THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

KAISER TO PAY NO COAL ROYALTIES

Robert Strachan, NDP Leader of the Opposition, charged in his speech on the Throne Debate, that the Crow’s Nest Industries has never paid a cent of royalties on the coal taken from its crown grants and neither will the Kaiser Company in the future. “

He stated Crow’s Nest In- dustries, in good times and bad, in war and in peace, paid dividends to their share hold- ers but no royalties to the province. :

He pointed out that three statutes, the Mining Tax Act, the Coal Act, and the Taxa- tion Act, can all be used to obtain a fair return to the province from any coal mined and he indicated that an NDP government would amend these acts to ensure that Kai- ser and any other company concerned paid a rational rate of taxation and royalty on coal.

ON CROWN GRANTS BOUGHT FROM CROW’S NEST IN- DUSTRIES, NDP OPPOSITION LEADER ROBERT STRACHAN

CHARGED IN SPEECH DURING THRONE DEBATE IN HOUSE

To substantiate his charge, Strachan produced the follow- ing facts:

© 1890: Crow’s Nest land grants provided for in the Railways Act.

e 1899: The grants were is- sued for lots 4588 and 4589, Kootenay District. Area grants — 611,533 acres or 955 square miles.

e These grants contained a clause which provided that a royalty should be paid for every ton of coal mined from

this land.

e 1908: The Land Act was amended and Section 95 re- moved the royalty clauses

from any crown grants issued

“under the Railway Act.

e 1968: Crow’s Nest Indus- tries turned over coal rights to the Kaiser Coal Company for $56,000,000.

e Land Tax: The Taxation Act provides for a property tax on coal lands, including the Crow’s Nest land grants, and under this provision Kai- ser Company will have to pay the equivalent of 10c per ton.

© Coal Royalty: The Coal Act provides for a 25c per ton royalty on coal, but this applies only on coal leases on crown land and therefore does not apply to the Crow’s Nest- Kaiser land grants.

© Mining Tax: .The Mining Tax Act has a provincial levy of 15% on all profits over $10,- 0CO per year on all mining companies, but as a new com- pany, Kaiser will be exempt from federal income tax for three years.

© Coal Licences: Since 1966 the Socred Government has granted coal licences of some 202,000 acres, or 317 square miles. These are in addition to the 955 square miles in the Crow’s Nest Land Grants.

e Revenue: Although Crow’s Nest Industries alone in 1966 paid $587,000 in divid- ends, the direct revenue to

the crown from all coal mined in B.C. for 1964 was only $94,000.

© Profits: Net profit of Crow’s Nest Industries Ltd., 1964 to 1966 — $2,500,000. From 1897 to 1968, Crow’s Nest paid dividends to a total of $21,813,498. Net profits of the 14 major mining compan- ies in B.C., in 1964 to 1966, totalled $193,000,000. Kaiser Coal have refused to disclose their estimated profits.

Subsidies: Although Crow’s Nest have paid dividends to their shareholders in every single year since 1918, they have continued to receive sub- sidies from the Federal Gov- ernment. “Social assistance which has never been paid back and now, in addition, they have sold something they got for nothing (the crown grants) to Kaiser for $56,000,- 000 and still they make no re- turn to the taxpayer.”

PORT ALBERNI LOGGERS

OPPOSE LONGER

MacMillan Bloedel loggers working in the Port Alberni area have indicated their vio- lent opposition to a longer work week.

At a meeting of Local 1-85 IWA in Port Alberni, Febru- ary 5, loggers from the divi- sions of Sproat Lake, Cameron and Franklin River, protested the Company’s request to the Board of Industrial Relations for permission to work them six days a week for a period of three months or longer,

It was pointed out at the meeting that loggers had fought long and hard to es- tablish a forty hour week back in the mid ’40’s, and that they had no intention at this time to extend their work week beyond the forty hour week now provided for in the Union Agreement. It was also pointed out that the loggers

WORK WEEK

work under the most hazard- ous conditions, and severe weather, particularly at this time of the year where they have to work in deep snow, and for that reason forty hours a week is all that the human body can stand.

Local 1-85 officers following the meeting issued a press re- lease which rejected the Com- pany’s excuse that it was necessary to have the six-day week because of a shortage of logs.

The officers stated:

“Tt is our opinion that if there is a shortage of logs there are alternate means of production available to the Company such as purchasing

more logging equipment which —

would result in creating jobs for the vast army of unem- ployed.”

AUTO WORKERS LAID OFF DUE TO OVER-PRODUCTION

Deliberate over-production by Chrysler is the root cause of layoffs at the big auto plant in Windsor, according to Den- nis McDermott, UAW Direc- tor in Canada. em

Despite layoffs of 5,700 men in this city in addition to U.S. layoffs, Chrysler will have record production in the first three months of 1969, said the UAW head.

Automation has made it possible for the auto compan- ies to spew out cars faster than the market can absorb them, he said. But instead of regulating production, the companies are 1 gemerngd ex- panding it, “each trying to get theirs and the other guy’s

The laid off workers have been working overtime for months, said Mr. McDermott, and those still at work are continuing to work overtime.

While the union has been trying to resolve the overtime issue, Chrysler claims it got a ruling from the Ontario De- partment of Labor, allowing it to schedule even more over- time, “And now comes the lay-off!”

Pa:

KEVIN KELLY The Executive of Local 1-417 IWA has appointed Kevin Kelly, Plant Chairman at the H.K. Lumber’s

Plywood Division, Business Agent for the Local Union.

GAS PROFITS $6,337,848

The B.C. Hydro and Power Authority made a profit of more than $6.3 million on sales of natural gas in its last fiscal year.

Profit figures have been provided to the legislature by Premier Bennett in written answers to questions placed on the House order paper by Opposition Leader Strachan.

The net profit on gas sales, said Bennett, came to $6,337,- 848 in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1968.

The profit amounts to about 34 per cent on the price paid for the gas — $18,199,590.

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BRITISH COLUMBIA

PROTECTION FOR WORKERS DEMANDED BY IWA OFFICIALS

Refusal of the Workmen’s Compensation Board to pro- vide compensation entitlement to high school students taking on-the-job training in indus- try, is causing concern to [WA officials and the B.C. Federa- tion of Labour.

Under B.C.’s Education Act, students sixteen and one half years of age and over, may be sent out for job training for periods of up to eighty hours a year.

Because they don’t qualify for protection under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, school boards are forced to take out accident insurance on these students’ behalf. At the same time the boards have the parents sign documents waiving all rights to sue the board or the employer in the event of injury or death to the student.

Legal experts have advised IWA Officials that if one of

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these students were injured or killed in an IWA operation, the student’s parents could in -all likelihood sue an employee who was instructing the boy

- or working in the area.

The experts suggest that a smart lawyer might convince a jury that the experienced employee or instructor had been negligent in not taking ‘sufficient care to protect the student from injury or death and was therefore libel for any court action brought against him.

While IWA officials favour the principle of on - the - job training for students in indus- try, they are not prepared to endorse the present setup if their members face any possi- bility of damage action.

They suggest that the plan be suspended until such time as the WCB Act is amended to adequately cover the stu- dents.