_ BROADBENT PROPOSES & ; - _ NDP leader Ed Broadbent announced that he would ask Parliament to support the establishment of a FAIR PRICES COMMISSION to help hold down the rising cost of liv- ing. The motion will be intro- duced by Mr. Broadbent during the course of debate. The Fair Prices Commission will protect consumers from unfair price increases through selective action, including price rollbacks when found NEW PRICES COMMISSION necessary. The Commission will have the power to delay price increases while in- vestigations are underway and will have the authority to order rollbacks when unfair price in- creases are uncovered through investigation. The Fair Prices Commission would be able to investigate wholesale and retail price in- creases in such areas as food, household essentials, basic in- dustrial commodities and farm input costs. POLICY VACUUM “We desperately need a Fair Prices Commission,’’ Mr. Broadbent said, ‘“‘because we have a policy vacuum on the prices side of the economic ledger. It is crucial that the - government take decisive steps now to prevent the re- emergence of another infla- tionary spiral. “For weeks now, my col- leagues and I have been raising questions about huge increases in meat, bread, lumber, steel and other prices. In all cases, the government has said it has no authority to act. The Fair Prices Commis- sion would establish such authority. Canadian wages and salaries went up by only 6.4 per cent in 1978. The Cost of Living shot up by 9 per cent. This loss of $340 in spending power must be stopped or major increases will be justifiably demanded by employees later this year.” Mr. Broadbent drew atten- tion to the fact that the Anti- Inflation Board reported that a survey of supermarkets in twelve cities showed food prices 21 per cent higher than a year ago, the highest annual increase since the index was created in 1974. Statistics Canada last week reported that industrial profits had further increased in the fourth quarter of 1978 to 38.9 per cent, fol- lowing a 32.3% increase in the third quarter, an 18.3 per cent increase in the second quarter and a 12.3 per cent increase in the first quarter. PRICE EXAMPLES Examples of price increases the Fair Prices Commission would investigate: 1. Bread Prices — Flour prices according to the AIB have increased nearly 25 per cent in the last two months. Bread prices have increased by 8-10e a loaf when the with- drawal of the subsidy should have meant a 3-4c increase. 2. Chicken and Turkey Prices According to the AIB report, poultry prices increased 33.5 per cent over a year earlier. According to agricultural agencies, processors and re- tailers have increased prices 30-40 per cent over the past year when the price to farmers has increased only 12.5 per cent, 3. Lumber Prices — There has been a 70 per cent increase in lumber prices over the past two years with a further 10 per cent increase last month, This has added about $1200 to the construction cost of a single family home with 1800 sq. ft. of floor space. ‘One now %,”’ significant steel price in- creases for a variety of prod- ucts used in all types of manu- facturing, including cars and appliances. These increases range from five to 18 per cent and follow earlier increases of 5-6 per cent over the last three to four months. Steel workers on August Ist, 1978, negotiated a contract with the same com- panies providing a six to seven per cent wage increase com- pared to the 9 per cent increase in the cost of living. The Big Three Canadian steel com- panies have recorded a 46 per cent profit increase from $196 million in 1977 to $285 million in 1978. 5. Bank Charges and Interest Rates — Canadian banks have _in- creased interest rates in a wide variety of areas: farm loans, small business loans, mort- gages and consumer loans. Furthermore, most banks have raised many charges recently including at least three which now charge 18c per cheque written on PCA accounts. Also, some banks have raised levies for safety-deposit box rentals, the handling of utility bill payments or the monthly charge for multi- service “‘package’’ plans. And with the banks presently re- viewing their service-charge structures, still more increases may be in the offing. Bank profits in 1978 in- creased 34 per cent to a record level of almost one billion THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER STRIKERS SEEKING SUPPORT The break-off of contract talks by Inco Limited Feb. 7 has sparked a nation-wide ap- peal for support for Sudbury’s strikers by Stewart Cooke, United Steelworkers’ of America director of District 6. The 11,700 miners, smelter and refinery workers have been on strike against the wes- tern world’s largest producer of nickel since Sept. 15. “The company’s latest offer is an insult to our members,” said Dave Patterson, USWA Local 6500 president. And Cooke said it contained ‘‘no significant improvement in the offer Inco made to its em- ployees in September.” Inco officials demanded the union submit the offer to the . membership in a ‘‘supervised and secret ballot,” but Patter- son retorted ‘‘the time has long passed where a company can dictate to a union what it should do. Our members told us not to come back with a cheap agreement, and we are following their wishes.” The grim determination that has carried Sudbury’s workers through six months on the picket lines was reflected in their disciplined response to ‘the company’s ploy. The ranks remained solid behind the bar- gaining committee, as nickel industry analysts report Inco is running low on its infamous stockpile of finished nickel. Inco’s Feb. 7 offer was for a 35 cents an hour wage in- crease, another 10 cents in June, another 10 cents in March 1980 and a $150 bonus upon ratification. But there would be no cost-of-living escalator until August 1980. The last COLA payment was last May, meaning Inco ex- pects its workers in Sudbury to go without COLA for more than two years. Inco’s chief negotia- tor, William Y. Correll, ad- mitted in a radio interview the offer was worth 5 cents an hour SEEKING FINANCIAL SUPPORT from the trade union move- ment in British Columbia for the almost twelve thousand United Steelworkers on strike at the giant INCO company at Sudbury, Ontario, are these two members of the Union, Shirley Haines, a surface worker and Dick Kerr, an underground miner. The strike is now over six months old without any sign of settlement. The main issues in the dispute are wages, pension plan and grievance procedure. more from what Inco offered in September. On pensions, Patterson says Inco “‘dressed up the front end to make them attractive to the public, but there’s nothing there for our members.” Inco offered major improvements in the “‘alternate’’ side of the pension table — the figure re- tired workers get until they’re eligible for Canada and old age security pensions. But the ‘“‘basic’’ pension would im- prove little under Inco’s pro- posal. And that’s the figure used to calculate survivor’s benefits to the spouse of a worker who dies after age 55. Nevertheless, Inco’s bar- gaining tactics from Jan. 31 to Feb. 7 showed the nickel giant wants the strike settled. The company made three separate offers during that time. And well the company might want its production back. Nickel analysts are noting ‘‘a dramatic turnaround’’ in the industry, with inventories sharply reduced. When Inco posted its prices Feb. 2 for the first time since July 1977 — a 30 to 35 cents per pound increase from late last year — it trig- gered a round of speculative buying by nickel consumers whose inventories were at an all-time low. Inco is currently no more than one month above normal inventories. Meanwhile support activities for the strikers continue across the country. In Sudbury, Wives Supporting the Strike put on a bean supper- Feb. 16 for thous- ands of strikers and their wives, with beans donated by the National Farmers Union. Teams of strikers are in Mani- toba and Saskatchewan for plant-gate collections, with benefit concerts scheduled in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert. Supporters are also planning benefits in Hamilton, in Montreal in March, and a second benefit in Ottawa later next month, HIGHER FOOD PRICES BOOSTS COST-OF-LIVING The All-Items Consumer Price Index for Canada (1971 100) increased by 0.8% from 181.3 in December 1978 to 182.7 in January 1979, reported Statistics Canada. As a result, the twelve-month rise between January 1978 and January 1979 stood at 8.9%, up from the 8.4% registered in the previous twelve-month period. Higher food prices and household operation charges accounted for most of the CPI rise in the latest month. Food prices increased by 1.9% be- tween December 1978 and January 1979 while the index for All-items excluding Food rose by 0.5%, Higher prices for fresh vegetables, up on average 16.1% in early January and for bread, up 13.1%, were largely responsible for the 2.3% in- crease in the Food at Home in- _ dex, Other notable contributors included higher prices for selected beef cuts, chicken and butter while prices for fresh fruits showed a marginal de- cline. Increased electricity charges in several cities in the provinces of Quebec and On- tario and higher prices for new cars were the major con- tributing factors to the 0.5% in- crease in the All-items ex- cluding Food index. Increased shelter and house- hold services charges and higher gasoline prices were also recorded. The impact of these price in- creases was somewhat dampened by lower prices for selected clothing items. Be- tween January 1978 and Janu- ary 1979, the index for All- items excluding Food ad- vanced by 6.9%. FORCED RETIREMENT OPPOSED BY AMERICANS A poll recently conducted in the United States showed that a vast majority of Americans were strongly opposed to forced retirement because of age. The margin was 88 percent to 10 percent on the question for current employees and 64 per- cent to 33 percent for business executives. Fifty-one percent of the people surveyed indicated that they wanted to work either full- time or part time in the same job or a less demanding one. The poll-taker, Louis Harris, told the United States Congress that in his opinion the poll - showed that most Americans wanted to work for the rest of their lives.