4 - Wednesday, October 9 1985 - North Shore News

TAXPAYERS RIPPED OFF
‘Don't worry’ about bank collapse

IF WEST VAN mayor Derrick Huimphreys says
not to worry, who are thee and me to worry?

' So every. taxpayer, in the
municipalit y has been ripped
off by the feds in the matter

of the Northland. Bank col-
lapse, so what, ch? Not to
worry.

The fact is that everybody
is going to lose at least the
interest on a major portion

of the $1:2 million the -

municipal. council. had
trustingly deposited in. Nor-
thlands. cs

Making the best of an. -ab-

solutely rotten . situation -

Humphreys says it's “posi-
tive -news’’..that the

municipality’s deposit will.

"eventually be returned.
Well, hoopty-do!

: As of a month ago, no in- -

terest is being paid on the
deposit, and- while 60. per
cent of: ‘the West: Van’ tax-
payers’: “money “is supposed
to..be returned ‘shortly, the

rest won't-be paid back until:
_ April — all that time earning

no interest.

TAXPAYERS DINGED.
:.3.S0 not, only will ‘the Ca-
: ‘nadian. taxpayers at large be
ginged f for, the costs of pay-

ing - back depositors in the
failed bank, folks in West
Van will be dinged again in

strictly | personal

were quietly yanking their
deposits, but we also learn
that by the time it was Nor-
thiand’s turn to go belly up,
Ottawa had apparently

caught on to how the game |

by Bob Hunter

terms of lost municipal in-
terest payments.

I know, in a time of crisis,
al] good men are supposed
to come to the aid of the
party, in this case the Great
Canadian . Banking Party,
which lately has begun to
look a wee bit like the Mad
Hatter’s Tea Party, if you
ask me.

Two. banks. have gone
down the tubes lately, the
Canadian Commerical and
Northland, both of them

Western Canadian financial:
institutions, and therefore to

be saluted, one supposes,
when someone runs up the
Western flag.

»It’s'a bit hard to do, under
the circumstances. The in-

stinctive reaction, in fact, is
to gage. :

CAUGHT ON

“We learn that not only was

Ottawa shovelling millions
of.tax bucks into the Cana-
dian Commercial at a time
when’ ‘other Canadian banks

is plaied and started pulling

some of her own deposits
out — $18.4 million, to be
exact — while at the same
time loudly assuring
everyone — including West
Van council — not to worry.

Otherwise, without ‘doubt,
West Van -and everybody.
else would have pulled their
bread out and put it some-

where safe — if there really

is such a place.
Is this Sleaze, or what? —

FISCAL REASON

It Would be fun to blame
the whole mess on that weird
entity known .as ‘Ottawa’,
but the evidence seems to
suggest that in the Canadian
Commercial’s case, at any
rate, Western Tory. MPs
outshouted the voices of
fiscal reason in cabinet, and
Mulroney went along for the
ride in the hope of avoiding
a Diefenbaker-like split
among his minions, polar-
ized along East-West lines. -

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Stop me if ’'m wrong, by

- the way.
I'd love to say something .

nice at this stage about the
banks, I mean, why kick a
megamachine when it’s
down? But, the truth is, the
governor of the Bank of
Canada has no clothes.

Our entire banking system
— characterized by people
who know more about the
business ‘than me, as being

. “fat, sanctimonious and

prone to\ making mistakes”

‘— is a \shoddy affair, a

near-cartel with friends in
high placss, hung together
through so many interlock-
ing directorateships that I do

_delieve it has begun to un-

ravel from within,

“Try our.

PRIVILEGES -

The banks, of course, are
the children of Parliament,
or at least the government of
the moment. They have
unique privileges, such as
income tax exemptions, not
enjoyed by ordinary
businesses.

So while they behave on a _

day-to-day basis with all the
legitimate avarice of free
enterprise corporations with
an eye on the bottom line,
they are actually more like

the Post Office, with its.

monopoly guaranteed by
legislation, than any real
company out there in the

marketplace. And that’s just ‘

See Banks
Page 9

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