"4 A6 - Wednesday, September 14, 1983 - North Shore News Tax bill sense? Payment of municipal taxes by in- stalments, instead of a single payment each July, is once again on the agenda of this week's Union of B.C. Municipalities con- vention. It’s a procedure that could benefit local taxpayers by hundreds of thousands of dollars if Victoria would authorize it. From February onward each year most municipalities have to borrow in order to cover ongoing commitments until annual lump sum tax payments are received in July. Interest on that borrowed money is a municipal operating expenditure under the present system, which taxpayers have to meet along with all other municipal ex- penditures. — ‘This is offset to some degree, of course, by the short term interest the municipality is able to EARN during the latter half of the year from July tax receipts in excess of -immediate expenditure needs. But the gap between this earned interest and the interest later paid out on borrowed funds remains appreciable. In West Vancouver, for example, municipal officials have estimated that the net saving to taxpayers by collecting half the year’s taxes in February and the other half in July could run as high as $400,000-$500,000. It’s also possible that many taxpayers would prefer two smaller instalments rather than one large bill just - before the summer holidays. The City of Vancouver, which operates under its own charter, already uses this semi- annual payment method. But all other B.C. cities and municipalities come under the Municipal Act which presently doesn't permit instalment paying to be enforced. This could be changed by a simple amendment to the Act. To us, it sounds like plain common sense. Why should taxpayers shell out hundreds of thousands of un- necessary dollars to moneylenders? Puzzle solved A puzzling item in the government's restraint package has at last been explained. One cabinet minister's car has been found with a long expired safety sticker and two of his colleagues’ cars with no stickers at all. How dumb we were to question the bill abolishing mandatory vehicle testing! Tren WENCH OF NOETTOH Ate WERT VANCOUVER sunday news north shore . news 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver,8.C V7M 2H4 Disptay Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Circulation 980-0511 086-6222 985-2131 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Robert Graham Editor-in-chief Advertising Director Noe! Wright Tim Francis Personnel Disector Classified Director Circulation Director Mra. Berni Hittiard Isabelle Jennings Bran A Ells Production Director Office Manager Photography Manager Chris Johnson Donna Grandy Terry Peters North Shore News, founded in 1960 as an indepondent community newspaper and qualified under Schedute I, Part Il, Paragraph ti of the Excise Tax Act. is published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Presa Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 36866 Entire contents ' $982 North Shore Free Presse Lid All rights reserved Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver $25 per you Malling rates available on request No responsibility accepted tor unsolicited = matenal ine tuding manuscripts and pictures which shoutd be accompanied by a stampod addressed envelope bad 64.700 (average Warttnenday & timany) 60a OIVIGION THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE EVEN AT THE FINEST of cocktail parties, it's hard to miss the city slicker com- plaining about the rapidly rising cost of food. “The problem is farmers,” says the bank executive's wife. “They're able to go south (or to Hawaii) in Meanwhile, dow | By W. ROGER WORTH winter, buy snowmobiles and speedboats, and I hear they now have. air- conditioned tractors. Guess who pays the bill.” The senior concurs. The problem, or course, is that the basic complaint is a myth: the price of food grown and raised by the bureaucrat - spring, nation’s farmers has not risen dramatically, even ’ though producers have been forced to pay high interest rates to.help out the banks, and high taxes to support such items as bureaucratic salaries. So much for city slicker attitudes. __ What's really been happening down on the farm lately is not unlike what's been happening for years. In farmers tilled the land and borrowed money to plant crops. Over the summer they've sprayed, irrigated and tended the delicate plants, at the same time spending sleepless nights worrying about too much sun, too much rain and the myriad list of diseases with complicated names that can completely destroy their efforts. This fall they'll worry about a chilling (and killing) early frost, and, most im- portant, the unknown price they'll get for their product. It's not a game for the fainthearted. Hazards in the farming business are unlike those in virtually any other = en- deavour. Profits can be huge, but they're more likely to be reasonable, non-existent, or, in bad years, farmers have to contend with massive losses to compensate them for their timed and trouble. It’s true, all smaller businesses face problems related to high interest rates, mon the farm inflation, government red tape and high taxes. But while some firms depend to a greater or lesser degree on the weather, food producers are totally dependent on that great unknown. The wonder is that, given all the constraints, Canada’s food production system works at all! But it does, to the advantage of all. The evidence? Here are two simple facts: ¢ Canddians pay about 22 percent of take-home pay on food, compared with 30 percent in West Germany and more than 35 percent in Japan. ® Canada is a major food exporter. Unlike food-poor nations, we're not about to run short. It’s natural, perhaps, for Canadian consumers to complain about marketing boards, Crowsnest Pass transportation subsidies and other farm related support programs. After all, the infighting on these and other issues, even among fiercely independent, outspoken and strong-willed farmers, is widely publicized. But no matter their dif- ferences, either with governments, consumers or among themselves, this irrepressible group con- tinues to do the farming job as well or better than anyone in the world. And that’s a distinction we sometimes fail to understand. (CFIB Feature Service) Do nice guys NEED policies? THE HONEY MOON is over for Brian Mulroney, according to many political pundits. If he doens't Start delivering soon on policies as well as personality, his party and the public may soon be hankering once more after a divorce, they warn. Horsefeathers, as the Tex- ans say! The trouble with profes- sional political soothsayers 1s that they try to measure the future by the past. What the Mulroncy-doubters among them fail to grasp this time is that the Progressive Con. servatives have not only got themselves a new leader. The Tories’ choice at their June leadership convention has also provided Canadians with two new and highly at- tractive political ideas. The idea that politics can. after all, be fun And the idea that what Canada needs most at the moment is simply one helluva nice guy to take charge for a change. It's a type that hasn't becn around much in Canadian politics since Sir John A Macdonald quit The nearest to being a helluva nice guy in recent decades was Lester Pearson. Bob Stanfield, Joc Clark and Ed Broadbent arc all nice guys, of course Their problem is that they're no hell Pierre Elliott (Finger) Trudeau, admirable though some of his qualities are said to be, doesn't even play in the nice-guy league DOWNHILL As to Canadian pohtics being fun, only two prime ministers have scored any marks at all during the past half century, and then only briefly. One was John Dicfen- baker when he thundered back to power in 1958 with three-quarters of the seats in the Commons. The fun lasted for only about a year, alas, until Mr. Diefenbaker fulfilled the Peter Principle by reaching his own level of incompetence. And nobody ever described The Chief as one helluva nice guy The other was Pierre Eliott Himself when Trudeaumania swept the na- tion 10 years later This time the fun lasted all of three or four ycars until Mr. Trudcau came within a recount of be ing turfed out by good, dull Bob Stanfield in 1972 Since then its been downhill all) the way on Parliament Hill in the matter of fun and nice guys So much so that recent polls have shown public regard for politcans and the institution of partiamcat itself at an all tame low Right up, that is, until the stcamy June Saturday this spring in the Ottawa conven tion centre. which culminated ino Bran and Mila being lod triumphant onto the podium to receive the Tory crown Nobody who has watched Mr Mutroney on TV. Iet focus Noel Wright re alone met him personally. will deny his helluva-nice guy qualifications. And nobody who followed his in troductory sparring match on Monday” with Pierre Elliott! on the floor of the House was left in any doubt that the coming months in the Commons are going to provide its audience with more fun and = cacitement than they've enjoyed = for ycors LIBERAL TRAP The question raised by Mr Mautroncy's critics ts whether he has any policies fitting him for the pnme minister's job -- and if so. why doesn’t he = explain them? With everything else the Tories’ shining new knight in armour presently has going for him, | suspect the answer is very simple: he knows he would be crazy to risk lous- ing everything up at this point by musing aloud about the nitty-gritty details of run- ning the country 18 months down the road. That's exactly what the Liberals hope he'll do, of course, so that they can have a belated heyday pouncing on the new boy’s goofs and tripping him up on half baked policy details With the election = stall possibly a year oor more away, I don't think he's about to fall into that trap Like his opponents, he knows that a dozen future Gallup polls could bring nas ty surprises, cven when you start with a 55 27 lead. Goals Mr Mulroney Aas like full cmployment, compassion for the deprived and the wealith-gencrating virtucs of free cnterprisc But the other question, of course, is whether detailed “policies” are the best way to achieve them. Heaven knows, we've been drowning in “policies” for over a decadc, with no noticeable gain in national prosperity or happiness Is it just possible that we might sail a happicr course mercly by handing over the helm to a helluva nice guy -- with stars to steer by instead of outdated charts? A guy who knew, too, how to make the voyage fun?