“All they think about is money.’

Mac-Blo tax

decision

blow to municipalities

PORT ALBERNI — 1972 saw MacMillan Bloedel appeal their assessments in the city of Port Alberni on two counts: one, on the grounds their property tax assessment, (they claimed,) on industrial property was assessed at 50 percent, while residential assessments were at 36 percent of value. The fact that company land where the pulp mill site is assessed at 10 cents a square foot while a barber shop uptown bears an as- sessment of $2.00 a square foot is evidently overlooked.

This part of the assessment appeal has not been decided at the time of writing but if the com- pany is successful it would cost the taxpayers in the city about 9 mills increase in their taxes to make up the difference, school

- and general fate taxes combined.

The company also appealed the business tax assessment which is based on estimated

*“yéntal value.”* The grounds for the company’s appeal are that , taxation. should be deducted <frem the estimations before / rental value is determined; that ~Yental value for purposes of ~ assessing ‘‘business tax” should ~ be the “net” rental value after - deducting municipal taxes ~ from the gross rental value. This ‘sis What the B.C. Supreme Court “ decided was fair and proper. “Phe city is still able to appeal ‘the decisions to the Supreme Court of Canada with no guar- antee of success and with the --Tisk of losing several more thou- * Sands of dollars in legal fees. “*<s"What is completely forgotten * “int the discussions and left com- llenanmmeeneeecnee

pletely out of the legal consid-. erations is the fact that the “busi- ness tax,’’ as it is spelled out in the Municipal Act is a great big farce.

The provincial government has acted in this case as in many others to protect the mono- polies by exempting industrial machinery from municipal taxa- tion except for school and hos- pital purposes. Then they have authorized the ‘‘business tax’’ which must be levied also on the commercial sector if it is to be applied at all. Thus the tactic of the government is to use the commercial sector as a shield behind which industrial mono- polies can hide to escape millions of dollars in taxation which should be going into muni- cipal coffers to ease the growing tax burden on the home owners.

If the appeals are both successful, the city of Port Alberni stands to lose the equiva- lent of about 11 mills (almost $350,000) on the general tax roll this year, which will have to be made up in_ general rate increase.

Other cities which have indus- trial complexes within their dSoundaries would also be af- fected next year.

With a provincial election in the offing it is a good time to put the pressure on the candidates and demand that in place of this phoriy “‘business tax’’ the provin- cial government should restore the right of the cities and muni- cipalities in B.C. to the same sort of taxation upon industrial machinery as is done for schools and hospitals.

B.C. Fed urged to call ; all-in union conference

Vancouver and District Labor Council delegates Tuesday night urged the B.C. Federation of Labor to call a delegated con- ference of all unions to deal with the government’s Bill 33 threat against the six unions which have joined in a building trades “pact.”

In its resolution the VLC reit- erated its condemnation of the Mediation Commission as an

BUILDING UNIONS

Cont'd from pg. 1 sions which have been fought for

-and established for years are

gutted by the award, and the door is opened wide for black- listing. In one of the provisions affecting the plumbers the award deletes the requirement that the employers must get union permission before overtime is worked. Many other long-standing gains are wiped out.

Shaking the big stick again, Minister of Labor Chabot warned the construction unions on Tuesday that they had four or five days to decide what they will accept of the Mediation Commission’s report, other- wise the entire decision will become binding, he said.

In keeping with the big busi- ness outlook of Chabot and the Socred government, Chabot announced on the same day that he issued his threat to the con- struction unions that he had ap- pointed James R. Edgett, who was labor consultant for the B.C. Manufacturers Associa-

tion, as assistant deputy minister of labor. He also announced the

appointment of R.K. Gervin, labor relations ‘expert’ for the construction companies to a number of government boards including the Labor Relations Board.

Meanwhile, charges laid against a growing number of unions for allegedly not order- ing their members back to work and failing to carry out a govern- ment order, are laid over to some time in August.

FRED QUILT

Cont'd. from pg. 1

view between Indian young people at the Kamloops demon- stration and a Tribune repre- sentative. In the meantime the inquest is expected to take from a week to 10 days to conclude.

~~ Youth take action for jobs

‘~The Union of Unemployed : Youth this week set plans to demonstrate in front of the Unemployment Insurance

. Office on Robson Street on July 24 to demand action to meet the crisis of unemployment among youth in B.C.

Chairman of the union Ed Wilson made reference to the fact that latest government figures show there were 34,000 youth under 25 years of age look- ing for jobs last month in B.C. He said “government policy has

failed utterly to meet the prob- lem, and in fact has worsened it, and while make-shift programs like Opportunities for Youth are lauded by the media, they serve only to pacify select stratas of middle and upper class univer- sity students.”’

The Union plans to march through downtown and assemble at 11 a.m. in front of the UIC offices at 1145 Robson, where they will demand to have a brief of their views accepted

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1972—PAGE 8

by a high ranking government official.

Organized just a month ago, the Union has struck a good re- sponse among young unem- ployed, as well as from the trade union movement which they regard as their greatest ally in the fight for jobs.

Already moral and financial support has been received from the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, and the Vancouver local of CUPE as well as CUPE-B.C. Division.

agent of the employers. It pointed out there was no consid- eration given to the position of the six unions, and called for a full labor rally to consider further steps to be taken by organized labor to meet the latest threat of compulsion against them.

‘The crunch is here right now,”’ said Paddy Neale, secre- tary of the VLC. He said present hiring hall practices were the only protection senior employees have, and the recom- mendations of the Mediation Commission would ‘tear the guts out of union agreements.’

Chris Locke of the IBEW, one of the unions affected, said his local had passed a motion to ignore the Mediation Com- mission findings because it took away 90 percent of their agree ment.

“Tf Chabot thinks our mem- bers will accept this sort of

- U.S. ACTION HIT

The World Peacé Council, headquartered in Helsinki and representing peace organi- zations in over 100 countries, last week issued a statement on U.S. meteorological warfare in Vietnam.

The statement said all people who value human life abhor the fact that the mass bombing of dikes has created floods and has extended the monsoon duration. The world peace body charged that Nixon has been proved to lie when said the reports of dike bombing were not accurate. Eye- witness reports from people such as the Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam; French and other lead- ing press reporters and photo- graphers proved he lied. Nor is the dike bombing ‘‘pilot errors.”’

The WPC charged that Nixon has also used acidic rain to make radar, trucks and tanks inoper- able. The use of meteorological warefare threatens not only the Indochinese, but also the entire world, according to a Harvard professor of biology. It has the potential for causing larger- scale and quite possibly uncon- trollable and unpredictable destruction in areas subject to flooding.

thing, he should come to ou! union meetings,” he concluded.

Jack Phillips, CUPE, labelled the Mediation Commission a? obscene tool of the Social Credit government and big business the province. He said, ‘“‘We were not angry enough about the police raids on union offices. A”! every democratic citizen shqul

be angry. What is involved in this

question is more than the rights 7

of trade unionists, but demo cracy, itself.

_ “The labor movement cannot

and will not live with comput: sory arbitration. If it mea”

defying the law, so be it, but We —

will support the Six Pact unions all the way.”’

A: delegate said the Six Pact unity was a wonderful achiev ment, for they had been tradh tionally independent and tradi

tionally split. Tom Constable,

IBEW, added Bills 3 and 37 to Ee retrograde legislation on so Credit government books whi¢ had to be fought, along with B!

33.

The B.C. Fed gave notice delegates that Schlage Lock a of Canada, one of the larger loc® making firms in the country; had refused to bargain in 8 faith and its products were 80 4 HOT. Max Donuts has Oe placed on the unfair list by a Labor Council. It too has refus®” to bargain fairly with its ads ployees. The HOT clause a been lifted against Lene Electric, where settlement b been made.

The delegates support a a dian Congress of Labor prole to the French government te their nuclear tests in the P nip fic. They urged the peace’ ry Greenpeace be given €¥ support by the Canadian ment.

Labor wants a federal comm sion to _ investigate Unemployment Insurance ~. paisa vith a view to clearitt up the foul’ups and delays nd payments. Paddy Neale George Kowbell gave inser where men had to apply for 5 iB fare because of the delay?” unemployment payments fout sometimes of three a? months duration. —

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