcing a
cutback in oil production indicates
the depth of the crisis the govern-
ment faces in mounting that offen-

sive.
(It has also revealed the extent to

‘ which the Conservatives generally

and the Conservative government
in Alberta, particularly, are tied to
the multinational oil corporations).

Many of the proposals outlined

- in the budget and the energy pro-

gram were devised to counter the
campaign mounted by the
resource-rich provinces and the in-
itial clash between Ottawa and
Alberta will probably be only the

Those federal strategies include:

e First, in announcing price
and price increases for oil and gas,
in the absence of an agreement with
i the federal

government has effectively
asserted its primacy in such mat-
ters. If Alberta wants to raise its
own price unilaterally, it will now

“have to go to the courts first.

@ Second, the government an-
nounced with the budget that it
would seek immediate reference to
the court of the contentious issue of
jurisdiction of offshore resources
in Newfoundland. Since, the out-
come is expected to favor Ottawa,
the action is intended to besa
Newfoundland premier brian
Peckford’s support for the Alberta

sition. ;
as @ Third, and perhaps most in-
dicative of the government 's
strategy, are the government's

mainly to foreign multinationals.”
Quebec is also a major concern
for eastern financial interests and
the. Liberal government. ‘They
want to bring home a constitution
which would entrench federalism
and the status quo in Quebec. That
is why action is being taken now,
when the national movement in
Quebec is at a low ebb following
the defeat of the referendum.”
The main opposition to
Trudeau’s constitutional package
comes from U.S. based multina-

“‘Canadianization’”’ proposals for
the petroleum industry. Among
other things, they are aimed at in-
creasing Canadian ownership to 50
percent by 1990; providing new tax
incentives for companies who
boost their Canadian ownership to
75 percent; and expanding the role
of Petrocan to include the purchase
of the Canadian operations of at
least one oil multinational. Coupl-
ed with the proposals are increases
over the next three years in oil
prices to provide the funds for the
Canadianization program and a
new revenue sharing provision giv-
ing the provinces 43 percent of
energy production, the federal
government 24 percent and in-
dustry 33 percent.

In devising the Canadianization
program, the government has a
major purpose — to establish a

‘base of support for its program

among the independent Canadian
companies whose ownership is
already 75 percent or better, and to
split those companies away from
the multinationals and the Alberta
government which supports them.

So far the results have been
equivocal. The Calgary-based In-
dependent Petroleum Association
of Canada which met last week to
consider the proposals, joined the
clamor against both the Cana-
dianization proposals and the ex-
panded role for Petrocan. But

some companies have expressed ,

support for the program, seeing in
it an opportunity to expand ex-
ploration with the public footing
the bill. :
However, the federal govern-
ment is not going to leave it to the
budget and energy programs alone.
It also plans a major public rela-

tionals and provincial governments
which they influence or control,
mainly Alberta, B.C. and New-
foundland, said Swankey.

“The loud opposition to patria-
tion also reflects the growing
strength of two new centres of
financial. power in Canada — in
Alberta and B.C. In Alberta the
financial power is clearly in the
hands of the U.S. oil multina-
tionals with premier Lougheed as
their agent and spokesman. In
B.C. we havea new financial centre
growing up in which some native
capitalists have the main say.
BCRIC is an expression of this.
This group has close relations with
financial and _ industrial
monopolies in the U.S. and Japan
and they view a strong centralized
government under the control of
eastern interests as a threat.”’

It is an irony that the present
divisions within the Canadian
capitalist class were brought about
by the betrayal of Canada by the
eastern based Canadian
monopolists. When they sold out
Western resources to the U.S.
multinationals in return for im-
mediate profits, they began-a pro-
cess of weakening the economic
bonds that hold English Canada
together. Today, with the added
factor of the enormous revenues
flowing from -Western energy

‘resources, the strains on English

Canada threaten to rip it apart.
According to Rush, the position
of the Socred government in B.C.
would emasculate Canada, and
allow each province to exercise ma-
jor power over all economic mat-
ters and to enter into any arrange-
ment that suits them with the U.S.
or Japanese multinationals.
The Socreds want control over

tions offensive across the coun-
try, with Liberal cabinet ministers
-including Trudeau - travelling to
the Western provinces to campaign
on the budget and energy program
and the constitutional package
which it is intended to support.

But whatever support the
Liberals might be able to gather
among some smaller companies in
the oil industry and elsewhere,
there still won’t be very much in the
program for working people.

Significantly, although the ob-
jective of 50 percent of i
ownership by 1990 sounds good on
paper, it isn’t anything much new
— the aim was endorsed nearly a
decade ago. And the progress made
towards it so far under the Liberals
offers little encouragement.

Of great concern is the cost of the
Canadianization program. In ef-
fect, Canadian oil and gas con-
sumers will be paying increased
prices to finance the transfer of
ownership of the oil industry from
multinational (mainly U.S.) cor-
porations to Canadian corpora-
tions. And the various tax incen-
tives to those Canadian companies
— which the public pays for —
have in the past not ensured that ex-
ploration in Canada will increase.
In fact, many independent Cana-
dian companies are expanding their
exploration in the U.S. in search of
higher profits. \

Even the plans for an expanded
Petrocan, although some of them
are laudable, have not indicated
any significant movement towards
greater public ownership and

choose sides on constitution

all resources, including fresh water
and offshore, including control
over export of those resources.
Further the province is demanding

‘total control over resource

revenues without any revenues ac-
cruing to the federal government.

Other demands by the Socreds
would see a restructuring of the
Senate, appointed by the pro-
vinces, with veto power over the
government, and provincial ap-
pointments to the Supreme Court
to ensure that the court would
orient in favor of the provinces.

“We have to oppose any change
in the constitution which will lead
to further fragmentation of the na-
tion and Balkanization of
Canada,”’ said Rush.

“Our attitude flows from the
premise that Canada’s resources
are the heritage of all Canadians
and that economic policies must be
put in place which will provide for
all sided development in all parts of
Canada.””

One proposal of the Communist
Party is for joint federal-provincial
crown corporations to be establish-
ed in the resource sector, so that the

‘ profits from resource development

would accrue to the whole country,
and to the producing provinces.
Public ownership and all sided
development is more important

- than federal or provincial control.

“For us, the decisive question is:
What are the resources used for?
How are they developed? Whose
interests will they serve? If we over-
simplify our position to one of just
taking sides between Trudeau and
Bennett, we’ll miss the big issue —
the fight for a new economic policy
by both governments and for
public ownership and control over
our resources.”

d to patriation strategy

development of a national energy
strategy.

Although there is a mandate to
take over the operations of at least
one multinational, both the
government and Petrocan have in-
dicated that it will not be the in-
fluential Shell or Esso — since these
are considered ‘‘good corporate
citizens’? — but the smaller com-
panies, possibly Chevron,
Petrofina or some smaller firm.

In addition, much of Petrocan’s
expanded role seems destined for
joint ventures with existing com-
panies. Some $250 million has also
been allocated for exploration in
Third World countries. In short,
the federal government. does not
see Petrocan as a major initiator in
the Canadian oil industry.

More than anything, neither the
Canadianization proposals or the
expanded role for Petrocan address
the problem that Canadian oil and
gas are still being sold to the U.S. in
considerable quantity while the.
country still lacks an energy pro-
gram based on industrial develop-
ment.

In drafting the energy proposals,
the Liberal government took notice
of a heightened demand for public
ownership of the oil and gas in-
dustry — but stopped their Na-
tional Energy Program short of ad-
vocating such ownership as
government policy.

That is the issue still to be faced
— without a real energy program,
based on development of resources
under public ownership and the
establishment of federal provincial
cooperation, Canadians still won’t
control their own economy.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 14, 1880—Page 3