EDITORIAL New song hit—coming n keeping with the legend of Mohammed and the Moun- tain, ‘‘Prime Minister’? Bennett of B.C. rarely ever attends any federal-provincial conclave, unless he is assured beforehand of some political kudos, prestige, or added glitter to his Socred halo. During the recent federal-provincial finance conference in Ottawa our “prime minister’ absented himself by taking off for Palm Springs in sunny California to renew his ‘‘made-in-the-USA”” suntan — and show his disdain for all such Liberal ‘lame duck’’ get-togethers. Not only that, but he didn’t even send one of his Socred under- -strappers to pinch hit in his dual capacity as ‘‘prime minister”’ and finance wizard. Thus the conference chair federal finance minister Sharp had “reserved”’ for B.C.’s financial Houdini remained unwarmed. “There was nothing new to discuss,’ warbled WAC, and “in any case the minister of finance (Sharp) can’t speak for the government because he, too, is a candidate for leadership . . . and they are calling these conferences because they are trying to show that they are doing something. It’s a straight waste of public money’’. In answer to the criticism of Opposition MLA’s and others for his’ non-attendance, B.C.’s keeper of the public purse got in a few below- the-belt punches for the benefit of Socredia. Telling us all to “note carefully’ what these critics of his non-attendance-said, the people are going to learn how ‘‘wrong”’ they are, and how “‘right”’ the “PM” is, when the coming Throne Speech is unveiled. We can hardly wait for the prime minister’s coming hit — “From dynamic affluence to the diarrhea of austerity” all in one volume, music by Messrs. Bonner and Gaglardi. For ‘Lesser Evil’ win he Liberal Party leadership race is warming up as : new entrants get into the contest almost daily. So far there are no dark horses in sight, unless of course one were to describe all entries to date as ‘‘dark’’ — which wouldn't be too far off the mark. All entrants have already demonstrated a fairly uniform ability in one respect — that of making lavish promises of what they “hope” to do, should they win the Pearson leadership toga. This of course is highly characteristic of the bourgeois politician regardless of partisan labels. Since however, the Pearson government promises have been more “honored in the breach than performance’’, all such racetrack promises mean very little to those making them and in all likelihood will evaporate at the finishing noe when this Liberal leadership marathon is over. At the moment at least there are no entrants in this race whose election to wear the leadership toga would in any way whatsoever be any more beneficial to Canada’s vital interests. In point of fact all of them so far are equally responsible for the mounting economic crisis facing Canadians, and for the reckless dissipation of Canada’s resources for war purposes — misnamed “defense”. The steady attrition of Canada’s independence. unity. economy. social security and peace. all subordinated to U.S. dictates and interests, is eloquent. if indeed tragic evidence of what each and all of these leadership entrants have been doing — and hope to continue to do if elected. Whatever the Liberal leadership race meet may come up with. the Canadian people themselves haven't even a “Hobson's Choice’. The best they can hope for is victory for “the lesser evil’ — whoever that may be. 3 Editor—TOM McEWEN Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. Associate Editor—MAURICE RUSH Subscription Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. ity iNorth, andiSouth Americ ‘and Commanwealth, countries; $6.90 one year. ‘All other countries, $7. 00 one year. Authorized as second class mail ah the -TAX REFORM NEEDED Who will pay the bill for a super-Vancouver? By CHARLES CARON, City Secretary, C.P. Super city Vancouver. That’s the vision of Vancouver and Burnaby amalgamated into a new single en- tity. But super cities can’t operate on mini-budgets. Who will pay the bill to make the vision of a super Vancouver a reality? The answer to this rel ates to Canada’s economy as a whole. Big _business experts, like William An- derson, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, tell us we live beyond our means. Accord- .ing to him we should cutback on ‘Juxuries” like public health, hous- ing and education. But evaluation of our ‘‘means’’ must be measured against our total economic capa- city to produce what we need. The cold facts are available on every financial page. The one-hun- dred giant corporations in Canada which account for one-half of Can- ada’s potential investment capital, have decided to curtail production through the period from 1968 to 1972: Their claim is that workers wages are inflated. To expand the economy now would “hurt the na- tional interest.”’ Actually wages have not even kept up to the increase of pro- duction per worker. Inflation exists ; because corporations, whose only incentive is bigger and bigger pro- fits, have fixed prices not at the value of goods, but at what the market will bear. Super-profits mean the average person cannot afford goods that are needed and : available. And-so we face the dan- ger of economic crisis. The senior governments concur with big business. They too talk of tightening belts and have cutback necessary public projects such as housing and education. The Communist Party rejects the proposal to tighten our belts. We are optimistic in the future. Canada has resqurces, tools and skilled working people to build schools, houses, hospitals, rapid transit projects and to expand so- cial services such as medicare. What is needed is a re-allocation of wealth. Specifically senior govern- ments must take money from where it is, in the hands of those one hundred corporations who want Canada to cutback-its expansion. This general economic situation affects directly. the prospects for a super-city. For while big business and their governments argue they should cutdown investment, they would be quite happy if the home- DOROTHY LYNAS, veteran North Shore school trustee, was last week elected chairman of the North Van- couver School Board..She is now in : her tenth term as a school trustee. Peter Jones, another veteran school board member was named vice- chairman. -ance. If City Council should owner was to increase his own eX- | penditures through a higher muni: | cipal mill rate. City Council should launch a major campaign to extract from senior govern- ments the amount of financial as- sistance commensurate with their responsibility. For example, fourty-three per- cent of property tax is now spent for education. Logically, the pro vincial government should pay the bill, with federal financial assist- — launch such a campaign, Vancou ver citizens would ‘give them every support necessary for success. In addition to the above source of revenue City Council could adopt a number of measures of its own to gain. additional funds from those — that can afford to pay. City Coun- cil could start by implementing a business tax graduated so big cor- “porations pay a much higher rate a than small businesses. 4 Revenue from property taxation — also requires extensive revision. q Property assessments should be q : based on the full value of land and — improvement, both for geneal pur- ~ pose and education. An equitable — basis for property taxation could be ~ the establishment of two mill — rates. One for residence, one for in- © dustry. This could shift the main — burden from the homeowner to big business. Homes that have an as- sessment value below $18,000 should be granted a $4,000 basic tax exemption. Under no circumstances should — there be an increase in taxes for small homeowners or indirect tax — increase through higher rent for tenants. A super-city is a fine vision. — But City Council has to do more — than talk about it. It must act. A greater vision for our city can be” ‘materialized only if those who have the cash are made to pay. RANKIN OUTLINES TERMS ‘Amalgamation better By ALD. H. RANKIN Vancouver City Council and Burnaby Municipal Council have begun exploratory talks on the advisability of amalgamation. Marriage is still a long way off — in fact, they aren't even going steady yet — but both are showing a new interest. Amalgamation could be good for both, I’m sure, but it should not be gone into lightly or without a great deal of study and preparation. At first look, it appears that the short term advantages of amalgamation are definitely on the side of Burnaby. That municipality is considerably behind Vancouver in such municipal services aS sewers, roads and streets, street lighting. sidewalks. parks. libraries, community centers. sports. and recreational as well as cultural facilities. It will take a lot of money to bring these up to the level of Vancouver and it could mean more taxes for Vancouver homeowners. On the other hand, Burnaby has much room for expansion for in- dustry, housing and parks, which could be to our mutual advantage — Vancouver with an area of 44 square miles has 410,000 people and Burnaby with 40 square miles has a population of 115,000. Amalgamation is certainly pre- , ferable .to metropolitan govern: | ee meht. The metropolitan, ‘type of | * Super” council” ‘government — ‘has '- proven unsatisfactory to the people ee ‘i of Winnipeg and Toronto. It creates still-one more level of government between the city and the province, a sort of buffer administration. Metropolitan government has curtailed democracy and the ability of the people to directly con- trol their elected representatives and civic business. .It results in in- terminable buck-passing between the super council and the existing city councils, also antagonisms be- tween these levels of government which impede civic democracy. But while welcoming the idea of amalgamation, a note of warning must also be sounded. The provincial government has been pushing regional forms of government with one idea in mind — to have the regional and amal- gamated areas finance their own activities so that provincial grants can be reduced. The provincial government is endeavouring to es- cape its financial responsibility for raising the level of municipal ser- vices and would like to place the entire burden on the regional governments. The Bennett government wants the municipalities to unite in a sort of ‘share the poverty” scheme, while it keeps all its own funds for such projects as the Peace River Dam. ; Discussions on the terms of amalgamation of Vancouver, . and + . Burnaby. should include * Gonsider- ‘ cation of. the following: .« «+ «+ «++ substantial . Guarantees of 4 than metro’ special grants from the provin- cial government for a period of — five years to bring municipal services in Burnaby to the level — of those in Vancouver; : . A new approach to taxation, in- — cluding a $4,000 basic tax ex- — exemption for all homeowners j and higher taxes on big indus- trial and commercial proper- ties through a graduated busi- — ness tax; : Establishment of a Lower ~ Mainland Public Utilities Board to take over from B.C. Hydro the distribution of elec- tricity and natural gas and the bus transit system; . Guarantees of substantial — special grants from the provincial — government for a period of. five years to bring municipal services in Burnaby to the level of those in — Vancouver: 4 . A new approach to taxation, in- — cluding a $4,000 basic tax exemp- tion for all homeowners and higher taxes on big industrial and com- mercial properties through a grad- — uated business tax; . Establishment of a Lower Mainland Public Utilities Board to take over from B.C. Hydro the dis- tribution of electricity and natural gas and the bus transit system, . A temporary freeze on the sale or lease of all unoccupied and un- developed lands to keep them, out of the hands’ of eal estate: Speculators 4 Ueay ais 4 See amahiahiohen Pg. 12 ‘\.