A6 - Wednesday, May 5, 1982 - North Shore News Percentage myth Is it possible that we might get to grips with our economic problems a good deat better if we abandoned our preoccupation with percentages? The ingrained instinct to measure all economic factors in arbitrary fractions of 100 may be repeatedly blinding us to realities. A good example is the contract battle shaping up between Victoria and the B.C. Government Employees Union, which is demanding wage increases averaging well over 30%. That sounds exorbitant until you remember that union members have lived with eight per cent increases — three to five points below the B.C. inflation rate — for the past three years. This summer they're determined to catch up. They will be headed for a collision with the government's 12-14% restraint ceiling, o course, which is again an arbitrary figure that obviously cannot do justice to every situation. And ff, nevertheless, the BCGEU won its 30% “catch-up”, what about the temptation for other unions to claim the same increase in the name of percentage “parity”, regardless of the size «' their ,»members’ pay packets relative to ii.ose -J government employees. A similar g::¢sii.. can be asked of most wage and salary 4i. ferentials. For example, because the low ~ | paid hospital cleaning person seeks a 40°). hike, does that entitle $80,000-a-year dociors to demand the same percentage increase? In today’s tough economic cirucmstances these questions are no longer theoreticui. Maybe unfons and management should toss percentages out of the window altogether for a time and concentrate, instead, on the gut issues of equity and survival — expressed in simple dollars, cents and bottom lines. Seekers? Few people go to political me c..;.,> on fine spring evenings midway between elections from idle curiosity. Whether the 175 or so who attended Monday’s ineug: il North Shore meeting of the Western Canada Concept Hked what they heard remains to be seen. But it’s significant that so many were ‘ready to spend their leisure hours on a closer look at separatism. sunday News Display Advertising 960-0511 Telciadaeclalla-mawe Classified Advertising 9686-6222 : news Newsroom 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 1139 Lonsdate Ave., North Vancouver, 8.C V7M 24 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chict Robert Graham Noet Wright Advertising Director Enc Cardwell General Manager. Administration & Personne! Mrs Berm Hilkard Creative Director Tim Francis Circulation Otvector Bian A Eis Production Director Rich Stonehouse Morth Shove Mewes, trated mn 1060 an an mdepondent COmmiantty Nowapapen and qualified unde Scheckso Mo Pat fl Paragraph & of tho tuome Tas Act m pu®@sieed cach Wodnosday and Sunday by North Shore Free Preas tid end Gtitaitied to every dour on the North Shore Second Cinss Mad Anygestration Numbor 3665 Entire contents ' $982 Morth Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved Subscriptions Moth and West Vancuouve: $270 pon yen Matting caten avettatte On rocuent No reaponnthity accoted oto oumiaohe ted oomnastorud ww Neh Mercryts and pe fures whet) stun dd be ac compared by o stanmgrerd ahPossed crvetoge VERB RO CREAR ALON 53 895 Wedneedsy 61 484 Sendany sm G THIS PAPER [IS REC VCLABLE FAMILY MONTH IDEA jare fun wii By CONNIE HAWLEY Any idea who lives across the street from you? In the blue house two doors down? May is Family Month and if it has started you thinking about neighbourhood (as it Restraint is a two-way | SAY..WHAT A GREAT IDEA.. .LETS FORGET ABOUT Pa should!), consider what Peter and Gwen Norman did about theirs Vancouver. “Only three or four couples knew each other but we figured a neighbourhood QUE GUSET AND. J ONE. THE PROBE of Consumer Affairs Minister Peter Hyndman’s expense accounts by the Auditor- General, following publication of dozens of the minister’s expense claim vouchers in a Vancouver daily newspaper, is in one sense a personal triumph for Premier Bill Bennett. The investigation sparked by last week's extensive publicity doesn’t necessarily mean Mr. Hyndman has done anything wrong. It simply means that Premier Bennett's call for restraint is being taken seriously by the great unwashed B.C. public to whom it was directed. That should please the premicr greatly. Morcover, Mr. Hyndman's official lifestyle is only a beginning There are endless other government fields, both in Victoria and Ottawa, where the seeds of restraint could profitably be sown — but we're running ahcad of ourselves a little. The most significant fact to emerge from the Hynd man furor is the gencrosity af BC government rules about the cxpenses that ministers and top civil scrvants may claim = while doing the goveraments busancss For starters, the $45 per diem allowance aupematically payable = flor afly day spent away from Vactoma oon govcrameat busancas It docsn't have to be accounted = for ot actually spent by the clamaant’ Even af “govern ment business” happens to take ham bach to his bome the per chem oo has for the ashing BLANK CHEQUE All other capenses ip curred in the hne of duty. whether in Victoria. or elsewhere, are additional. They include meeting. conference and staff con- sultation expenses; relaicd meal expenses: tran- sportation passes and ac- commodation§ costs whiic travelling: laundry and drycleaning cxpenses whca away for more than threc days: and cexpenses of hospitality and ca- tcrtainment as approved by the Treasury Board This last category, which applics to MLAs as well as cabinct ministers and scator pubhec servants, ts virtually a biank cheque Under current policy, “hospitality and en lertainment”™’ Covers “government business dis cussions conductcd with persons not cmployed by the Bnitsh Columbia government” Moreover. only capenses over $2.450 must have advance Treasury Board approval. Lesser sums can be approved by the manaster or deputy minister What polttscsan oot mandann cvcr managed to kecp “governmecat business out of ius dinncrume con versation” All of which cxptains why Mr Hynmdman'’s £7/4 dinnc: flow san at) Umberto. tn cluding foor bottles of 337 50 Powlly burssc) and bas SE ODL week at a Soot wlake Ana resort “to acct in North. Day would be fun,” says Peter, who works in the faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Like Topsy. the idea grew. With the help of one other couple, the Normans popped pamphlets in mail boxes supgesting events: a scavenger hunt, a horseshoe pitch tournament, a potluck supper “That first year we set up tables in the middle of the street and wondered if anyone would show,” Peter recalls. “Gwen took out a pot of beans and we waited. Then people started coming — 30 or 40 of us sat down to eat. It was just great!” “That was four years ago. Neighbournuod Day (“We cal} i the Summer Solstice Celebration” says Peter) has flourished on 28th Stret ever since. “We block off the street with sawhorses and begin with an official parade. Kids decorate thetr bikes, the north side challenges the south tc 'ug-of-war, and after dark there’s fireworks and films with everybody sitting on the street eating popcorn.” There are fringe benefits too. “That first year we had a rock-and-roll band,” Peter says with a grin. “People had complained because the kids focus Noel Wright representatives of the Arizona state = Icgisiature” almost certainly come within government guidelines For the month of February 1981 Mr. Hyndman's published expense voucher appear to total $2,711 If the other 19 cabinet) membcrs and an cquivalent number of top publ servants con ducted government business oaty on the same scale we re fowkeng ata ball of some $1 3 milkon a ycar not tn cluding mimstenal yunken ovencas and caxapense « laams tyy the comaining ¥) MI As LARGESSE A mere drop in the bucket whoa $) tilhon provancaal bedget os trac But tor lan hbucict Jo and ih neighbors practised so loud. Now they gathered round to talk and listen and learn that teenage band players were just nice kids living on our street.” The success of the event has astounded everyone. “It was such a low-level thing from the organizational point of view,” Peter points out. “Once the seed was planted everybody latched onto the idea. People were ready for it.” How far-reaching neighbourhood _ relation- ships? Sociologist Dr. Elise Boulding sees a clear-cut connection between the family, the acighbourhood and what she calls com- munity-to-community _inet- working on a global scale. “There is no break bet- ween the family and the neighbourhood and_ the planet,” she declares. Because it’s easier to collect’ stats on violence, crime and divorce, we underestimate the creativity of the family, Boulding claims. The creativity of a family on 28th Street has altered their neighbourhood. It's Family Month! what are you are doing about yours? (Connie Hawley is Executive Director of the B.C. Council for the Family.) street Brownbag Bert — whose weekly gastronomic luxuries may presently be restrained to a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken and a litre of Calona White Dry — millions of dollars are still a big huok of money. Especially when they have to pay the bill. Its government expenses rules they should be pointing at, however, rather than Mr. Hyodman. The rules which allow provincial and federal cabinets to cnjoy three-day policy huddles in high-priced scenic resorts instcad of over sandwiches and coffce in the cabinet room. The rules which let Michael! Pitficid, Canada's head mandarin, run up a travel and hospitality tab of acarly $10,000 in 10 months in addition to a salary in the $80,000-$90,000 brack ct The rules which repor tedly relieve Prime Minister Trudeau of = virtually all personal living cxpenses at 24 Sussex Drive. The rules which cxtend similar taxpayer-fundcd largesse to heaven knows how many more hundreds and thousands of 9 our political and burcaucratx masicrs across the land. Really) we should 9 be graicful to Mr Hyndman lor being. ino has” relatively modest way. the instrument that has brought = thesc mations to hght. Not thar Bnush Columtnan taxpayer arc mean of want to spaal anybody's fun Bat restraint Mr Bennci as we tigincn ovr own belts another aotch two way street ts a