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COPE candidates Harry Rankin, Bruce Yorke and David Schreck ripped apart city finance director Peter

Leckie’s proposal to

Yorke claims victory for COPE

lower industrial taxes and raise residential taxes in Vancouver last Thursday.

Sean Griffin photo

in stalling property tax increase

COPE mayoralty candidate
Bruce Yorke claimed victory last
week after the city finance com-
mittee backed off taking action on
a controversial report from city
finance director Peter Leckie
which recommended huge
reductions in industrial taxes and
increases in residential taxes.

Yorke told the Tribune after the
finance committee decision that
COPE’s forceful action in
releasing a detailed critique of the
report at a press conference before
the finance committee meeting,
was warning enough for the
committee not to proceed.

With the report stalled at the
finance committee level, there
won’t be time for the city to in-
crease taxes for next year, Yorke
said.

Yorke, COPE candidate Dave
Schreck and alderman Harry
Rankin called Leckie’s report a
“biased”’ one ‘‘designed to prove a
certain case.” The report carefully
selected its own facts, they said,
but left other facts hidden.

The report completely ommitted
giving necessary data to properly
judge the tax burden on industry,

Yorke, a professional economist

and accountant, charged. The
contention that industry is being
taxed twice as heavily as
homeowners’ is __ especially
misleading, he said, as industry
does not pay machinery taxes to
the city, and their property taxes
are deductable from federal taxes
after that.

Schreck, a consulting PhD
economist, questioned the in-
ference in the report that it favored
small business, pointing out that
only large industry would really
benefit. The effect of Leckie’s
proposals would be to cut taxes of
the B.C. Sugar Refinery, for
example, by about $100,000 per
year. Small. properties would be
lucky to benefit by $200 or $300, he
said.

“Mr. Leckie has indicated his
total bias to big business,’’ Rankin
added, criticizing Leckie for trying
to manipulate council policy.

“Leckie should either run for
council or shut up,’’ he said.

The tax proposals would be a ‘‘$6
million gift to big business, paid for
by the homeowners,” he said.

The idea behind the proposed tax

breaks for industry, supposedly to’

attract jobs to Vancouver, was
criticized by Schreck who noted
that other municipalities would
simply make similar concessions
to industry to counter Vancouver’s
move. :

“The result would be no change
in jobs, but the destruction of the
local tax base,”’ he said.

It was for a similar reason that
Rankin opposed the establishment
of the economic advisory depart-
ment last year by mayor Jack
Volrich. The new department
didn’t create any new jobs, Rankin
said, but only competed with
neighboring municipalities for
existing jobs. The department
duplicates that of the Greater
Vancouver Regional District,
Rankin said, which should right-
fully have the function.

hen the federal government announced in August

that it would be cutting back family allowance’

payments and ending the practice of indexing the
payments to the cost of living, the policy was trum-
peted as a “re-direction of social priorities’ and

“giving the money to the people who need it most.”’-

The same was said about the changes to income
supplements for pensioners. But what the govern-
ment didn’t tell us about was the current state of
pension for cabinet ministers — which have been
described as ‘‘probably the richest pensions on
earth” and which continue to rise with the cost of
living.

In fact, government policy in that department can
only be seen as ‘‘giving the money to those who need
it least.”’

In a speech last month the man who described
cabinet pensions as ‘‘probably the richest on earth —
the president of M. Loeb, a distributing company —
pointed to the example of former Liberal cabinet
minister Donald Macdonald who retired in April at
the age of 45. After 16 years in the House of Commons,
he’s now getting a pension of some $13,000 — all on top
of the money he recieves as a corporation lawyer and
a director of several companies.

But assuming that the annual inflation rate
remains at seven percent, Macdonald’s pension, with
indexing, will rise to $37,000 by the time he is 60 (at
which age most people still can’t afford to retire) and
to a whopping $145,300 if he lives to be 80.

Contrast that to the meagre pensions given the vast
majority of working Canadians and see just how the
Trudeau government has “re-directed its social
priorities.” Even with the last increase, which
became effective only this month, the basic old age
has gone up to a mere $164.74 from the $100 basic
pension five years ago.

* * *
H e could easliy have thrown editorial production
schedules into a tailspin — since his old man in-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 13, 1978—Page 2

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

sisted on being there throughout the proceedings —
but when the first child for Tribune editor Sean
Griffin and his wife Libby made his entry into the
world, he did so. with due consideration for the paper
— he arrived on the Thanksgiving holiday. It was just
a few minutes before 11 o’clock in the morning and he
tipped the scales at 3.2 kg (or seven pounds, one
ounce for those who still like to convert).

In the best of Irish revolutionary traditions, he was
named Liam Michael, the first name having been
carried by a number of notable citizens including
Liam Mellows who led the uprising in Galway in
support of the Easter Rebellion of 1916.

Obviously there were other considerations which
went into his birth, but for the practical, there may
also be an added benefit: He came into this world at a
busy time — an unusually high number of births,
according to hospital staff — indicating that there
may be another baby boom beginning. For Libby, an
elementary school teacher for whom jobs have been
particularly scarce because of declining enrolment,

that would be most welcome.
Sate

t’s only one of his many accomplishments, but for -

us at the Tribune, the work that Harry Bird has
done has been more than invaluable. Cupboards,
bookcases, shelves, office renovations and tables all
attest to his innumerable tradesman’s skills — and
that’s only taking into account what he’s done on our
present premises.
Close to -a hundred friends gathered recently to
wish Harry well on his 75th birthday and although
the celebration took place on September 30, Harry
confided that his birthday wasn’t really until October.
So if we’re late in noting the party held in his honor,
we're closer to the date of his actual birthday in of-
fering our best wishes. =

Fittingly, the celebration took place in the Mount

Pleasant Neighborhood House — where only recently -

Harry completed some major re-designing and
renovation work.

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

There’s a move on at city hall to
shift the city’s property tax burden
by cutting taxes on big industrial
properties by 21.8 percent and
raising taxes on homes by an
average of 3.7 percent.

The proposal is contained in a
report by the city’s director of
finance, Peter Leckie. The report
is scheduled to be considered by
the city’s finance and ad-
ministration committee, by an
economic advisory board ap-
pointed by mayor Jack Volrich,
and, presumable later by city
council.

Now who instructed Leckie to
bring in a report on how to reduce
taxes on industry and how to in-
crease them on homes I don’t
know. Certainly it wasn’t city
council. :

It seems that big industrial
concerns in the city are crying
because last year some of them get
quite a boost on taxes. They’ve got
nothing to cry about. They have
always been greatly under-
assessed. They are still under-
assessed. They can charge up their
taxes to expenses, and take it off
their income tax (something
homeowners can’t do). But they
still kick like hell, when for the first
time some of them had their taxes
increased substantially. They
ignore the fact that homeowners
have had their taxes increased
substantially every year, one of the
main reasons being that industry
wasn’t paying its fair share.

Before November 10th, city

council has to decide which of four
options provided by the provincial
government it will choose to have
properties assessed for general

purposes.

evoke no tears

Last year city council chose ©

option A under which taxes were
based on 15 percent of the assessed
value of homes and 30 percent of
the assessed value of industry.
That shifted the tax burden a bit

from homeowners to industry. It

was long overdue.
Now Peter Leckie, and whoever

ordered him to prepare this report, —

wants to set the clock back. He
wants city council to ask the
provincial government to tax in
dustry on only 25 percent of its
assessed value rather than 30
percent. Of course, if industry pays
less, the homeowner will pay more;
and that is exactly what Leckie
proposes.

My main criticism of Option A
was that it only taxed apartments
at 15 percent of assessed value, the

same as homes. That resulted in a—

big decrease in the taxes. on
apartments. This action was no
doubt taken by the provincial
government because of
pressure of developers
apartment owners.

and

The city has apparently spent
thousands of dollars to produce this.
report by Leckie. We don’t need 4

report on how to lower taxes on big

industries. We need a report on ©
how to make big industrial and —
commercial properties pay more

so that homeowners will pay less.
That is the direction that tax

reform should take — base taxes

on ability to pay.

How this can be done will be a
major plank in the election plat-
form of the Committee of
Progressive Electors (COPE) this
year. Watch for it; you’ll find it

imaginative, interesting and

sound.

CBC blackout claimed

The Communist Party has asked
the Canadian Radio Television
Commission, currently reviewing
the licence of the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, to in-
vestigate the alleged blackout of
CP candidates in the current
byelections.

In a letter October 4, CP leader
Bill Kashtan said that the party
“Gssued a number of press releases
announcing that we are’ nomi-
nating in five constituencies. We
also called a press conference in
Toronto where three of our can-
didates are contesting. While the

Toronto Star came to the press
conference, the CBC-TV was ab- —

sent.”

Kashtan cited similar events in

Hamilton, where the CBC also

failed to show up for CP con- |
ferences, and said, “It is fairly

clear that the CBC pursues a policy

of discrimination of blacking out —

news they do not agree with.”’

The party asked the CRTC to get
an assurance from the CBC that
the blackout against it would not be
extended through the general
federal election in the spring.

Communist Party general

secretary William Kashtan will be - ita
from visits to the Soviet Union and

to. Vietnam and will focus on

the feature speaker at a rally in
Vancouver to mark the an-
niversary of the Russian
Revolution, it was announced this
week.

The rally, sponsored by the
Greater Vancouver Regional
Committee of the CP, will take the
form of a concert — meeting on
Sunday, November 5, two days
prior to the November 7 an-

niversary, at the Templeton

Kashtan at Nov. 5 rally

auditorium in east Vancouver.
Kashtan is recently return

current questions concerning those
countries,
munism and the Chinese threat
Vietnam. ;
At its September 23 regional
convention, the CP resolved to

“make the November 5 rally ‘a
giant demonstration that will

project a clear message to the
people of B.C.” :

CP region elects officers

The Greater Vancouver
Regional Committee of the
Communist Party this. week an-
nounced the election at its October
4 meeting of Fred Wilson to the
post of chairman and leader of the
new Regional organization of the
CP. ;

Wilson, 26, is the associate editor
of the Tribune and former acting
secretary of the CP’s Vancouver
organization. ;

Also elected was New. West-

the

notably Eurocom- ~

. : \

minster longshoreman Rod Doran —

who assumes the position of vice-
chairman. o

Miguel Figueroa, former Van-
couver city organizer, was elect
to the post of recording secretary
and staff organizer. Figueroa

mans the regional committee’ new

684-5014.

" office at 410 - 193 East Hastings St.,