A6 - Wednesday, January 27, 1982 - North Shore News EEE editorial page Who’s to blame? The battle of words over who's to blame for the exorbitant tax increases faced by local homeowners waxes loud and furious. The answer is not quite so simple as some voices would have us believe. The assessment authority obviously closed ‘its books too soon last year. As a result, massive assessment increases in many cases fail to reflect the sharp drop in market prices for property. In the case of general municipal taxation, however, this d not affect the bottom line on the bill. Municipalities set their own mill \rates in relation to local assessments ih order to raise the money they actually need for their budgets. Therefore, if assessments run on the high side, the mill rate can be correspondingly lower. Not so with school taxes, where the provincial government sets a single mill rate for the entire province. That means the amount of school tax levied is directly determined by the assessment of the in- dividual’s property and NOT by the local school district’s own needs. If (as in West Vancouver) the tax raised by linking the provincial mill rate to property assessments exceeds local school needs for the Basic Education Program, Victoria saves its own purse by grabbing the surplus to subsidize school districts elsewhere. True, the assessment authority rates a slap on the wrist for getting its numbers wrong. But the major 1982 tax villain is the Education Ministry’s school financing formula with its fixed mill rate. Until that formula is replaced by school taxation based on ability to pay, there will be no relief -- and no doubt about who's to blame. Toughing it out Canadians toughing it out in obedience to Messrs. Tradeau and MacEachen in our famous community of Dire Straits may find a few crumbs of consolation in a report from India. In the snowy Himalayas they've stumbled across a race of naked men and women living a Stone Age existence in caves and eating raw food because they've never discovered fire. Comforting to know some folk are even worse off than you are. peer sunday news narth shore = news 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, 8.C V7M 2H4 (604) 985-2131 ADVERTISING NEWS 980-0511 CLASSIFIEO 985-2131 986-6222 CIRCULATION 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editorin-Chiet Advertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright bru. Cardwell Managing Editor News Editor Andy Fraser Cris Lioyd General Manager Creative Adminiatration Director Bern Hillard Tom Francis Production Director Photography Rick Stonehouse Ellsworth Ole kgon Accounting Supervisor Circulation Director Purchaser Barbara Keen Bian AOE ths Faye McCrae North Shore News fouodedi TOU as an dependent oonninanily Peeve tp renp rene catch co qusambefterc) caesckere osc Prev tu aber OE Pome TIC bP ame ange enpat WC it thee bomcime Tare Act on postodestrerdd cane 2 Warderselary an) Ssamciny try Move ths “sac bcere Fireman Cb atid desteetecerad te every howe or Me Noort! Shore Oecd (ann Maat He gietoaton Nuriter $60. Subecriptiona $20 per year Entire contents Ail rights reserved 1961 North Shore Free Press (id Ne Pergee mae, ae eid sere be tbe! aster a fee Wadena Teepe Capt amd pate Berens wt host abet Cae aes eet poeme esd bey ut Ntaperig end ahead en vert age VE Rae we vi Ati $3 340 Wednesday $2 546 Sunday <> se THIS PAPER IS REC YC 1 ABLE A brief glance at the Gallup Poll the other day was enough to give several dozen Liberal back-benchers the whim-whams. There's not one area of the country where more than half the people are satisfied with the way things are going in Canada. In fact, 64 percent of the more than 1,000 Canadians surveyed said they didn’t think much of things, from the economy to living standards, to the federal government. Even in the Liberal strong-hold of Quebec, 62 percent didn't like the federal government. In the prairies, that waste land of Liberalism, fully 77 percent thought those that do the governing aren't up to scratch. Surely a few of . those genius-types in cabinet can figure out why Canadians aren't happy. If the in- tellect for such deduction isn’t there, then perhaps the cabinet can use a portion of the $100 million set aside for surveying Canadians, and for advertising to change their No wonder Grits are worried J ! increasingly lower degree of Canadian confidence ig government. Then there’s the question of interest rates. Tighten your belts and suffer in the name of beating inflation, says the government. A few of you may have to lose farms, homes, your means of. livelihood, but it's all in a good cause. Combine logic’ like that with the regular pay raises that are coupled with the cost of living for those Canadian Commer? BY PETER WARD opinions, and use the results as data on which to base integrated decision making. Let’s look, for example, at the budget which was in- troduced back on Nov. 12, then changed several times in the next few weeks, and, finally, revised in a major way once the MP’s got away for their Christmas holidays. No government of the Liberal party could be ex- pected to admit that mistakes had been made. Apparently no Liberal government can be expected to admit the need for major changes in a document like the budget, either. You call major changes “fine-tuning” and then you wonder why the Gallup Poll shows an who are urging sacrifice. That in itself ought to be good for a couple of points of anti-government sen- timent in the Gallup. There’s a pretty im- pressive list of reasons why Canadians shouldn't place much faith in the federal government, when you start to tote them up. The wonder is that people who voted so firmly for the government we are now suffering could change their minds so quickly. It almost appears that Canadians are losing faith in the system itself, and they have pretty good reason. No wonder a few back benchers are worried. Canada’s leadership problem FORMER Conservative finance minister John Crosbie, who took a swing through the Lower Mainland last week to check on the friendliness of the natives, is worried by the latest Gallup poll which shows support for both Tories and Grits down by three points. Whether he's worried for the right reason is another matter. The poll still put the PCs four points ahead of the Liberals at 39-35. But in December the figures had been 42-38. This time it was the NDP that picked up the slack, advancing from 18 to 22 points. How come? Why weren't the Tomes surging ahead towards the 5O per cent mark, the Grits dropping back correspondingly and the Socialists staying put? One of the answers is Mr Crosbie himsclf who. however wellantenBboned, 1s part of the problem that 1s causing him such concern - and causing even greater concern to the people of Canada as this winter of discontent deepens bor quite separate reasons os the leadership situation in the two major partes that tis turning Canadians off and Cnc OUrRgINg mid term them. at) this point, to say oa plague on both your houses | MORE OF SAME In the case of the Liberals the Aistllustonment especially ino the west is focused squarely oon the person oof Manastes Prime broom Allan his leudeau Minister with Finance Marc bachen Aisastrouas November buckget on down the cutie tederal Keven ment ts perceived as dancing exclusively to Pierre's autocratic tune As a result, the dire plight of the Canadian economy today after nearly 13 years of such dancing 1s now widely regarded as Mr. Trudeau's persona) handiwork If you insist on calling the shots, you cant escape respon sibility for the scorecard Moreoever despite pemodic teasing of — the electorate on the subject it now seems clear to mast observers that Mr Trudcau has no immediate intention. after all) of stepping down Many. indeed. expect him sull to be around for the next clecttion in) 1984) of 1985 even That would mean two to three more years of what we're presently cndunng, or worse Given the record of the Trudeau admintsizabon since 1968, ats hardly an appealing prospect But at this stage the Gallup poll ts the electorate's only oop portunity fo cxapress thet opinion of tt More than a few Laberals themactves are beginning to wonder what Mr TPrudeaus continucd tenapre may do to the Jong term health of the party) But then the whip agatin_from the top and tn the temedition crochs (ruc Const they come ta hecl focus Noel Wright The Conservative leadership) predicament is entirely different) About one in three party members have hypnotized themselves, with the asd of the media, beheving they cannot another clection Clark Not thar Mr Clark ha’ done anything wrong cacept lose a single election as head of a minority government On the Contrary, as leader of the opposition he has donc into win under Joc quite a lotof things not only tight: but very well par eoulary durnng the con stituthonal debate And he is personally liked even by many of tis party cntes bes just that he lacks “Charisma Meanwhile the internal party be hering always amply publicized — over an early leadership convention to replace him continues. There seems little doubt that the challenge will take place before the next federal election. And the leadership contenders even though protesting temporary loyalty, are naturally hovering in the wings. They include frontrunner John Crosbie who says, for the moment, “as long as Joe’s there, ] support him.” The public, which feeds the Gallup polls and may possibly take a more chantable view of Mr. Clark than some of his colleagues do. has ws own tn- terpretaton It sees in the Tomes a party that can't run uself with conviction, let alone the country In thew hour of need Canadians find no leader they can rely on tn either of the two parties to which they must entrust them next government The current choice 1s between arrogant individual authormMananism and agonizing group in decision Thats the significance ol the protest swing to the NDP in the latest poll Pts un derstandable that Mr Crosbie should be Concerned about at from the party polhical viewpoint I don't know whether tt occurs to the Tones that the poll might have been kindes to them af the public had fclt they were ready to tackle the nation’s problems as vigorously as they about Joe Clark s chin WoOETY