NDP CHALLENGES BENNETT:

TELL PEOPLE THE TRUTH

ABOUT COLUMBIA SCANDAL

Premier Bennett was challenged this week by the New Democratic Party to tell the people of B.C. the truth about Columbia River costs. Speaking in Salmon Arm Tuesday night, Robert Strachan, NDP provincial leader, charged that Bennett is misleading the public and that B.C.’s taxpayers will hav2 to foot a $150 million bill to build dams on the Columbia to store water for the

FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1966 VOL. 27, NO. 34

U.S.

Demanding that Premier Ben- nett give the people the facts now, Strachan pointed out that on July 15. 1963, Bennett said: “The Peace and Columbia are not going to cost the taxpayer a single cent,’’ Since then, saidStrachan, Bennett has maintained all along that the money obtained from the U.S. plus interest would pay the

AT THE PNE PARADE. Hundreds of thousands of people Glena the parade route and on TV last Saturday saw this B.C. Peace Council float urging: ‘‘Let them live and play! Stop: Vietnam

She es =

—Edward photo

Unions unite to defeat Socred labor minister

Expressing its strong dissatis- faction with the anti-labor record of the Socred government, the B.C, Federation of Labor last Week decided to call on all unions to concentrate their efforts inthe Vancouver-Little Mountain riding

to defeat Labor Minister Peter- son,

Following this action by the .

trade unions, Harold Pritchett, Communist candidate in the Tiding, announced last Thursday that he would withdraw his nomi- Nation and throw his full support behind labor’s effort to roll up a united vote against the Socred Minister of Labor,

In a statement released to the Press, Pritchett made the follow- ing points:

“Earlier this week I had the honor to be nominated by the Communist Party to. contest the newly created constituency of Little Mountain for the Septem- ber 12th Provincial election,

“In accepting the nomination I stated to the nominating conven- tion that “I would challenge Labor Minister Peterson, who is acan- didate in that riding, on the labor record of his government,”

BOB CLAIR NDP candidate opposing Socred labor minister

I called for a new labor act which would deny big corpora- tions from the indiscriminate use of injunctions and ensure labor the right to a say in the planning of automation,

“The Communist Party con- siders this issue along with the subservience of the Bennett gov- ernment to the big monopolies and its sellout of our resources to the U.S. to be the real issues in the election campaign,

“We consider the Communist Party alone of the political parties in B.C, has hammered consistently on these issues and tried to unite all labor and demo- cratic forces in the province

to win new alternate policies in

the true interests of our people,

“It is to this end that wenomi- nated in the Little Mountain rid- ing, along with six other constitu- encies, to take our program tothe people and to win Communist representation at Victoria which

See LABOR, pg. 8

entire cost of three dams plus 50 percent of the cost of gener- ators at Mica Dam,

“J said at that time that he was misleading the people and I challenge him now to tell the public the unpleasant truth before they go to the polls on Septem- ber 12,” said Strachan.

Branding the saleof B.C. cheap hydro power to the U.S. as a “fire sale,” Strachan said that the Annual Report of B.C. Hydro shows that only $198 million was left of the money received from the U.S. and that “this money plus interest will definitely not complete the three dams, let alone pay half the cost of gen- erators in Mica Dam,

The NDP leader said that this money will be used up by the end of 1967 and there will still be over five years of construc- tion to- complete. He charged that “approximately $150 million will have to be taken from the tax- payer to complete the project.”

Strachan drew attention to a

recent statement by U.S. Pres-

ident Johnson that thanks to the Columbia Treaty signed by the Socreds and Federal Liberal gov- ernment, the American Grand Coulee Dam “will be the biggest power development in the world,”

“This news,’’ said Strachan, “confirms the real Socred power policy: Sell your cheap Columbia power to the U.S. and force the sale of high-priced power. from the Peace River onto the lower mainland.’’

The Pacific Tribune was one of the first newspapers in B.C, to break the story surrounding the Columbia River scandal, A feature article in the June 10th edition gave facts and figures to show the extent of Premier Ben- nett’s sellout of the Columbia,

Last week PT associate editor Maurice Rush; whois Communist candidate in North Vancouver- Seymour, charged that Bennett wants to get the election out of the way before the full impact of the Columbia River scandal breaks.

Railway workers fight for overdue wage gain

Canada’s 120,000 railway workers on both major rail lines, the CPR and CNR are scheduled to go on strike Friday this week in support of long overdue wage increases. The two railway sys- tems declare they “cannot afford” to meet such wage hikes.

Prime Minister Pearson and his cabinet members have held meetings during the past week in search of a “formula’’ to head off the threatened rail tieup, Labor Minister Jack Nicholson calls for a “last ditch mediation” of the dispute in an effort to avoid a strike,

Railway and union officials have been in Ottawa for a num- ber of “talks” with government officials, but so far no change in the situation has materialized, According to union representa- tives there is actually nothing to “mediate” since the parties in- volved in the dispute have never actually been in collective bar- gaining negotiations,

In preparation for the rail strike crisis Prime Minister Pearson has called a special emergency session of Parliament to open Monday, August 29 for the purpose of passing legislation designed to end the strike,

While Pearson and other gov-

ernment spokesmen have stated that a ‘*modest” wage increase for railway workers is in order, (conveniently forgetting their own “modest” salary hike of $8,00C more or less they voted them- selves), anything above what they term “modest® is declared to be “highly inflationary’? and therefore ‘‘disastrous to the Can- adian economy.”

From Prime Minister Pear- son’s nation-wide TV address the government’s “formula” with the railway unions for settlement will be “return-to-work” legislation with a “modest” wage increase (unstated but well below union demands), Tacked on to this “formula” also the hint of com- pulsory arbitration procedures for all railway workers as “qa measure for safeguarding the national economy and security.”

The railway companies, the “free enterprise” CPR and the government-owned CNR want the. implementation of certain recommendations of the Mac- Pherson Royal Commission re- port on Canada’s railways. These could include statutory author- ization for the railway companies to close down “unprofitable” branch lines and cut staff.

Most important, however, See RAILWAYS, pg. 8