¢ AG - Wednesday, October 27, 1982 - North Shore News Hop ful signal By Ww. ROGER WORTH - AS “every intelligent knows, the It was a good weekend for Premier Bi Bennett and, by implication, for Education Minister, Bill Vander—Zalm. More im- portantly it was a good weekend for British Columbians in their battle. with inflation - a root cause of the.current depression. The ratification: by members of the B.C. Government Eniployees Union of the decidedly moderate contract settlement accepted by. their leaders at the bargaining table was responsible and creditworthy. So ‘was the agreement of a majority of the members of the B.C. Medical Association to go along with -their executive’s recom- mendation for a multi-million dollar rollback of this year’s fees to help the province inits . present financial difficulties. Canadian” -_fiation's postal service is a mess. Yet Michael Warren;—even-individuals, to. the government whiz kid turned head postie (at. $150,000 per year) has approved a $200,000 ad- vertising campaign advising us that Post Office surveys show almost 90 percent of the mail is getting through on time. That’s hogwash. before the advertising campaign. the country’s Auditor General had pointed out at least five major weaknesses in the Post Office’s system of surveys, and now members Even -ef the Canadian Federation -. - These actions by two widely different” interest groups were important not only for the public money they will save, but also as a signal to other groups that the restraint program is beginning to work and be taken seriously. The hope now is that the teachers, too, will read that signal and respond with the same sense of responsibility as the civil servants and the doctors. In present cir- cumstances a reduction of their current 17% pay hike to around 13% -- or an equivalent saving under some other formula -- would hardly seem a crushing hardship in relation to today’s chilling unémployment figures. Restraint alone, of course, is not the final _solution.to_our economic problems. But it is a solid first step and those who follow it are making a. valuable contribution to B.C.'s lasting recovery. The ‘ntest Brith ‘Intelligence scandal | seems to be well in the’ grand tradition: of ‘Burgess~and— Maclean;~Kim Philby~“and—-| ‘Anthony Blunt. This time it’s.an employee of a hhush-hush deciphering station — who allegedly fed its secrets to the Russians. while ‘earning his keep reading their intercepted code messages. One has to hand it to the Brits — when they commit treason, they do it with real class. FE VOICE OF WORTH AND WHET VANCOUVER sunday news north shore news 1139 Lonsdaie Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Display Advertising -Clasaified Advertising Newsroom Circulation 960-0511 986-6222 985-2131 966-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Robert Graham Editor-in-Chiet Noel Wright Advertising Director Tim Francis General Manager. Administration & Personnel Mrs Berni Hilharc Circulation Director Brian A Ellis North Shore News. founded in 1968 as an independent community newepaper and qualitied under Schedule th Part lt Paragraph i) of the Excise Tax Act is published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Preas Ltd and diatributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 Entire contents 1962 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Subacriptons North and West Vancouver $26 per year Mailing rates available on request No oreaponsibibty accaptfed foo cunsohuted materia ine hiding Manuscapts and pe tures which should be accompanied by a stamped Addressed enveloge VERIFIEO CIRC UL ATION 64,843 Wednesday, 64,093 Sunday Rg economy ate hurting badly, he . much-coddled _ posties complaining about at- empted cutbacks in the $93 million worth of overtime ‘they claimed last year, on top of annual salaries that _surpass $23,000. The fact is, our Post Office will lose at least $400 * million this year (that’s $40 “for every working Canadian). Mail service is still poor, Saturday delivery -: has been discontinued in tural areas and now they're about another rate increase. Something's amiss. The British Post Office earned $200 million last year. And the the U.S. Postal Service had a $436 million surplus in ‘the first six months of this the first- class letter rate in that country is 20 cents, com- pated to our 30 cent charge {now due to rise to 32 cents next year). If nothing else, Canada’s Post Office could save $200,000 by cutting ad- ‘. vertising that is misleading J. “and. useless. by Noel Wright un-needed item on their in- ventory —- public land lying fallow, buildings serving no useful public purpose, surplus equipment, vehicles and supplies, and a hundred- and-one other white elephants gathering cobwebs in the local government at- tic. The process would be in- vested to provide ongoing public income. They could then save hun- dreds of thousands of dollars a year by tendering out every service except police, fire and health, to private con- tractors, That includes private garbage collection (already reaping financial rewards for West Van), roads, sewer and building maintenance, building in- shown . - equivalent’ | ‘bably, therefore, by about 75 spection, engineering work, parks“ and recreation facilities.... you name it. Time and a again it's been that. politicians mesmerized by. conventional wisdom, presiding over civil servants nurtured on Parkin- son's Law, are the costliest method ever devised for pro- viding public services. Finally, our maverick ‘legislators would institute an attrition . program to painlessly cut back municipal and school bureaucracies to the size. of the admin staff in an average private company with an ‘budget. © .Pro- per cent. Sounds crazy? Far, far too radical, you say? In that case, I'm afraid we're going to have a long, long wait for any tax relicf worthy of the name. Only certified mavericks have the 20-20 vision needed to cut government costs. With great respect to all our sterling 1982 candidates, talking about it isn't quite the same as doing it.