6 - Wednesday, September 27, 1989 - North Shore News CPi doesn’t tell you cost of living POLITICS CAN MAKE strange bedfellows, according to the old saying. Statistics can too. Looking for similarities among Canadian cities, you probably wouldn’t draw many immediate parallels between Charlottetown and Calgary. But in June 1989, these two cit- ies were listed by Statistics Canada’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) as having identical rates of inflation (4.1 per cent) compared to a year earlier. Winnipeg and Victoria, two other urban centres where differences between the two would be easier to list than simi- larities, were another pair shown in the June CPI as having identical rates (4.5 per cent each) when compared to June 1988. It is quite valid to make a city- to-city statistical link as a result of the CPI findings. But we have to understand what this index does to avoid pitfalls of interpretation. The biggest one in this instance would go as follows: since Charlottetown and Calgary both had a 4.1 per cent inflation rate over the 12 months to Sune 1989, it costs about the same to iive in ei- ther place. Two major nusunderstandings lie behind the drawing of this totally erroneous conclusior. First, the CPI does not measure the cost of living. It measures changes in prices over time. By Noe! Wright monitoring the prices of a set ““basket’’ of goods and services — items of food and clothing, sheiter and transportation costs, things that all of us buy on a regular basis — the CPI tells us whether the costs of these goods and services has moved up, down or stayed the same. So it doesn’t tell us what it costs to live, only whether and how the cost of this selected group of goods and services may be chang- ing. ‘And second, in creating the CPI indexes for individual cities, statistics Canada calculates the price change measuremenis for each within that city’s specific geographical area. Even if the amount of price change for an item is identical in two cities, the actual price paid for the item may be widely different in each city. A hypothetical case using Charlot- tetown and Calgary could illustrate this. Fresh lobster may have sold for $5 a pound last June in Charlot- tetown, up from $4 a pound in June 1988. In Calgary, fresh Atlantic lobste: may have sold for $10 a pound in June 1989, up from $8 a year earlier. While the price increase of 25 per cent was iden- tical in both cities, the Charlot- on vacation Face at 15th and Lonsdale. to take. But if the problem is seen to be one of our own cre~ ation, the community should expend energies to ad- dress the roots of the problem and provide real alter- natives to getting high and cru: ‘ing the streets. A civic task force is called for. The process should involve participation by parents, teens, police, the school RE THE streets getting meaner in North Van- couver? Ongoing drug peddling in the Central Lonsdale azea has made life uncomfortable for both merchants and residents, who must contend with increased traffic caused by drive-through drug selling Every now and then tees making the scene get out of hand. People and property are damaged. Social en- tropy sets in. The community collectively shakes a puzzied head, turns a blind eye and forgets about it. The police, mandated to keep peace in the city, are reduced to playing cat and mouse with the drug seilers: Put the heat on them in one area and they simply stake a claim elsewhere. The hardline response to the prob- lem is to increase area police presence, bust more kids and hand out stiffer penalties to those convicted. Hf the problem is being caused by organized gangs moving on to the North Shore to monopolize the local drug trade, ¢hen the hardiine is the only linc of action facts beard and city council. If the situation is to be reversed for the long-term, the community must pull together. tetown diner paid just half what it cost for a similar Jobster in Calgary. But while the CPI numbers "NEWS photo Cindy Goodman MORE THAN 300 people attended a farewell party for West Van- couver Parks and Recreation director Frank Kurucz at the West Van- couver Recreation Centre recently. Kurucz has worked for the department for the past 15 years and his achievements were honored at the celebration. don’t compare actual costs from one city to another, they still draw a valuable picture. ~ Let’s take a look at the costs connected with keeping a roof over one’s head. Costs of housing, both rented and owned, have shown wide fluctuations across the coun- try in recent times. The housing component of the CPI covers such items as construction costs, interest paid on mortgage money, rents, household equipment and fuel and electricity but, because of collec- tion difficulties, does not include the cost of land — a volatile factor which can have an important im- pact on any housing market, both for rentals and for sales. The housing component of the CPI for both Winnipeg and Vic- toria showed a similar rate of in- crease from June 1988 to June 1989 — 4.6 per cent for Winnipeg and 4.7 per cent for Victoria. The national increase for housing costs over the same span was 5.7 per cent. Now look at Toronto, where housing costs have been a focus of attention because of rapid in- creases. The same CPI housing component jumped 8.! per cent over the 12 months ending in June 1989. And looking just at those costs within the housing compo- nent that are tied directly to own- ing a home (except for land costs, once again), Toronto’s increase was even wider — 11.7 per cent for the city compared to 8.0 per cent nationally. We can get the gist of this pic- ture without having to see the ac- tual price tags. Tom Mitchell is a communica- tions officer with the Statistics Canada department in Ottawa. MEWS photo Tom Bushey TEACHER AND coach Jay Prepchuk ané members of the Wirdsor Dukes of Windsor School are kicking the year off to a healthy siart. The North Shore team bas signed the Say No to Drugs honor roll as part of a B.C.-wide campaign coordinated by the Church of Scientology. The Dukes are pictured here with tbe long scroll. Publisher ........... Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher Associate Editor ..... Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburbdai ¢ and qualified under Schedute 111, Paragraph. Ut of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North anct West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing Prates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addresses envelopa. Tak VINCE OF NORTH AND WERT UANCOUVER SUNDAY ¢ WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 §9,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) a SDA OIVISION Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Entire contents © 1989 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.