page 6 - April 6, 1977 - North Shore News

The rich get richer and the poor r get poorer, says

the old proverb.

I was reminded of it by last week’s news item
revealing that Mr. Calvert Knudsen, president
and chief executive officer of MacMillan Bloedel,
is keeping body and | soul together on an annual

salary of $250, 000.

see mee ee

, HA Kita aha —
- oF CR! a TiG-Bits acout: “senior ae

executives’ salaries are hard

to come by in Canada, where .

the corporation president’s
odd $100,000 one way or the
other is considered to be no
business of the peasants.
However, because McBio’s
-shares trade on the U.S.
market, these details have to
be . filed with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange
Commission and so become a
‘matter of public record.

The Americans take a

strictly democratic line when .

it comes to spilling the
beans about how our cap-
tains of industry are making
out in the pocketbook.

Iam sure Mr. Knudsen, an
American himself, works
extremely hard for his
quarter-million-dollar . stip-
end. And as a very mini-
‘mum, of course, well over
half of it is presumably
gobbled up by Revenue
Canada.

_ NICE GRAVY

However, the peasants
also pay income tax -- the one
' thing that puts us, to some
modest extent, on an equal
footing with the Mr. Knud-
sens of the world. And even
if the latter work 16 hours a
day for seven. days every
week, a $43-an-hour wage
rate is still pretty nice gravy.
Particularly in a province
with a basic minimum wage
of $3 an hour -- and with tens
of thousands of non-union
employees knowing just how

basic $3 an hour becomes at .

the grocery store.

Some of the other _MacBlo
brass - whose salaries were
also revealed, courtesy of the
U.S. Securities Commission
-- have to settle, of course,
for a more modest standard
of living than their chief
executive. Two other top
men in the company are
pulling in a mere $107,350
apiece. The chairman of the

board struggles along on
$98,871.

Nobody likes to see bright
fellows get on in the world
better than Alexander. But

-Canada,
‘rewarded in the 5$70,000-

one does sometimes wonder
what logic operates -- at any
level of responsibility -- in
fixing the rate for the job.

Just by way of comparison
with the MacBlo payroll,
Premier Bill Bennett -- who
also runs a sizeable business,
the province of British
Columbia -- earns $46,800 a
year. His cabinet ministers,

equivalent’ to senior vice- -

presidents i in a large corpora-
tion get a little over $43,000.

The prime. minister of
as I recall, is

$80,000 bracket for directing
a cooperative with 23 million
members.

Premier Ed Schreyer of
Manitoba suggested some
time ago that no boss should
earn more than two and a.
half times as much as his

‘lowest-paid employee -- a

formula that would give Mr.
Knudsen, Premier. Bennett
and Prime Minister Trudeau
alike a nice, neat $15,600 a
year.

Perhaps that’s carrying
things a bit too far. Never-
theless, Premier Schreyer
may just have stumbled upon
the germ of a bright idea -- to’
follow on after the Anti-Infla-

tion Board goes out of
business.
‘ONE IN EIGHT

no

Remembering the AIB, my
thoughts strayed to the one
working Canadian in about
eight employed by some
of government --

level

_don’t keep themselves.

. 8,749,998 - toiiers

ees . as

_ by 1.25 million of them, you
f. come up with a total payroll

| public
| $2,000 a head.

_your MP and MLA what they

' and MLA!

. federal, provincial or munici-
pal:

about 1 25, _ million
“‘public servants’? out of a
total labor force of around 10°
million, 0 ess

“1 wondered what it was.
costing the rest of us to keep
them, since-they obviously

The answer, you: may be.
interested to learn, is an
average of at least $2,000 a
year out of yeur pay packet,
my pay packet and the pa
packet of each of the- other __ money. The following price scales will give you an idea of the low « cost of

“in the & making your furniture took like new. ce .
private sector of the econo- |
my. If that comes as
something of a shock to you,
work it out for yourself on
your little pocket calculator. |

If you take the overall
average wage of civil ser-_
vants and municipal employ- *
being a - modest
$14,000 a.year and multiply it.

Re-upholster your old furniture rather than replacing - it and you: can: “save

$17.5 billion (yes, billion).
Divide that figure by the 8.75 .
million of us excluded from
the benefits of a_ secure,
pensioned 9-to-5 job in the
service and _ the
answer, as I say, is a neat.

OUT OF CONTROL

The immediate pain is
relieved slightly inasmuch as
the annual $2,000 is removed
from our pockets in a variety
of ways: through federal and
provincial income tax; pro-
vincial sales tax; 12 percent
federal tax on most manufac-
tured items; property and
school taxes -- to mention
just a few. But part with it we
must, willy-nilly.

10 yards of material required a
A.B c D E F @

H
11.99 13.99

fabric 15. 99 17.99 19. 99 a1 99 26. 99 “29. 99

total cost,

| |inciuding 271.90 291.90 311. 90 331.90 351 90
labour

And that’s by no means
the end of our pay-out for the
public service. It doesn’t
begin to take into account the |
cost of accommodating our
public servants -- often in
luxurious new buildings; the
cost of thousands of tons of
bilingual forms; or the cost of
millions of wasted man-
hours.

371 90, 421 80 451. 90

‘5 yards ‘of.

required total cost,

including
labour

144.95
154.95
164.95
174.95
184.95
194.95
219.95
234.95

material

fabric
11.99
13.99
15.99
17.99
19.99
21.99
26.99
29.99

Top mandarins in Ottawa
have admitted that the public
service has not only grown
out of control of Parliament
in recent years. It has even
grown out of control of the
top mandarins themselves. It
seems reasonable to assume
a somewhat similar state of
affairs' at provincial and
municipal levels.

A
B
Cc
D
E
F
G
H

If that’s the case -- and if
you could use for your own
purposes some of. those
$2,500 or more hard-earned
bucks that you donate yearly
to the public service -- ask

exiras

skirts, wings, looseback cushions, colonial sets, and
replacing cushions all require additional material and so
will increase the cost of the above samples. Even with
any extra costs, our prices are still lower than most.

are doing about it.

While you still have an MP

fabric samples to your home

let us bring our sample books to you so you can
co-ordinate our fabrics with your Present decor.

free in-home estimates

Carmel! Is a family operated business. Call Frank Nuttall or his son Kim for froe in-home

estimates. Ask about our professional slip cover
catimate your let p and fully quatlfled decorator service. Make our

ry

(armel
UPHOLSTERY LTD.

481 MOUNTAIN HIGHWAY -
NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.

Mon. - Fri. 7:30-4:00 980-2813