A6 - Wednesday, June 24, 1981 - North Shore News mbier cop-out The reluctance of the vote-hungry Socred government to come to grips with issues on which the public has expressed itself strongly and virtually unanimously is hard to un- derstand. ~ . A prime example is Gambier Island where 20th Century Energy Corporation has in- vested hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past couple of years with the aim of bringing ai tlarge open-pit copper- molybdenum mine into being. _ The company is continuing its exploration work because the government has so far given no indication that it will ban the project. Generally speaking, Victoria is in the business of encouraging viable new mining enterprises for B.C. Gambier, however, is a special case. Howe Sound is one of the major recreational areas. for almost half the province's population. The environmental damage it would suffer from a huge mining operation has been comprehensively documented. The ongoing “Save Howe Sound” campaign has dem nstrated widespread public backing for t e.: included.North:Van MLA Jack: Dayis who has: bluntly told his own government that it knows: “in. its. cheart of hearts” it. can never approve the project. Yet'Environment Minister Stephen Rogers continues to cop out, while 20th Century - optimistically (pours more money into the scheme. __ Mr. Rogers and the cabinet have a clear duty to the ublic,:to the company and to their own ‘political self-interest. They should summon up the courage forthwith to declare Howe ‘Sound. .permanently off limits to mining and lieavy industry. Pricey pet-icare Good luck to West Van insurance agent Peter Faulkner with his new medicare plan for pets — coverage of annual vet's fees up to $2,000 for a $150 premium. An earlier scheme with a $35 premium was withdrawn because i¢ lost him 25¢ on every dollar. All he needs now is enough customers willing to risk $150 for Fido’s annual shots. sunday: mews narth shore news 1139 Lonsdale Ave. V7M 2H4 (604) 965-2131 ADVERTISING NEWS 980-0511 985-2131 CLASSIFIED 966-6222 CIRCULATION 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Advertising Olrector Robert Graham Noel Wright Eric Cardwell Managing Editor News Editor Sports Editor Andy Fraser — Chris Licyd Patrick Rich General Manager Creative Administration Director Berni Hillard Tim Francis Production Director Photography Rick Stonehouse Elisworth Dickson Accounting Supervisor Circulation Director Purchaser Barbara Keen Grian A. Ellis Faye McCrae North Shore News, tounded in 1069 as an independent community newspaper and qualitied under Schedule II) Part Paragraph ti of the Excise Tax Act. is published each Wednesday-and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 Subecriptions $20 per year. Entire contents © 1981 North Shore Free Prose Ltd. All rights reserved. No responsibility accepted for unsoficited material including manuscripts and pictures which shoud be accompanied by 4 stamped addressed envelope VERIFIED CIRCULATION 63,470 0 Wednesday: 62,760 Sunday fight: to. halt the project. That backing | North Vancouver, B.C. By BILL SORENSON (... North Vancouver City alderman) The plight of seniors and others on fixed incomes becomes more serious each month in our inflationary society. This year’s increase in property tax is the final straw for many seniors trying to retain their homes and Pe a h ! _ THE GOOD NEWS 1S __* THAT SINCE THE STRIKE STARTED OUR RATINGS HAVE GONE UP? soe meet increasing costs of fuel, utilities, food and so on. Tax increases in 1982 are almost certain to be even more severe — given the full impact of the two-year CUPE settlement, higher RCMP costs, assessments boosted by higher real estate values and other normal cost increases. However, for residents aged 65 and over, widows The most hopeful aspect of current inflation is that it has forced the professional economists to admit defeat. One after another, the gurus of the dismal science are beating their breasts and publicly confessing they haven’t a clue what to do about soaring costs. Which means you and I now have just as good a chance of stumbling across the solution as Galbraith, Friedman or Bouey. rll start. Your tum next. Almost the only point the professionals agree on is that our expectations are too high and should be curbed. At that point they run out of collective stcam. This, of course, is the economists’ fundamental error of logic, from which all other confusion flows. The last thing that’s wrong with our expectations is their altitude. Our expectations are simply that inflation is going to get worse and worse, and that we must keep up with it just to remain where we arc. Widgets rise from $12 to $15 a dozen. Widget-makers demand a 25 per cent wage hike so that they can still buy widgets themselves. Widgets soar from $15 to $18. NOTHING CHANGED “Cut back on your widget purchases,” says Bank of Canada governor Gerald Boucy. “Til help you by hitting you with 20 per cent interest rates.” But why should one cut beck when widgets are still being produced in the same quantities as before? In any case, Mr. Boucy’s exhortations are decidedly tongue-in-cheek. If we did cut back, lots of widget- makers would be unem- ployed — and Mr. Boucy’s political bosses wouldn’t like that one bit. You can never depend on UIC recipients to vote the right way. Moreover, nothing has actually changed since the good old days when widgets were $7.50 a pack and we all earned half as much. Nothing, that is, except the numbers. Numbers, however, funny things. When our take-home pay was $100 a week with vir tually zero inflation, a price hike of $2.50 on a regular purchase would have ap- peared outrageous. At $400 a week — with the assurance of $500 a week next year — a corresponding price hike of $10 somchow seems con- siderably less horrendous. Once inflation starts to gallop, it becomes like a lottery. Aside from fixed- income victims, we always hope to beat the price odds with galloping wage and salary increases. As with lotteries, of course, we never do. The Wright solution, which I'm naturally for- warding to Finance Minister arc and widowers, and certain handicapped persons, there is an option they should consider. They are eligible to defer their property taxes under the Land Tax Deferment Act. Most citizens in these categories are reluctant to “go into debt”. But thanks to the big increases in real estate value over recent years, there is no possibility of their “going into debt’. The table on this page is based on an actual home bought in 1973 for $35,000 and valued last year at $200,000. If the owner had been able to defer tax¢s from |. 1973 to 1980, the accrued “ charge registered against the TAX YEAR NET TAXES 1973 $670 1974 685 1975 735 1976 785 1977 835 1978 885 1979 935 1980 985 , on just a numbers game Noel Wright ae | Allan MacEachen, is simple. Forget about “restraint”, 20 per cent interest rates, wage and price controls. Mercly change the numbers. BAD OLD MONEY They did it with magnificent success in West Germany 33 years ago and that country — still with one of the lowest inflation rates in the industrialized world — has never looked back. In the three immediately post-war years the old Hitler Reichamark, officially about ten to the dollar, become a sick joke. The black market price of a 20- pack of cigarettes was RM $53.60 $723.60 112.69 1,521.29 180.50 2,436.79 250.54 3,472.33 344.59 4,651.92 442.95 5,979.87 553.19 | 7,468.06 676.24 9,129.30 2,614.30 had’ property -- including interest compounded at eight per cent — would be $9,129.30. If the property were sold at that point, the tax “debt” would be covered many times over by the additional $165,000 in equity gained since the purchase date. I think people who qualify for deferment of property taxes would be foolish not to . take advantage of the program which, in th- example shown, would have provided an extra $75-$90 a month for other living ex- penses. Details are available at your municipal hall and I would be happy to discuss this option with any in- terested property owners. Typical Deferred Tax Position 1973-80 ACCRUED INTEREST TAX DEFERMENT PROPERTY VALUE, 1973. ............ PROPERTY VALUE, 1980............. GROSS GAIN IN VALUE ........- LESS TAX DEFERMENT ....... NET GAIN IN VALUE ..........-2++.-0%. 155,870.7 a 100 (say $10). A pound of coffee or a bottle of cheap liquor went for around 250 ($25). Other com- modities in proportion. And aside from a few miserable basic food rations, the black market was the only source of most goods — the store shelves were empty. Currency reform was announced on the radio late one Friday in 1948. The following Sunday Germans lined up’ ‘at centres like polling stations all over West Germany and received exactly 40 new Deut-. schmarks apiece. The next week’s pay packets were in the new currency. All bank balances, savings and other aasets were frozen (to be cut later by 90 per cent). The bad old Reichsmark was dead and West Germany has boomed ever since. How about that as & method of extracting Canada from its pyschological in- - , flation glue? Give us a brand-new dollar bearing one-tenth the face value of our present emaciated banknotes. Put all our $500- a-week wage slaves on fifty . new dollers a week and pro rata. Bring back the 5¢€ cup of coffee; the 14¢ gallon of gasoline and (with a bit of extra push) the $10,000 family home. If that doesn’t make us treat our moncy with respect again, nothing | will. Inflation? It’s all in the mind. Now, what was your solution?