By T. C. DOUGLAS The oil policies we adopt in Parliament during the next few months and years will affect the lifestyle of every Canadian, will determine our future and even our survival. Few Canadians seem aware of the fact that our oil production in western Canada has already passed its peak. If we continue our present volume of exports and our rising rate of con-; sumption we could have a shortfall of one million barrels of oil per day in five or six years. One has only to look at the figures to see how ludicrous the situation is. For the twelve month period ending June 30th, 1974 we produced an average of over two million barrels per day. We exported to the United States over 1,200,000 barrels per day and we consumed in this country over 1,750,000 barrels per day. To make up the deficit we imported almost 950,000 barrels a day. In other words we exported 60% of our oil production and our exports were 30% higher than our imports. This in a nation whose conventional oil-supplies are nearing depletion. LIVED IN FOOL’S PARADISE You may well ask how we got ourselves into this absurd and dangerous position. I cannot do better than to quote from a speech by Robert Macaulay, a former Cabinet Minister in the Ontario Government, who represented his Province before the National Energy Board and was legal counsel for the Ontario Energy Board. Mr. Macaulay said, “Canadians face a_ serious energy problem — a life and death energy problem. North America has lived in a fool’s paradise. The national Gov- ernment of Canada for the past 10 to 20 years has drifted leaderless in the field of energy. It has been lulled to sleep by the energy cartel in North America. dominance of Government policy amid public indifference is an open book and beyond dispute.” Mr. Macaulay has hit the nail right on the head. We do not have an oil policy for the Canadian people. What we have is an oil policy foisted upon successive Canadian Governments by the major multi-national oil companies, most of whom have their head offices in the United States. Here we are, a nation_which produces sufficient oil to meet its own needs, shipping out so much of its oil to the U.S. that we are dependent upon imports from countries who have the ~ power to cut us off at any time. THE EXCUSE USUALLY GIVEN The excuse usually given is that we have no means of moving western oil to the eastern Canadian market. But whose fault is that? The fact is that the Interprovincial Pipeline Company, controlled by U.S. interests, has never wanted a pipeline into Quebec and the Maritimes because the parent company, Exxon, desired to keep this market for Venezuelan oil which was difficult to dispose of due to its high sulphur Pasta. Even now, although Mr. Trudeau announced almost a year ago that a pipeline would be built to Montreal, Inter-Provincial Pipeline is still dragging its feet and the construction date has been postponed. In British Columbia we have suffered from the same oil industry domination of our oil policy. The oil refineries in our province have been geared almost exclusively to the production of gasoline. The result is that we ship our oil to the American refineries and buy back bunker oil, distillates and propane. That is why we are being forced to pay such exorbitant prices for these commodities which we should be refining here in Canada where the crude oil is produced. TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY To add insult to injury the : Federal Government is about to sign an _ International _ Energy Agreement with eleven other nations including the United States. Under the terms ‘of this agreement Canada Pierhtpace be required in an to yea the The oil prospects for the next ten years are so Serious that a number of steps must be taken with a minimum of delay. We must begin by curbing the power of the ail cartel. Last winter when we faced the possibility of an oil shortage all sections of Canada made sacrifices except the oil companies — they just made unprecedented aria: The consumer abe a doubling _of the price of oil which put Dt wy of millions of aiira into the coffers of the oil in- ee oil onion: Industry ‘THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER ‘provirices accepted a two price system which cost them $1,300 million. But the oil companies came through this crisis with a profit picture that borders on the obscene. Shell Oil of Canada, for instance, in the first nine months of this year made a profit of $119.5 million as compared to $60 million last year — an increase of almost 100%. We should also drastically reduce our exports of oil to the U.S. and we must take steps to develop: the Oil Sands of The Global Race for Oil Alberta and the oil deposits of British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Unless we can produce an additional 400,000 barrels of oil per day we could be in serious trouble — par- ticularly if war breaks out in the Middle East or if the Arab nations decide to impose an embargo. In almost all the major countries of the world, except in Canada and the United States, governments. have intervened in the production and distribution of oil. The Canadian Government has a 45% equity in Panarctic Oil whose activities are confined to the far north. But there is no reason why the federal and provincial governments, either jointly or separately, should not embark upon programs to develop the oil sands and other - oil deposits in western Canada. We do not yet have oil reserves - in commercial quantities in the Arctic or the Atlantic coast. Even when they are found it will take five to fifteen years to ~ bring this oil into the Canadian market. TIME TO HEED THIS GRIM WARNING In the oil sands there are 50 billion barrels of oil that can be extracted providing. the Government of Canada moves and moves quickly. Oil, like other forms of energy, is so vital to our lifestyle that it must be treated as a public utility. The concept of letting the market place decide our destiny has failed us; we must look to an increasing measure of public ownership in the energy field. I agree with Mr. Robert Macaulay, from whose speech to the Ontario Sierra Club I have already qucted when he said: _ - “The open market place should not determine energy prices. The market place stresses short-term benefits, particularly profit, rather than long-term. social needs. Those who won’t abandon the market concept are going to bring something cataclysmic around their heads.”’ Surely the time has come for the Canadian people and their Parliament to decide whether they will heed this grim warning. B.C. COMMUNITIES BENEFIT Communities throughout British Columbia have benefitted from the latest allocation of Community Recreational Facilities Funds the Honourable Jack Radford, Minister of Recreation and Conservation announced recently. Grants totalling $3,858,562.38 for 93 projects in 69 communities were made on the first of December. This latest allocation brings the total of $32,318,562.64 for 519 projects in 175 communities since the first grants were announced on August 1, 1973. The multinational corpora- tions which invested huge amounts in Frdnco Spain to capitalize on low wages and the absence of an effective trade union movement are ‘‘watch- ing their dreams go up in smoke”’, according to Business Week (issue of Nov. 23, 1974). Although Spanish workers are compelled to belong to government-controlled syndi- cates, they are engaged in waves of what the magazine calls ‘wildcat strikes”’. Strikes at General Electric plants are reported to be costing the company $435,000 a day in production losses. Westing- house is also in the line of fire throughout Spain and particu- larly at an appliance plant in Bilbao and a heavy equipment plant in Cordoba. - Business Week reports that, while the syndicates ‘‘are offering the cheaper pacts to the companies .. . manage- ment must also reach an agreement with the more powerful underground unions- which demand a better deal.” The underground unions are ealled Workers’ Commissions and they have made a national demand for a $120 a month wage raise, a month’s vacation and reduction of the work week from 44 to 40 hours. Westing- house has already been forced to up wages 25% above the syndicate level. ‘‘New demands,”’ a company spokes- man said, ‘“‘would double the- previous contract rates.” A delegation of Spanish underground workers recently told a trade union meeting in New York City that the struggle of Spanish workers against the multi-nationals is of great significance, as the giant corporations are learning that it is not profitable to take jobs away from the home country.