that the change was forced by. government and that prices would. stay the same

- as they would have been if the. measurement was still gallons.

Bf expressed the view that it

was a. plot -

government and nefarious big business. to rip off |’ consumers more effectively

by hiding the extent of price increases behind a smaller - unit of measurement. Nasty and suspicous, that's what I

gasoline at those pumps was 22. cents. a litre.in late February, early: March of “the: price: is 40.

industries vhich ‘have’ to depose of hazar-. threat ‘which ct the Tories dous: ‘materials. A location somewhere. south defeated in the 4980 election ( in Ontario — but a price hike of 18 cents a litre. Translated into gallons, we're looking at 82 cents . fore today than we were , ‘paying in early 1980.

' There have been seven

would. obviously. : preferable from ’ ewpoint of accessibility for all con- cerned -— though again it would hardly be ‘greeted with enthusiasm by Burnahy or Port Coquitlam. Mayor’ Don Bell and District aldermen have had the good sense..to recognize this dilemma and to promise acceptance, happily or unhappily, of Victoria’s eventual choice. Until the dump is set up, lethal pollution of existing: ‘landfills, creeks and Inlet waters — including ‘those of North Van — seems bound-to continue. Toxic industrial waste ‘has to be disposed of SOMEWHERE and the temptation. to avoid costly trucking to the States must obviously be strong.

It’s. vital, therefore, to get a properly controlled . facility into operation fast. District council -deserves credit for its leadership.

New bosses

It's official. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers — not the federal government — is running the country. In the most ex- traordinary statement ever made by a Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau says he won't legislate the post office employees

‘Liberal government since it came to power on the pledge of holding gasoline prices

“by degrees of one or two ‘gents per litre cach time ina way that would: have been impossible if the increases had been announced in _ terms of so much per gallon.

As a free enterpriser, I hate to say it. But it is becoming obvious that the only way to solve the housing ‘crisis for aspiring first-home buyers would be government price controls for a period. And that would be such a hot political potato that

I doubt any government would ever have the guts to consider it.

BY. PETER WARD»

increases in oil price by the —

SS; - down. They've hiked prices

back to work because they wouldn’t obey Parliament anyhow.

Oh well ... at least it's helpful to know who

IS in charge these days.

1139 Lonsdale Ave.

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wuk

Let’s face it, the majority of people now living in single-family homes aircady own them. That means the majority has a vested in- terest in maintaining and continuing to increase the already sstronomical dollar value of their properties.

Not because of greed. Simply because they know it’s the way things have to go if they ever wish to buy another home in the same area.

That together with today’s usurious mortgage rates — shuts out more and more young couples with combined incomes as high as $30,000-$40,000 who haven't yet managed to climb on the first-home bandwagon.

$19,200 A YEAR

The reason, cven at that income level, isn't hard to find. The most modest “starter” home. priced at perhaps $150,000, could typically require a down payment of $50,000 and a $100,000 mortgage costing $1,600 a month.

That's $19,200 a year out of take-home pay — well over 50 per cent of a $40,000 taxable income. And unless Dad or dear old Unclo George is both generous and well-heeled, we still hayen’t solved the little problem of the $50,000 down payment.

Nor is the current slump in the market after its wild

hayride of the past two years

likely to help for very long. After every pause and minor “adjustment” real estate

prices always resume their

upward sweep — watch for it this time by carly 1982.

Co-op housing and leasehold property are the only rays of hope the pundits have so far been able to suggest for frustrated first- home buyers. Where available at all, both schemes make it possible to acquire some equity in a home more cheaply than on the open market. But both suffer from the same disadvantage

SQUARE ONE

By definition, ‘co-op and leaschold homcowners can never accumulate cnough equily to “trade up” at a later datc to a_ single-family frechold property. In relation to open market prices they remain back at Square One — permanently

Bven the interesting proposal by North Shore MLA Jack Davis for the government to put up 25 per cent of the price of a first home could atill loave the buyer (certainly on the North Shore) in need of a

by

Noel Wright

$100,000 mortgage. In five years, moreover, he would be faced with buying out the government's inflated 25 per cent equity by assuming a second mortgage. It's highly unlikely that his wage hikes during the period would even begin to narrow the gap between income and future price inflation.

That continuing gap. of course, is the nub of the whole probicm.

Tt means that couples today with incomes - of $30,000 upward can still afford good food and clothes, cara, recreation and vacations. The only thing they can’t afford is a home of their own. And unless real estate inflation is curbed until genoral inflation (in-

Yes, Canada. should. be paying close to world market price for.oil, and we still are not paying enough, but the trouble with the price in- creases we've been suffering for the past 16 months is that the extra money coliccted is doing virtually nothing to

‘improve Canadian energy

self-sufficiency. There’s the strong. suspicion that a great deal of

“the extra revenue collected

by Ottawa on gasoline and heating oil is being funnelled straight into the pockets of friends of the Liberal Party. Look, for example, at the way Ottawa paid nearly

twice the proper price for

purchasing Petrofina. Look also at where the profits went. At very least we need a full-scale ‘impartial in- vestigation into Ottawa's dealings on energy, but we sure won't get it. Consumers should come to expect being

ripped off during the first

a

year or so of the term of a' majority government. The Tories? Their problem in 1980s election campaign was that they didn’t lie.

Closing the house prices gap

cluding wage increases) catches up, the first-home buyer crisis will stay with us.

CATCHING UP

Government alone is in a position to slow down real estate inflation during such a catch-up period — _ with temporary price controls that could take any number of different forms.

Just for example, a ban on any price increase at all when a home is resold in less than a year. With other homes, maybe, percentage price increases above the 1979 assessment held to one half of the general inflation rate since 1979. For the moment the details are less important than the goal — to put the brakes on home price increases until the rest of the economy can overtake them.

With ao majority of voters presently dead against such intervention, don't hold your breath for the politicians to try it at the moment. But the alternative is an ever: growing generation of frustrated young home scokors — possibly even a future majority — who could threaten unpleasant social consequences ahead. As to the sacred law of supply and demand, the “For Sale” signs lining North Shore avenucs

today indicate thore's nothing wrong with the supply situation.

If there's a “demand”

problem, it's being created. for once, by the aellers, not by the would-be buyers.