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Regional scheme lacks price

by Frank Howard

_ Was it a nightmare, a vision,

or merely an ordinary dream,
Many parts of which can’t be
recalled?

Whatever it was it will cost the
taxpayers of this province a bun-
dle. Premier Vander Zalm’s an-
nouncement ‘at the Union: of
B.C, Municipalities convention
was long on superfluous ver-
biage but exceptionally short on
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' matter of

price.

Here. is the gist of what the
Premier said to the assemblage
of Mayors and Aldermen. Eight
additional regions will be
established each containing the
existing regional districts. A
Cabinet Minister” will be ap-
pointed for each of these addi-

‘tional regions with full respon-
sibility to co-ordinate develop- |

ment initiatives and provincial
services. Each of these eight ad-
ditional regions will get $1
million to assist in start-up and
operational activities.

In addition, some government
ministries or Crown Corpora-
tions will be moved from Vic-
toria to these additional regions.

The important words in the $1

- million part are: ‘'..to assist..’’.
. The implication of that is very,

very clear. When more money is
needed within these additional
regions, from where will it
come? It will come from an
already over-taxed population.
That is the nightmare part of the
Premier’s scheme.

What about the substantive
that $10 million
downtown revitalization fund
which the Premier also announc-
ed? It must be remembered that

he was the Minister of Municipal

’ Affairs a few years ago when a

$25 million downtown revitali-
zation plan was put into effect.
That $25 million was suppos-
ed to do wonders. It didn’t. It —
dressed up a few downtown
streets, or parts thereof, but
didn’t attract any new _ in-
dustries. 7

Let’s go back a few years and
look at another nightmare called
restraint. The government’s
sales pitch about restraint was
that it was going to make

government less costly and more |

efficient. But,

what actually
took place?

of government going up. Look
at the amount of taxes you pay.
Did taxes go down? No! Both
taxes and the provincial budget
went up.

- If people, especially Mayors
and Aldermen, start cheering
this scheme now it. is certainly
premature. We need to know the
details of. the Premier's

nightmare/dream which have™
not been disclosed to us.. The

cost details may be so horren-
dous that the Premier has them
buried in that part of the mind
which generates nightmares.

Letter

Safety commitment

put to the

An open letter to the school
board of School District 88

Yesterday on the midday news
they showed a new design in
school bus seating. The seats

were backwards and seat belts .

were installed, This design has
been tested for safety and the
improvement over the present
system used by the School
District is immeasurable.

I am asking that you consider
changing you school buses over
to this system of seating. I
realize it is costly, but not as

costly as injury or loss of life in

test

the event of an accident. Right |

now there is nothing to stop the
students from riding three to a
seat, from standing up or from

. flying about if the bus stops sud-

denly. It is about time we im-

_ proved the archaic method we

use to transport our children to
and from school. As the trustees
ran for school board positions

they said that the students were .

their main concern, Let us see if
they mean it.

Brenda Silsbe
Terrace

Speech leaves
civil service —

worried, UBCM |
puzzled _

Hubert Beyer -

Victoria Correspondent

_ What had been widely billed as a preview of Premier Vander
Zalm’s vision of the: future turned out to be little more than a
public relations stunt. ;

The political scuttlebut was that the premier. had selected the
Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver ‘as the
launch pad for his privatization program. He did no such thing. »

_ The only news was an announcement by the premier that the
government would implement a regional economic development
plan and beef up the fund for the revitalization of downtown cores
t throughout the province.

The. regional development plan calls for the creation’ of cight
specific regions, each comprising a number of existing regional
districts, each getting a $1 million start-up fund, and each expected
to work an economic miracle or two with that loot.

Sounds familiar? It should. Apart from a few new frills, the plan
is a reincarnation of the enterprise zones, established by the govern-
ment of former premier Bill Bennett,

The downtown revitalization program is also not new. It, tao,
-was started by the Bennett government. The difference-here is that

the new program will have a $10 million revolving fund to draw on,
whereas the old scheme operated on more of an ad-hoc basis. _-

Not that the programs announced by the premier aren’t welcome
news. The million-dollar infusion of funds will be considered a
windfall by the eight economic regions, particularly those which
paid for but got little of no benefit from mega-projects, such as Ex-
po, B.C. Place Stadium and the North East Coal venture.

The eight development regions comprise Vancouver Island, the
Lower Mainland, including south-western British Columbia, the
Okanagan, the Kootenays, the Cariboo, the North Coast, the

. _ Nechako area and the Peace River region.
Restraint resulted in the cost

The development region initiative, the premier said, would be
made possible ‘by the government’ s “restructuring program”.
That’s the one everybody was waiting for and expected to hear —
about when Vander Zalm stepped up to the speaker’s podium. The
premier, however, kept his lips buttoned.

Restructuring, by the way, is the new buzz word for privatization,
with some government decentralization thrown. in. It’s the decen-.
tralization part that has public servants scared stiff. Decentraliza-
tion means two things: reducing the size of the public service and
turning certain government operations over to the private sector, as .
well as to the lower levels of government — municipalities and
regional districts.

No wonder public servants are worried. They still remember Ben-
nett’s restraint program which cost. 10,000 public servants their
jobs. Mind you, a lot of government employees laid off during
restraint are again working for the government, not as employees
but on contract. Now, Vander Zalm wants to trim the public service
by another 30 percent.

' Public servants weren’t the only ones “the premier disappointed
with his deafening silence on restructuring. A lot of business people
have been wondering about the spoils of privatization. The in-
surance industry must be drooling at the prospect of ICBC going
private. The government-owned buildings, now run by the B.C.
Buildings Corporation, would also be a prize for the private sector,
particularly if they came with long-term leases.

There have also been a lot of rumors that the government wants

“to get rid of the responsibility for a score of services, including

health care, welfare, highways maintenance, etc.

The government also plans to let the private sector look after the
pension scheme for public servants. That one should thrill the
bureaucrats.

I'd. like to stress that the original plan was for the ‘premier to .
unveil the whole privatization and restructuring plan at the UBCM
convention. That was the word. from sources right in his office. It
was also the. word from the premier’s principal secretary, David
Poole, in a speech, just days before the convention, to the B.C.
Managers’ Association, a sort of uncertified union for senior public
servants. ;

The media were so certain of the impending announcement that
one of the TV stations aired a long report from the convention
floor, with the camera zooming on the speaker’s podium, and the
eporter telling viewers that from this platform the premier will an-
nounce his blueprint for the next decade.

Well, we can’t always be right. Maybe the premier decided at the
last minute that the UBCM wasn’t the proper forum for his vision.

We are waiting, waiting, waiting. Pa a