A6 - Wednesday, July 7, 1982 - North Shore News SEE editorial page Survival belt The recent poll indicating that over two out of three North Shore residents would be ready to take pay cuts in order to avoid layoffs at their workplace also showed a further 25% as undecided (indicating they were at least considering the matter). Only feb. categorically rejected pay cuts to save The figures suggest the general public is thinking a good deal more realistically at the - moment than some union bosses. The line adopted by the latter is that employers are cynically taking advantage of ‘the recession to “blackmail” employees on ‘the wages-versus-jobs ‘issue. Even if the occasional such case exists, the average private individual — using the evidence of his own eyes and — obviously doesn’t bay that generalized argument. As the recession deepens, he or she has no need of an economics degree to size up the situation now. being revealed daily by un- precedented shutdowns in major industries, the disaster threatening hundreds of small. business people, the layoffs and ‘mortgage crises among friends and ac All the fingerpointing in the world about responsibility for the situation doesn't change the grim basic fact: THE MONEY IS NO LONGER THERE -—- whether. for MacMillan Bloedel, the local iierchant, city ‘hall or. Victoria. Those who believe it prohably enjoy watching pigs fly. . Until recovery eventually begins, tightened belts are no longer merely. a.virtue. They ay are the. cstential of apelin to have got t simple smesnige’ way ahead of. certain blindfolded labor chieftains. Hopefully, politicians and bureaucrats are getting lt too. ‘No time’ Williams Really, Allan, that WAS a little rude last week to refuse West Van Mayor Derrick Humphreys even 10 minutes of your time when you were already in municipal hall paying your taxes. Especially as the mayor wanted a word with you about the savage tax hikes forcing local merchants out of business. As Attomey General, you're a very busy and important man, we know. But aren't you also West Van’s MLA? sunday news ean north shore Classified Advertising NeCWS buen Circulation 1139 Lonsdaie Ave., North Vancouver, 8.C. V7M 2NH4 ~ 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Advertising Director Robert Graham Noe! Wright Tim Francis General Manager, Administration & Personnel Mra Berni Hillard Circulation Otrector Bnan A Ellis Morth Shore News, tounded in 1969 as an mdependent comnnunity Newspape: and qualified under Schedule @ Part f Paragraph B of the Cxcise Tax Act ts published each Wednesday and Sundey by North Shore Free Pregs Lid and dintributed to every doa: on the North Shore Second Class Mall Registration Number 3885 Entire contents « 9982 North Shove Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. Sum@eciptiona North and West Vancouver $20 per yom Maing fates avakable on request No responsiblity accepted for unsottcited material inching manuscrghs and pctures which shout bo accompanied by a stamped addressed onvetope VE RORIED CIRCULATION 63.996 Wedneetay, 62,484 Banc, sm Gy THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE .federal e Recent the Parti Quebponis = in Guedes indicates, the party claims, that if the PQ runs a full slate of candidates in the next ection in Quebec, they would collect 48 percent of the popular vote. Imagine, if you can, the panic that such a poll creates PQ plot to in the § ranks of federal Liberals. Such figures Watch out, Vi cto ia, ; THERE'S ONE heck of an angry man in West Vancouver. He’s outraged by the threat of closure or bankruptcy facing scores of small business peopie on the North Shore as a result of this year’s wild increases in business property taxes. And he’s planning a seabome invasion of Victoria to do something about it. One of the community's better known citizens, Don Fleming and his family arc owners of West Van Pur- niture, a business to which he’s devoted the past 40 years. He echoes the frustration, dismay and raw fear cxpressed by North Shore merchants a couple of weeks ago at noisy rallics in North and West Van. Residcntial taxpayers — who vastly outnumbcr business taxpayers, of coursc, and therefore deliver vastly more clout at clection time — may be a fitthe puzzicd by the suddcn uproar during the past fcw weeks from thei ncigh- borhood corner stores, boutiques and gas stations. By and large. homcowncn have been Ict off morc lightly this year, particularly in West Van, in the maticr of property tax increases. This has resulted from dclibcrate political decisions by both Victoria and the municipalities themsclives to shift a greater portion of the tax burden from homes to businesses and industry. Politicians know where the vates come from HORROR STORI The outcome with a recessior ant acd loc ching by the weck as been catastrophic for many amaficr retailcrs The tockhy oncs have been hit with tax hikes around 40%. For others, the increases have gonc as high as 100-200%. with one of two 400% horror stories. Morcovcr, there are incomprehensible variations between neighboring businesses. snch as a 40% bike at onc cad of an Am- bleside commercial block and 100% at the other. Two sido-by-sidc stores m Dun- darave have ive in- creases of 67% and 220%. Compounding the disaster is the suddcnnecss with which it bas struck. Most North Shore merchants rent their premiscy, Their flandjords received the tax bills during the first half of Jane and had to pay ap by last week. Conscqucatly, many busincss ftcmants arc still awaiting the dreaded Icttcr from the landlord telling them what theyll have to start paying this month to stay in business. Quite a lot of them simply won't be abic to. Result: boardcd-up stores and a toss of tax revenue to governments which will mcan a beavicr tax load down the road for cvreryoor cla. The survivor qill face laying off mafl (thereby adding to the strain on the ULC.) mcreasing . spurting inflation. inviting consamer = rexittance— and also blast to smithereens any — hopes nurtured by the federal Conservatives of electing a. number of members in Quebec. In terms of voting percentages, ‘the’ PQ would | probably hurt~ ‘the Con- servatives.. more than the . Liberals in Quebec, because S Quebec opposition’ to. the tend t ‘government would - A full slate of PQ can- didates in the next election would also likely convince Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to run again. That’s something not many Liberals want to see, because the Prime Minister has thoroughly worn out his appeal in most of the rest of the country. An election with Mr. Trudeau leading the Liberals again, and the PQ running a full slate in Quebec would It’s a scenario that’s likely to come truce. Most likely result of such a situation would be a Con-~ servative government, by Noel Wright thus the prospect of more closures later on. Aside from individual hardship, the ripple effect throughout the whole local cconomy, worsening the recession still further, isn’t hard to grasp. ROLLBACK DEMAND That's why Don Fleming és fighting mad. At one wock’s notice he himaclf has had to raise an cxtra $20,000. At one of his four locations he's now paying morc in taxcs than in rent and he’s busy closing out his prestige store in the 1700 block Marinc. Don lays the blame squarcly on the provincial government) which = § scts asscazsments and, this ycar, has socked business and respectable . | Pp te than Sneed ot would ' the _ whirlwind of the i ‘Mr. Trudeau has used with such deliberate intent to have his political way on dozens of issues. It thus begins to make a let of sense for the Part: Quebecois to run a full slate of candidates federally — federal situation by the sheer force of divisive politics, and further the cause of breaking industry with a major portion of school taxation. In addition, provincial grants to municipalities have been cut significantly, and 21 very short notice. “My son, my wife and L.” he says, “draw less, the three of us combined, than mast school principals at around $75,000 a year. Personally. i'd welcome a job as a school janitor, better paid and with an indexed pcn- sion.” Typically, his business has also donated at Icast $5,000 during the past year to various community ac- tivities. That kind of con- tribution will also be lost if more and more merchast go under. “The only thing Victoria can do,” he says, “ts admit their blunder and roll back the increases to 12% over last year, the figure they say ts the maximum for restraint this year. That’s why Don is now organizing a protest march of North Shore busincn renters and owners on the provincial legislature. He's put his moncy where his mouth is with a full-page ad in this cdition of The News. “Let's hire a large boat and give Victoria a visit it will remember ,” he says. Yes, Don and the North Shore merchants for whom he speaks arc very, very angry And make no mistake. Don mcans