6 ~ Wednesday, March 19, 1986 - North Shore News

ews Viewpoint

Paying for pride

orth Van's projected 45% hike in school taxes —

adding about $114 to the average homeowner's

tax bill over the 1986-87 school year — see.ns likely to retain for North Van the distinction of paying the highest school faxes in B.C. But the unwelcome news should at least be viewed in perspective.

The school district’s 1986-87 budget exceeds the provincial government allotment by an estimated $3.9 million, or about 6%. Under Victoria’s current policy that extra sum must be raised locally. Included in it are child abuse programs, the upgrading of textbooks and previously agreed salary increases.

There seems little argument about the urgent need for the child abuse programs and improved textbook supplies. So trustee Ross Regan, attempting to trim the tax hike back to $1.9 million, zeroed in on the salary increases. But even he admitted that North Van teach- ers are above average quality, a fact demonstrated by the outstanding record of North Van students in pro- vincial and national scholarship competitions.

Victoria’s current policy is to fund school costs up to what it regards as an ‘“‘adequate’”’ Ievel from commer- cial and industrial taxes plus general revenue — with individual communities adding anything they deem desirable through local taxes. In other words, if North Van is proud of the superiority of its school system, it’s required to pay something extra for that pride.

Alternatively, should taxpayers al! the way from White Rock to Atlin subsidize North Van excellence? That’s the nub of the school costs debate.

THE VOICE OF NONTH AND WEST VANCOUVER:

GUNOAY . WEDNESDAY ‘ rrIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, 8.C. V7M 2H4

56,245 (average, Wednesday by Friday & Sunday)

CAN CANADA POST SURVIVE? Presently, the almost counterparts.

universal verdict is ‘‘no way’? even though life after Canada

Post remains hard to contemplate.

Despite the wonders of electronic technology, it’s still true that, if you don’t have an adequate postal system, you don’t have a nation.

Last month Finance Minister Michael Wilson finally lowered the boom by ordering the Crown cor- poration to submit by March 31 a plan for eliminating its annual $243 million deficit, while also losing a $170 million government grant.

In short, break even on $170 million less than you have now, or else ... Don Lander, CanPost’s new president, could probably obey the edict, subject to three ‘‘if’s’’.

ff he could set his own postal rates, if he were free to generate new business through additional services and if he could slash labor costs, the problem would be solved. But at the moment, alas, none of these nice things is about to happen to him. His Ottawa masters will see to that.

For the government, increased postal rates of more than a cent are presently a political no-no. So are services like flyer distribution and catalogue sales because of a power- ful business lobby protesting unfair

Amid all this doom aad gloom it’s refreshing to find a viewpoint that

Noel Wright

subsidized competition with the private sector, By contrast, Britain’s Post Office seeks a profit by selling eveything from dog licences to bus tickets, ‘

As to cutting labor costs and wages, which average'a third more than for comparable private sector jobs, Ottawa traditionally backs down whenever a. strike is threatened.

U.S. postal workers, incidentally — their wages tied by law to private sector scales — each handle 50 per cent more mail than their Canadian

LETTER OF THE DAY

jov't spendthrifts running our lives

Dear Editor:

Boosters of such make-work projects as the B.C. Stadium, SkyTrain, Tumbler Ridge, and many other government program- mes, have consistently pointed out that the construction and running of these various endeavours has

impact on the

Many people have been employed during the construction, and as some were laid off, others were employed for the operation of the projects.

Unfortunately, the billions of dollars required to produce these jobs did not come out of thin air. The federal government, lacking the ability to create or earn any money of its own, can only get

® focus @

suggests a way out of CanPost’s mess and, with it, new hope that our letters might again reach their destinations within a couple of days. It comes from The Financial Post, whose editorial writers have a well- earned reputation for thinking with their heads instead of their lungs. The Post editorial proposes that CanPost’s mail service monopoly be abolished while, at the same time -— on the analogy of the telephone ser- vice —- allowing it to charge different rates for different distance zones. Why should a letter from Vancouver

that money by taking it from someone else. Given the present population of British Columbia, this means that every time our provincial government spends a billion dollars (which it does once every 5-6 weeks), it costs each citi- zen an average of four hundred dollars spending or investment power, which would otherwise be used to increase employment. In

Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor . Operations Manager Advertising Director

Display Advertising 980-0511 Classitied Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 988-1337

Peter Speck

Noel Wright Nancy Weatherley . Berni Hilliard Linda Stewast

North Shore Hews, to nclrd on 1404 4% an dependent ruburban newspaper and Quablied unde: Schedule il Paragfapt Tit ol ihe Feciet Tas ACE 1 Ouohebed wach Wednesday Foday and Suoday Oy Noh Shor From Press Lid and distibuted to eemty dour ct the Hurt Chote Second Class Mad Hegistaton Nutnber J0AS Sutsciphons Murth anit Weal Vancouver, $275 per yrar Mailing cates sivnADIA GA Figure? SUD SeDes ante eeiCUtne Lal a€ Cannot aCCeM fasponsitility tor untoOhcited matertal wetying Manus opts

40d Pctutes witch shoukd be acccmpanind by a stamped andiesved envelooe

SOA DIVISION

to Toronto cost the same as one from Lonsdale to Ambleside?

This would put the post office on the same footing as private courier services, which would therefore have no opportunity to ‘‘skim off’’ the best routes with the ending of Can- Post’s monopoly.

Add to that the privatization of the corporation, with the workers of- fered shares at a substantial dis- count. This would raise productivi- ty and cut the ground from under the feet of militant unions, which up to now have depended solely on pigg- ing it at the public trough.

With the need for taxpayer sup- port removed, the editorial infers, CanPost would be free to develop profitable secondary markets — catalogue shopping, electronic mail, lotteries, you-name-it — without be- ing accused of using government subsidies to compete unfairly with private business.

Consumers, postal employees and the government alike would benefit, declares The Post.

I hope Michael Cote, the minister responsible for our mail service, reads The Post. Its radical and im- aginative recipe for ending our na- tional black joke sounds like an idea whose time is now,

order for our representatives in government to throw our money around like drunken sailors, many of us must suffer financially. Are we all such children that we need to have our politicians constantly reaching into our pockets and making our decisions for us with regard to the money we have earn- ed

Our first question to any can- _

Entire contents © 1986 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

G

HISTORY LESSON

IF THOSE SWALLOWS are fly- ing on time, this is the day they’re scheduled to return to San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. Spring officially begins two days later,

March 19 is also the anniversary of the founding of the (then) col- ony of Massachusetts by six English settlers in 1628.

On the same day in 183), the first bank robbery in the U.S. took place at the City Bank of New York, where a vault was opened with duplicate keys and $245,000 stolen. Edward Smith was later convicted of the robbery and sentenced to five years in Sing Sing. : .

And March 19, 1755 is definitely a date that belongs in the Guinness Book of Records for human sur- vival. On that day three women were buried by snow in the ruins of a stable in the village of Bergemoletto near Piedmont. They were eventually rescued, still alive, 37 days later.

didate who seeks to represent us should be: ‘Will you promise never to vote for a tax increase?’ Only by supporting those in- dividuals who will work to reduce the burden placed on us by spend- thrifts in government, can we then take back control of our lives.

Bill Tomlinson

President

B.C. Libertarian Party