Source:  Le Devoir, Montreal, Thursday 22 November 1962.  Page 7.
 

“T.C. Douglas:  the primary goal of planning is full employment”.  La Presse, 22 Nov. 1962, p 7.

T.C. Douglas:  the primary goal of
planning is full employment

QUEBEC CITY, (DNC), — In the forefront of the objectives of democratic planning is full employment, said the leader of the federal New democratic Party yesterday, Mr. T.C. Douglas.  Addressing the conference of Canadian businesses under the auspices of Laval University, in Quebec City, he dealt with the role of democratic planning, with its significance, and with the objectives of this planning.  Mr. Douglas, whose conference text had been given in advance to the parliamentary press, declared that today, no one any longer disputes the need for planning and that even the fiercest partisans of the private company cannot fight this idea any more.

Which planning?

Mr. Douglas then explained that real planning means not only economic forecasting or revision of what has been done, nor simply announcing the economic objectives to be attained, nor the use of public capital to make up for the inadequacies of the private company, nor encouragements of all sorts to companies.

The error of the free economy is to leave with large companies, in the hands of a few, the major economic decisions which affect all citizens, in order to realize greater profits.  It is only by one coincidence that the objectives of these private plannings are sometimes also those of the majority of citizens.

The primary goal of democratic planning, said Mr. Douglas is to create full employment.

The lecturer said that the rise of unemployment had its beginnings in 1954 under the liberal administration, then rose to 4-1/2 percent in 1954 and 1955, dropping slightly in 1956 only to return to 4.6 in 1957.  Since that time, unemployment has been between approximately 6 and 7 percent of total labor, reaching 12 percent in winter.

Mr. Douglas said that another objective of planning is to increase economic expansion which has been fixed at about 2 percent for a number of years, while European countries attained a rate of expansion of 4, 5, 6 and 7 percent in the same period.

The people do not choose the increased rate of unemployment and the decrease in the rate of expansion.  But if the people had the choice, they would demand the expenditure of capital; the demolition of slums; pension, health and hospitalization plans, and more effective means of transport.

Mr. Douglas said that democratic planning must be done through collaboration of governments at all levels.

This policy of coordination must be done by the following means:

a) Regular conferences of the Prime Ministers of Canada with the premiers of the 10 provinces.*

b) The creation of a federal and provincial council of experts who will make recommendations to the authorities and will ensure permanent liaison between the central government and the provinces;

c) The creation of a ministry for federal-provincial relations;

d) The setting up of a planning commission which will have to act as follows:

1-  Discover the needs of the people;   2-  Find out what the Canadian economy is able to produce, by investigations into our resources, industries, our labor and the sums to be invested;  3-  Fix a number of precise goals to achieve by taking account of the needs of the people and the capacity of our economy;   4-  Draw up a plan which will determine the attribution of our resources and technology to achieve the goals.

This plan, specified Mr. Douglas, must be presented to the government which, after carrying out those corrections deemed necessary, will submit it to Parliament for discussion.  If Parliament endorses the plan, the government will have to see to its implementation.

Because, he says, planning can be done only by government action.  Planning is not limited to just making studies.  The government must be ready to act so that the plan is put into execution.
 

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* This public announcement of cooperation or collaboration among the levels of government is all quite two-faced, since the NDP is bound to the object of a world government through its membership in the Socialist international. The goal is not merely to socialize all levels of existing government, but to dispose of them all, by decentralizing into city-states in regions under a world government.