6 ~ Wednesday, March 19, 1986 - North Shore News

ews Viewpoint

Paying for pride

orth Van's projected 45% hike in school taxes —

adding about $114 to the average homeowner's

tax bill over the 1986-87 school year — see.ns
likely to retain for North Van the distinction of paying
the highest school faxes in B.C. But the unwelcome news
should at least be viewed in perspective.

The school district’s 1986-87 budget exceeds the
provincial government allotment by an estimated $3.9
million, or about 6%. Under Victoria’s current policy
that extra sum must be raised locally. Included in it are
child abuse programs, the upgrading of textbooks and
previously agreed salary increases.

There seems little argument about the urgent need
for the child abuse programs and improved textbook
supplies. So trustee Ross Regan, attempting to trim the
tax hike back to $1.9 million, zeroed in on the salary
increases. But even he admitted that North Van teach-
ers are above average quality, a fact demonstrated by
the outstanding record of North Van students in pro-
vincial and national scholarship competitions.

Victoria’s current policy is to fund school costs up to
what it regards as an ‘“‘adequate’”’ Ievel from commer-
cial and industrial taxes plus general revenue — with
individual communities adding anything they deem
desirable through local taxes. In other words, if North
Van is proud of the superiority of its school system,
it’s required to pay something extra for that pride.

Alternatively, should taxpayers al! the way from
White Rock to Atlin subsidize North Van excellence?
That’s the nub of the school costs debate.

THE VOICE OF NONTH AND WEST VANCOUVER:

GUNOAY . WEDNESDAY ‘ rrIDAY
1139 Lonsdale Ave.
North Vancouver, 8.C. V7M 2H4

56,245 (average, Wednesday by
Friday & Sunday)

CAN CANADA POST SURVIVE? Presently, the almost counterparts.

universal verdict is ‘‘no way’? even though life after Canada

Post remains hard to contemplate.

Despite the wonders of electronic
technology, it’s still true that, if you
don’t have an adequate postal
system, you don’t have a nation.

Last month Finance Minister
Michael Wilson finally lowered the
boom by ordering the Crown cor-
poration to submit by March 31 a
plan for eliminating its annual $243
million deficit, while also losing a
$170 million government grant.

In short, break even on $170
million less than you have now, or
else ... Don Lander, CanPost’s new
president, could probably obey the
edict, subject to three ‘‘if’s’’.

ff he could set his own postal
rates, if he were free to generate new
business through additional services
and if he could slash labor costs, the
problem would be solved. But at the
moment, alas, none of these nice
things is about to happen to him. His
Ottawa masters will see to that.

For the government, increased
postal rates of more than a cent are
presently a political no-no. So are
services like flyer distribution and
catalogue sales because of a power-
ful business lobby protesting unfair

Amid all this doom aad gloom it’s
refreshing to find a viewpoint that

Noel Wright

subsidized competition with the
private sector, By contrast, Britain’s
Post Office seeks a profit by selling
eveything from dog licences to bus
tickets, ‘

As to cutting labor costs and
wages, which average'a third more
than for comparable private sector
jobs, Ottawa traditionally backs
down whenever a. strike is
threatened.

U.S. postal workers, incidentally
— their wages tied by law to private
sector scales — each handle 50 per
cent more mail than their Canadian

LETTER OF THE DAY

jov't spendthrifts running our lives

Dear Editor:

Boosters of such make-work
projects as the B.C. Stadium,
SkyTrain, Tumbler Ridge, and
many other government program-
mes, have consistently pointed out
that the construction and running
of these various endeavours has

impact on the

Many people have been employed
during the construction, and as
some were laid off, others were
employed for the operation of the
projects.

Unfortunately, the billions of
dollars required to produce these
jobs did not come out of thin air.
The federal government, lacking
the ability to create or earn any
money of its own, can only get

® focus @

suggests a way out of CanPost’s
mess and, with it, new hope that our
letters might again reach their
destinations within a couple of days.
It comes from The Financial Post,
whose editorial writers have a well-
earned reputation for thinking with
their heads instead of their lungs.
The Post editorial proposes that
CanPost’s mail service monopoly be
abolished while, at the same time -—
on the analogy of the telephone ser-
vice —- allowing it to charge different
rates for different distance zones.
Why should a letter from Vancouver

that money by taking it from
someone else. Given the present
population of British Columbia,
this means that every time our
provincial government spends a
billion dollars (which it does once
every 5-6 weeks), it costs each citi-
zen an average of four hundred
dollars spending or investment
power, which would otherwise be
used to increase employment. In

Publisher:
Editor-in-Chief
Managing Editor .
Operations Manager
Advertising Director

Display Advertising 980-0511
Classitied Advertising 986-6222
Newsroom 985-2131
Circulation 986-1337
Subscriptions 988-1337

Peter Speck

Noel Wright
Nancy Weatherley
. Berni Hilliard
Linda Stewast

North Shore Hews, to nclrd on 1404 4% an dependent ruburban newspaper and Quablied unde: Schedule il Paragfapt Tit ol ihe
Feciet Tas ACE 1 Ouohebed wach Wednesday Foday and Suoday Oy Noh Shor From Press Lid and distibuted to eemty dour ct
the Hurt Chote Second Class Mad Hegistaton Nutnber J0AS Sutsciphons Murth anit Weal Vancouver, $275 per yrar Mailing cates
sivnADIA GA Figure? SUD SeDes ante eeiCUtne Lal a€ Cannot aCCeM fasponsitility tor untoOhcited matertal wetying Manus opts

40d Pctutes witch shoukd be acccmpanind by a stamped andiesved envelooe

SOA DIVISION

to Toronto cost the same as one
from Lonsdale to Ambleside?

This would put the post office on
the same footing as private courier
services, which would therefore have
no opportunity to ‘‘skim off’’ the
best routes with the ending of Can-
Post’s monopoly.

Add to that the privatization of
the corporation, with the workers of-
fered shares at a substantial dis-
count. This would raise productivi-
ty and cut the ground from under the
feet of militant unions, which up to
now have depended solely on pigg-
ing it at the public trough.

With the need for taxpayer sup-
port removed, the editorial infers,
CanPost would be free to develop
profitable secondary markets —
catalogue shopping, electronic mail,
lotteries, you-name-it — without be-
ing accused of using government
subsidies to compete unfairly with
private business.

Consumers, postal employees and
the government alike would benefit,
declares The Post.

I hope Michael Cote, the minister
responsible for our mail service,
reads The Post. Its radical and im-
aginative recipe for ending our na-
tional black joke sounds like an idea
whose time is now,

order for our representatives in
government to throw our money
around like drunken sailors, many
of us must suffer financially. Are
we all such children that we need
to have our politicians constantly
reaching into our pockets and
making our decisions for us with
regard to the money we have earn-
ed

Our first question to any can- _

Entire contents ©
1986 North Shore
Free Press Ltd. All
rights reserved.

G

HISTORY
LESSON

IF THOSE SWALLOWS are fly-
ing on time, this is the day they’re
scheduled to return to San Juan
Capistrano Mission in California.
Spring officially begins two days
later,

March 19 is also the anniversary
of the founding of the (then) col-
ony of Massachusetts by six
English settlers in 1628.

On the same day in 183), the
first bank robbery in the U.S. took
place at the City Bank of New
York, where a vault was opened
with duplicate keys and $245,000
stolen. Edward Smith was later
convicted of the robbery and
sentenced to five years in Sing
Sing. : .

And March 19, 1755 is definitely
a date that belongs in the Guinness
Book of Records for human sur-
vival. On that day three women
were buried by snow in the ruins of
a stable in the village of
Bergemoletto near Piedmont. They
were eventually rescued, still alive,
37 days later.

didate who seeks to represent us
should be: ‘Will you promise
never to vote for a tax increase?’
Only by supporting those in-
dividuals who will work to reduce
the burden placed on us by spend-
thrifts in government, can we then
take back control of our lives.

Bill Tomlinson

President

B.C. Libertarian Party