Page 4, The Herald, Mondsy, Febrvary 16, 198!

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Show went on
‘despite strike

VANCOUVER (CP) — The show went on, despite
separate walkouts by employees of Vancouver-area
Municipalities and B.C. Telephone Co.

“The civic and telephone workers ‘agreed to a

" temporary truce and allowed union members to
work at the civic-owned Queen Elizabeth Theatre,
site of the annual Variety Club telethon, =~

The telethon garmered just over $2 million in
pledges to help equip the new children’s hospital in
Vancouver. :

Ushereties, members of the Vancouver Municipal
Regional Employees Union, worked through the
marathon pledge drive and members of the Tele-
communications Workers Union installed company-
_Ppplied telephone equipment.

Today, the telephone workers’ union will be

Sentenced by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ken Me-
Zeedith for contempt of court in coanection with a ~
Zhive-day occupation of B.C, Tel offices in 19
‘Socations. ;
*' The usherettes donated their salaries to the
‘telethon, throwing in a cheque for $1,000 from their
striking union,

They said they usually donste part of thei
‘salaries to the Telethon but this year they decided to
" give- all, the money to the campaign.
“For ail 16 ushereties who worked all weekend, it
came to a grand total of $274," said Jan Fenton,
head of the usherettes and a shop steward for the
union, “Now do you understand why we're on

. Mrike."”’
Elsewhere, a security guard hired by B.C. Tel
drew a .2-callbre starter's pistol in Dawson Creek
on Saturday and pointed it at a stick-wielding

striker. The guard said be showed the gun to _

frighten the striker. RCMP said charges are likely.

B.C. Tel spokesman Keith Matthews sald the
company has hired several security firms around
the province to protect unmanned offices and equip-
ment, but added: ''As far as! know, none of them
carry sidearms.”

Matthews also reported cableslashings and
vandalism of company property during the
weekend in Kamloops, the Vancouver area, Port

_ Moody, Port Coquillam and the Quesnel area.
Service wan restored by late Sunday.

Talks between union preaident Bill Clark and-B.C.
Tei chalrman Gordon MacFarlane continued during
the weekend and were to continue today under

' auspices of federal mediator Willlam Kelly, ap-
polnted last week by federal Labor Minister Gerald
Regan.

The union has been without a contract for 14

months and Is holding out for implementation of a
. feport by federal conciliator Ed Peck which was re-
jeled by the company.

Meanwhile, the Employers’ Council of B.C. has
objecied to what Il terms ‘an implied auggeation’’
by Regan that B.C. Tel isn't sensitive to Canadian
and provincia) condillona because the company is
owned by a U.S. mullinallonal corporation.

Bill Hamilton, prealdent of the council, sald
Sunday B.C. Tel is a federally-constiluled cor-
poration with policies eatablished by officers and “a
board of directors who are all Canadian citizens in
B.C.

The strike by more than 10,000 members of
Canadian Union of Public Employees has entered
Its Uhird week,

The union and the Greater Vancouver Regional :

District were scheduled to sit down today with
mediator Ken Albertini to hear the regional dis-
trict's response to @ union counter-olfer,

The strike has forced cancellation of recreational
activities and mountlng plies of garbage, although
Coqultiam has opened its public tennis courts for
tesldents to dump thelr garbage for the duration of
the strike.

Gomer

THIS 15 MY SON'S Sexe ON
TEXTBOOK. Vea

Me
Hie
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‘disagree about

The real dollar power

OTTAWA (CP) —
Beyond the battle over the
constitution document in

- Parliament this week is a

political war about who will
wield real dollar power
over economic and social
matters in the Canadian
federation.

it is a war that has been
waged on and off since the
beginnings of the country,
the provinces gaining
ground at some times,
Ottawa seizing the upper
hand at others.

The factions even
who's
winning. Prime Minister
Trudeau contends. dis-
parate provincial power
undermines natlonal unity.

‘Provincial leaders’ deguse
“‘Trudeauof &:-centralist *

power grab in a final of-

fensive before he retires,

Combat has been
sharpened by Trudeau's
campaign to rewrite the
constitution and realign the
powers, It follows Quebec's
rejection of a separate-na-
ion option in a referendum
last May and continuing
disagreement among the
provinces about reform.

Trudeau’s campaign is a
three-pronged strategy.

There Is the
parilamentary resolution
seeking patriation from
Britain of the British Nerth
America Act, amended to
include a constitutional
charter of rights, Ikmited
concessions on provincial
power over resources, and
a procese for shared
dectslons on future change
in the: country’s basic
federal law.

Otherwise, the present

_ division of powers between

Ottawa and the provinces
is left for future settlement.
But this will be Influenced

' by the Impact of the other

two prongs of the Trudeau
plan.

Thess are the
almultaneous challenge to
provincial
powers In the new National
Energy Program and plans

to renegotiate spending,

powers In soctal programs

economic .

such as health care,
education and welfare,

Three weeks after the
constitutional] document
was presented last Oc-
fober, the
government unveiled’ the
energy program and
served notice that social
programs . will be
renegotiated with the prov-
inces.

Against fierce resistance
in the producing provinces,
the federal energy
program would reinforce
Ottawa's capacity to price,
tax and market oil and gas,

to share the wealth and,
through
Canadianization of the

«petroleum industry, to;.
eMinitiate a sagt of econontic

“Yeclaration=+.ofo: tn-
dependence that further
strengthens Ottawa's
power.

The renegotiation of the
shared-cost sdciai
+ programs is under study by
a federal task force. The
objective is. to resolve a
power dilemma whereby
Ottawa, which used its
spending power to initiate
the programs, is locked
Into rising payments, The
provinces, with jurisdiction
over such programs under
the present constitution,

effectively determine the.

. Costs.

Trudeau links the three
elements of his campaign
In affirmation of a con-
sistent theme since the
Quebec federalist Trudeau

entered national politics 16.

years ago.

“The energy program
and our constitutional

Trudeau —

so-called -

proposals heth spring from
the same concept of
Canada,” he said‘in a
speech last week at
Brandon, Man. It is “that
Canada is more than the
sum of its parts, that the
national government is
more than just an agency
of the provinces..."

" Of the social-programs
‘problem, he said at a news

conference last week; “It.

has to be addressed along

with the energy policy and |

the constitutional policy.

‘These are very basic
questions about how we are
going to enter into the 21st
century -- with a weak

government of Canada and .

strong Provinces, ora
Bilyong government of
Canada = ‘and weak
provinces, or something in
between.”

To the autonomy-minded *

provinces, these are
fighting words that
demonstrate that Trudeau
“can't sland any province
becoming moderately
independent," ds Premier
Peter Lougheed of Alberta
said last week.

The fury of Trudeau's

provincial and federal

opponents is increased by
the strategy of his of-
fensive, which tends to
undermine their
bargaining power, and in
the tactics he employs,

which split the opposition. °

By proceeding with the

constilutiona) reform on.
his own, Trudeau cuts ©

away provincial
bargaining leverage In

trying to gain economic ‘

(

\

The Herald welcomes its readers comments.
Ali letters to the editor af general public interest
will be printed. We-do, however, retain the right
to refuse lo print letlers on grounds of possible
‘Tibel or bad laste. We may. also edit letters for
style and length. All letters to be considered for
publication must be signed,

“Ttalban
_ Tnanipulator:

powers in return for their
agreement to patriation
and a bill of rights. This
was the intentional
strategy outlined in a
private action plan

prepared for Trudeau last -

summer.

By offering concessions
in the = constitutional
package lo some provinces
—- excluding Ontario from
official bilingual require-
ments, for example, or
awarding . Saskatchewan
the right to tax exported
potash — the Trudeau
government tends to divide
the provinces, a tactical
element in last summer's
campaign plan.

And by thus’ encouraging
division among} the
provinces, Trudeau
reinforces another element
of his tactical plan --. to
show that -
federat action on the
constitutional package is

necessary. because of .

provincia] _ intransigence,
the inability of the
provinces even to agree
among themselves what

they wan.

It is this thal provokes
Premier Brian Peckford of
Newfoundland to. rail
against what he calls
Trudeau's ‘‘near-suicidal
determination to have his
‘way or not at all."

Or for Lougheed and his
Alberta allies ta see in the
Trudeau campaign a
design: not only to isolate
the province, buf to punish
it by undermining its oil
economy. ,

The bitterness makes

certain {hal the war over —

power will be a long one.
Trudeau's own strategy
document acknowledges
this by quoting Niccolo
Machiavelli, the medieval

“It should be borne in
mind thet there is nothing
more difficult to arrange,

more: doubtful of success,
and: more dangerous to ~

carry. through = than

initiating changes in a-

state's constitution.” *

unilateral -

political

OTTAWA -- Even-a roomful of bishops
- would empty instanfly, so it Is sald, “tf
_someone-passed fo each prelate a rote

saying, “‘Flee.. All Is discovered.”

The multinational oll companies are .

‘behaving Ilke a bunch of skittish bishops,

with the difference that to get them to move.

has required three notes.
The first was delivered last November at

anoll andgas conference In New York where: .

Energy Minister Mare Lalonde, referring to

his policy of “Canadianization’, sald, “We ‘

really do mean It'’.

The second note was delivered a fortnight
ago when Dome Petroleum, one of the top
three’ Canadian off “majors’’ along with
Petro-Canada and Nova, underwent some
corporate contortions as a result of which a
new, Maple Leaf-pure company, Dome
Canada was created to be eligible for the
maximum (up to 80 per cent of exploration
casts) federal grants.

The third note. was handed to the

multinationals recently when Petro-Canada
gobbled up Belglan-owned Petrofina at a.

cost. of $1.5 billlen, which feast will In fact —

‘cause the crown corporation a certain
amount of Indigestion.

Now,
multinationals are moving. Canadlanization
is no longer In doubt. The only questions
about the pellcy that remain to be resolved
arehow fast it will happen, and in what form.
Here are some examples of behind-the-
scenes motion. ,

-Discussions are underway which could
result In the takeover, by private Canadian
compantes, of at least foyr multinationals: ©
Getty, Murphy, which has extensive heavy
oll land holdings, Suncor which operates a
tar sands plant, and British-owned
Uitramar. :

--Gulf Canada has submitted to Its parent,
Gulf Oll In Pittsburg, a report proposing
three. alternative ‘’Canadianizatlon’’
schemes: a share offering. fo reduce Gulf

Gill's present 62 per cent holding In Its sub... .
pers ‘with, a consortium ofivoi
#8! Canadian. companieszion

- sidlary; pa
| publ Pate ite priv are

créatidn of a new baxploration subsidiary:
jointly with Canadian companies. {A factor
here is. that,
multinationals, Guif Oil, which suffered a 41
’ per cent drop In Its worldwide profits during

the first nine months of 1980, actually needs

the cash that a part-sale of Its Gulf Canada
* holding would provide. )

~Shell Oll Is negotiating with two medium-.
sized Canadian companies to form a new
consortium (together with Petro-Canada) to
exploit’ some of its offshore Allantic

properties. The new grouping, because 75 __

per cent Canadian-owned, would quallfy for
- the same “Canada Lands’ grants as Dome.

At the same time, Shell last week announced .

It was stilfting Its exploration effort from the
western provnces io the eastern ofishore
‘where Ottawa has,.or clalms {o have,
jurisdiction.

Mobil similarly is negotiating with two
,Canadian companies to bring off the same
deal as Shell. Mobil also last week advised

Newfoundland Premler Brian Peckford that”

- unless heachieves a political settlement with
_ Ottawa, It will proceed with a case of the
Supreme Court on May 1 to determine
whether Ottawa er Newfoundland holds
jurisdiction over the offshore. (Peckford,
whe is uncertain about his legal prospects,
has warned Mobil that If It goes to the
_ Supreme Court, he will revoke Its provincial
exploration permit.)
‘ .Canadlan National Rallways, using Its
- extensive fand holdings as, in effect,
~ “oollaterai’, Is about to enter the oll and gas
Industry in partnership with a group of
. Canadian companies, including among these
the new company to be formed by the credit

unlons and cogperatives with the help of $100 ©

million In federal ‘seed money”.

Now that the “Canadlanization” wagon.

, has begun to roll, foreign-owned oll com-
panies are scrambling to get aboard because
the last on wilt be the worst off. Dome
Canada’s proposed $400 million share of-
fering -- the largest In the history of the
Canadian stock market -- will, for instance,

_ make it}harder for late-comers to raise the
same kind of new capltal. Multinationals
lke Shel) and Mobil which arrange “farm-
Ins” with Canadian companies to make
themselves eligible for federal exploration
grants, will gain an edge over their slower-
moving rivals. —

The essential discovery the multinationals
have made fs that Canadianization {s
Inevitable. So they have decided to erijoy Ht
as best they can, although none of the “Seven
Sisters’, Including, despite stock market
rumors, Gulf Canada, yet has made the
decision to: seli most, let alone all, of its,
‘Canadian holdings.

if not fleeing exactly, the .

uncommonly among the —

i