12 - Friday, November 18, 1988 - North Shore News

Some of the Burrard-Yarrows Shipyard’s 22,000 wartime workers

head for their jobs. Today the same shipyard employs 150.

Tory policy means

end of N.Van. yard

Shipbuilding on the North
Shore has a long and proud
history. A century ago local
builders turned out barges and
utility vessels to move men and
materials to budding new cities.
B.C. Ferries’ modern fleet was
built in North Vancouver yards in
a 20-year program in the 160s,
70s and 80s. During the Second
World War, hundreds of merchant

[| and naval ships built in the Lower
Mainland helped turn the tide
against the Axis. That wartime ef-
fort provided Canada with the
world's third largest merchant
fleet.

A federal government contract
to build the world's largest
icebreaker, the Polar 8, was seen
as the catalyst of a new beginn-

ing for West Coast shipyards. But-

if it was to be food for the local

economy, it was also supposed to
| bea public relations boost for the

Conservative government.

Typically, federal governments
demonstrate a distinct Eastern
bias when awarding contracts.
The present Conservative govern-
ment had pretty well toed the
Eastern line in its first three years
in office, prompting business,
labour and civic groups in the
Lower Mainland to band togethei
into the Greater Vancouver Ship-
building Coalition to lobby the
government to send the Polar 8
west.

Although the awarding of the
Polar 8 contract was by no means
acertainty at that point, loca! Con-
servative MPs lost little time
trumpeting their government's
largesse. West Vencouver-Howe
Sound MP Mary Collins and North
Vancouver MP Chuck Cook both
seeking re-election in 1988, pat-
ted their government on the back
but neglected to mention the dark
cloud hovering just behind the

[| Polar 8.

Presented

Specifically, that cloud is’ a
federal government desire to ra-
tionalize, or reduce the size of, the
Canadian shipbuilding industry.
Ottawa has said it intends to’sup-
port only five or six shipyards with
government jobs; only one of
those yards will be located on the
West Coast.

Originally, Versatile’s North
Vancouver yard was to get about
half the work needed in the Polar
8's construction, or about 500
person-years of employment. That
is not the case any more. The
government is now requiring Ver-
satile to spend millions of dollars
of taxpayers’ money on im-
provements to Versatile’s Victoria
facility. By far, the bulk of Polar
8's construction will be carried
out on the Island with only minor
functions carried out in North
Vancouver. To top everyihing off,
the government and Versatile
have agreed on an agenda to end
the North Vancouver facility's
days as a shipbuilding operation
once the Polar 8 is finished.

Simpiy put, what was once
seen as the catalyst of a new, pro-
sperous age for the North Van-
couver shipyard — the Polar 8 —
instead will hasten the shipyard’s
demise. Countless hours of lobby-
ing by Lower Mainland leaders will
benefit Victoria instead of focal
business and labour.

The demise of North Van-
couver's Versatile Pacific
shipyard is not good news for
North Vancouver, no matter how
many donut shops and bistros can
be crammed onto its redeveloped
iand.

Come election day, North Van-
couver will be best served by a
vote for progressive candidates
who support a strong shipbuilding
component in North Vancouver's
economy.

° : t
ah 2

Despite the best efforts of the
Progressive Conservatives, the
public is starting to get a firm grip
on what effect the bilateral free
trade agreement with the Lnited
States wili have on Canada.

Opponents of the deal — and
more and more Canadians find
themselves in that position — fear
Canada is giving away the store
for very little in return

The Conservatives maintain
that the prime objectives of the
agreement is to secure access for
Canadian producers to the
American market. But Canada is
already cunning a multi-biilion-
dollar annual irade surplus with
the U.S., with 80% of its exports
crossing the border duty-free.

Under free trade, the U.S. will
retain its trade laws, including
those which give it the right to
apply duties to Canadian goods,
thereby nullifying the Conser-
vatives’ dubious prime objective.

Countervailing and = anti-
dumping duties are to be
renegotiated over five to seven
years. The risk remains that the
U.S. could declare any of
Canada’s social programs (health
care, unemployment insurance,
pension, regional development) as
“unfair subsidies’, levying a
countervailing duty on Canadian
goods in response. Alternately,
the Canadian government could
choose to cut back on these “‘sub-
sidies'' to placate American
protectionists.

Pressure will also be exerted
from within Canada to pare down
social programs. One of the
reasons American wages are
lower than those for comparable
jobs in Canada is that, in Canada,
more money per worker is
diverted into social programs.
Employers in competition with the
U.S. will want the government to
reduce or eliminate this premium
to bring down wage levels — or
they will simply reduce wage
levels themselves to compensate.

Where shipbuilding is concern -
ed, the free trade deal will be
powerless against the U.S. Jones
Act, which protects American
maritime commerce. In the
future, as it has been since the
1920's when the Jones Act was
passed, any vessel trading bet-

Council

ween two consecutive U.S. ports
must be built in) American
shipyards, registered in the U.S.
and crewed by Americans.

Thanks to an 11th hour conces-
sion by Canada's negotiators, the
elimination over five years of a
25% Canadian tariff on American-
built ships and components will
open the Canadian market —
both commercial and military —
to U.S.. shipbuiiders. Unfortunate-
ly, Canadian shipbuilders, thanks
largely to the Jones Act, will not
have the same access Io the U.S.
market.

FREE TRADE — NO HELP

Jce Clark and Michael Wilson
campaigned against free trade.
Should Canada trade much of
its control over its abundant
natural resources for what
amounts to unimproved access to
the American market? Does
Canada, following the type of
economic union with the U.S.
foreshadowed in the free trade
agreement, wish to embrace
political union with the U.S.?
Progressive candidates vying
for Parliamentary seats are say-
ing no to those questions. Or-
dinary Canadians who are proud

Expertise at building icebreakers like the Henry Larsen will be
squandered when Versatile’s North Vancouver yard is

rationalized. .

Ao Ren Poke Pe Mgt ee RR AN POS

Should Canadians trust a
government that backtracks on
the most importan: issues of the
day? When campaiging for the PC
leadership in 1983, Brian
Mulroney said free trade would
“spell disaster for Canada’’. ti the
1984 federal election campaign,

of their country, its
humanitarianism, its advantages
and its way of life are also saying
no. If you are one of them, your
vote November 21 should go toa
candidate who feels likewise.
You, and only you, can stop free
trade.

———

member offers

shipbuilding roadmap

Marine Worker
Alderman Ernie Crist.
North Vancouver District
Council member Ernie Crist,
regarded as the watchdcg of the
Regional Council has sugges-
tions for keeping Canada’s
shipyards busy enough to ward
off the reai estate developers.
Crist says that by establishing
cioser ties with cities or
economic development zones in
China and the Soviet Union, as

RActermakers’ ‘yrnavtpa Limon Bi

and paid jur by ihe Marine Workers’ & B

European cities have already
done with profitable results,
multi-million-doltar shipbuilding
and ship repairing contracts
could be secured.

Crist estimates that China and
the Soviet Union will need more
than 200 commercial ships in
the next few years. He notes the
Soviet ambassador to Canada,
in a recent conversation with
provincial authorities, confirmed
the USSR’s willingness to in-
crease trade with the province
if it is awarded landing rights for
Aeroflot in Vancouver. Crist ex-
pects this exparided trade would
include repair work on Soviet
vessels at the outset, expanding

160

later into new construction. The
same positive feedback was
seceived from Chinese officials,
he says.

“The shipbuilding sector,
which is ailing, could be a boom-
ing segment of the Canadian
economy,"’ Crist says. ‘‘We're
admirably equipped to cash in
on the situation. We're on the
Pacific Rim, we have unused
shipbuilding capacity. What's
holding us back is our leader-
ship, which is still hung-up from
the Coid War. They have political
ambitions and don't want to be
painted with a pink brush. They
lack vision, courage and in-
telligence."

eae meni oA gen ees ee TR

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