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Gov't selling us short on energy CONT'D FROM PG. 4 caused the small mat- ter of over a half billidn dollars worth of oil products exported ta the States ta 'be overlooked in reporting trade figures to the government. Now comes the "good" news. We have a fantastic surplus of natural gas, so the gas producers tell us, and therefore the gover- nment of Canada has agreed to allow over 4 trillion cubic feet of gas to be exported to the States. Thesé sales are expected to gènerate over 13 billion dollars in revenue over the next seven years. The government's justification. for the sale is that it will decrease our deficit and strengthen the dollar. What weak reasoning is this? I suggest that they would like to use the money coming from this deal to sweeten the give-away goodies jar just before the next general election. Hopefully, they will be out of office before there are any goodies to give away! The absurdity of the government's reason- ing. for allowing such an agreement Is almost beyond belief. But not quite. We should be getting familiar with this song and dance going on between governments and the multi-national com- panles. Whom can we belleve any more? Do you remember f ive years ago when the naturawegas conmpanies s-idý we were running short of gas. They said the price must go up to encourage exploration. Last year we were told in a report In the Finan- cial Times that new discoveries were so great that we now have a surplus. But, and this is unbelievable, the price must go up because it costs money to keep it in the graund!- Thereasons that the Clark government is giving.now In order to justify this latest caper are so banal I will not bother to challenge them here but the key point I wish to make is this. The present system of securing our energy supplies -ob- viously does not serve the best interests of Canada. It serves the best interest of the multi-national com- panies and the political purposes of gover- nment. We have had enough. We cannot trust our government's com- petency or the motives of the multi-national oil companies. We need a new approach. The Government of Canada must develop an agen- cy for procuring ac- curate information regarding our resour- ces which is totally in- dependant of the oil companies. ANUARY SALE of SUN DESTINATIONS CP SKYBUS TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE POATTASS T I I fU Merry Christmas.t & Happy New Year From From Donna & Herman AJAX DELICATESSEN 220 Harwood Avenue Ajax 683-2900 (Close to Canadian Tire)