PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Tuesday, June 28, 1977

(the herald)

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sher,

_Wrong time
to give funds

The debate over public funding for independent
schools has been an emotional and drawn-out
discussion, one that has been going on since the
Vancauver Island colonial legislature passed the
province’s first Public Schools Act in 1865.

At that time, the province’s founding fathers
articulated a philosophy that guided the
government approach to education for 112 years:

“Weare not disposed to be concerned with the
imperfections of the bill so long as two great

principles - free schools and non-sectarian systems .

of education - are enunciated. in this province.”' .
With legislation now before the provincial
legislature to provide public money to separate
schools, the government is declaring its clear
intention to change this commitment. Education
dollars may now be diverted to independent
institutions, an important and dramatic move that
will have long-term repercussions on education.
Unfortunately, the results may he negative.

It has been said that government should
concern itself with doing the greatest good for the
greatest number. An extension of this argument
would suggest that providing money to help both
public and _ private schools achieves that very
end. More people would be helped.

The worry, however, is that funds will be
diverted from needs of the larger, public education
community. There are enormous drains on the
education ministry and calls for public funds
increase annually. British Columbia schooling is
lacking in a number of areas: English-language
training for immigrants, | programs for
students with learning disabilities, community
projects to help deaf children rather than having
them sent to Lower Mainland institutions,
vocational training. It seems, also, that whenever
inroads are made into handling the tough problems
of better educzting our young people , the price
tag rises, Yet, if we are to raise our children to
meet the problems of a highly-competitive society,
we must provide a proper education system.

But the limits on education are obvious. Many
are financial. Already, close to $1 billion in public
funds is spent on educating British Columbians, Ta

properly provide facilities in remote or rural areas,

like the northwest, means a substantial outlay of
capital,

Even with the restrictions the government placed
on separate funding, there will be a substantial
outlay of capital from the start. Public money for
unindependent schools could clear the path for a
proliferation of new institutions, all legitimate, all
run by sincere groups wihwith precepts they hold to
be genuinely important. But nonetheless, all
potentially undermining the ability of Victoria to
provide for the public system.

Under the proposed act, separate schools will be
able to establish their own admission policies.
There will not be open accessibility to these
publicly-funded schools. Is that a wise way to
administer the provincial purse?

We think not. We believe that a government so
committed to budgetary restraint and financial
lightness may, in future, make tough decisions
about education that will include sharp cutbacks.

But with the new necessity to provide basic
support to private school, there will be even more
taken from the public system.

This is not meant to argue the right of separate
schools to exist nor to suggest the quality of
education offered by the independent system is in
any way inferior. Rather, we feel that providing
public dollars at this time it would be a step

backward in that it wiil add an unnecessary
strain to the province’s already staggering
education budget.

Traditionally, the separate school system has

been just that -- separate. For the time being at
least, it should remain so in funding as well as
educat onal emphasis.

TOPPIX

197? ty Gticagy Tnbune- NY News Synd ine
AN Aig ita Avgerver

f ,

with the idea of
interests into a

ro alon
Coe all your financia
blind trust, Morton?”

“tease would you

Multinationals come under

WASHINGTON (CP) — The world’s current dependence
on Middle East oil and the acts of the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have diverted
attention from the growing influence of multinational
petroleum corporations.

But as OPEC dominance fades with development of
other energy sources, the power of the corporations likely
will become more apparent.

The multinationals are involved in almost every aspect
of energy development, buying control of new oil and gas
sources, gaining a major share in ther reborn coal
industry and moving into uranium fuel.

As their power grows, the corporations may be moving
beyond the influence of governments,

ator Frank Church (Dem. Idaho) says the acts of the
corporations during the 1973 OPEC embargo illustrate
“the fact that multinational oil companies were not really
susceptible to the direction of their home governments.”’

- Interpreting the news a

During the OPEC embargo, Britain worked out
arrangements for special supplies of OPEC oil.
CUT SUPPLIES

Supplies of non-OPEC oil, however, were cut
accordingly by BP and Shell, which allocated the non-

scrutiny

Petroleum companies also control 52 per cent of U.S.
uraniun reserve and 62 per cent of uranium milling
capacity. Some also have been full partici
uranium cartel, ostensibly under the direction of Canadian
and other governments.

ts ina world

OPEC oil elsewhere. The petroleum giants may be joined in their control of
Church, chairman of the us. Senate subcommittee on energy by a re stake. aoe Us. railroads, which

i j licy, writes in a sue 0! ve a
eee ee rey mhabeaiie . minerals, also are buying into gas, oodl and uraniun pro-~

Fore ign Policy magazine that the corporations did a fair
job of allocating oil during ‘the embargo.

Since 1973, the corporations have continued to acquire
energy sources, raising speculation that their long-term
goal is to contro] all energy supplies.

In the U.S., oil and gas companies make up 14 of the top
2 holders of U.S. coal reserves. Federal Energ

duction.

This

Administration forecasts indicate that the companies su
control more than half the coal production over the next10 = ea
years.

industries.

penetrate the com
ly arrangemen
with subsidiaries in dozens of countries an

The possibility emerges that the continulng growth of
the multinational ener,
beyond the control of
growth may make it less easy for governments to
plexity of multinational pricing and

corporations may place them
yotedt national b ae

involving 10 to 20 giant corporations,
ozens of

NOT LEGAL UNTIL AGE 14

OK

Eemontan Teepnal

Business spotlight

Higher oil price
means sands use

EDMONTON (CP) — Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd.
(GCOS) requires world-level oil prices if it is to finance a
30-per-cent increase in production, says W. L. Oliver, the
company’s vice-president of corporate affairs.

‘OS, which started Canada’s first commercial oil-
sands extraction plant in the Athabasca oil sands of
northeastern Alberta 10 years ago, has government
approval to increase its daily production to 65,000 barrels
from 50,000. .

But financing the expansion is impossible unless GCOS
receives world-level oil prices, Oliver said In an
interview. ; ;

Last year GCOS had a $67-million debt on its $330-
million investment and achieved a $12-million profit only
by having $31 million in royalties and interests forgiven
by its major shareholder, Sun Oil Co. Ltd.

Oliver said the coking and processing facilities
required to increase production to 65,000 barrels would
cost between $100 million and $150 million.

SAVE $76 MILLION

Onthe other hand, the additional 15,000 barrels of daily
production would save Canada $76million annually in the
cost of importing oil at current world prices.

Oliver said since Syncrude Canada Ltd. has been
promised world-level prices when its oilsands plant
starts production next year GCOS should also be given
the same treatment. ; ;

He said world-level oil prices, after adjustments for
transportation, would give GCOS $60 million in additional
annual revenue, needed to finance expanded production.

Oliver said Sun Oil, which owns 95 cent of
outstanding stock, has poured substantial funds into
GCOS without a return. .

He said that although GCOS had a debt of $67 million

” last year, it still had to pay.$63 million in royalties to the
, Alberta government.

Oliver said that in 1972, prior to the sharp increase in
international oil prices and the inflation that followed,
GCOS had general operating costs of $64 million, but by
1976 these costs had increased to $150 million.

In Hong Kong, child labor persists

HONG KONG (Reuter) —
The Hong Kong government
has fonneoh ‘ fines for

actories caught employing
children under 14 ag cheap
labor. .

But policing clothing and
gadget factories is a giant
task for the 100 labor
inspectors in this British
colony.

Their realm covers 37,000
factories and most of them
employ jess than 100
workers each.

Labor Commissioner Ian

Price, who raised the
maximum penalty to about
$2,195 said the social evil
exists here, but not on a
large scale.

He said that child labor
provoked foreign criticism
and hampered Hong Kong
trade negotiators ‘‘because
it is used as a basis for the
fallacious argument that
Hong Kong uses cheap labor
to achieve competitive
prices.”’ ;

In 1969, 1,700 factories
were raided and 600 children

found. A raid on 6,230
factories last November
uncovered 31 children.

In doubling the fines,
Price called on courts to
impose stiffer penalties on
convicted employers. He
also has written to 90 trade
unions asking for their
support in weeding out
offenders.

He said, ‘In
terms they work

eneral
ecause

they want to and because .

their parents have no
objection.”

Urban councillor Elsie

Elliott has attacked the’

government on the issue of
child labor.

She said the best solution
would be to increase the
beeadwinner’s salary and
establish a minimum wage
so that a man could fully
support his family.

e said that child
workers did not make up a
large proportion of Hong
Kong's labor force, but s
estimated “‘they run into
thousands.”

AFTER ALLENDE WAS TOPPLED

Former Chilean police chief now

WINNIPEG <‘CP) —
Francisco Valenzuala fled
his native Chile in 1975 in
search of a life free of
controversy and fear.

As the influential chief of
police in Santiago at the
time of the military coup in
1973, he had experienced
enough of both.
Immediately after the coup
Valenzuala was jailed for
two years and when he was
released the only course
open to him was to !sive the
country.

So he emigrated to
Canada.

“We were prepared to
accept anything when we
came here, but of course we
were hoping it would be
something we had been
trained for,”’ he said in an
interview. .

But language barriers and
the question of citizenship
made that dream
impossible and Valenzuala
was forced to take jobs
washing floors and dishes
and making mattresses.

But while doing so he
studied English. Last fall he
got a job as an inspector
with the Manitoba Liquor
Commission only te he
inadvertently involved in a
union dispute because of

some minor contract clause.

But the dispute and the
publicity it created
concerned Valtenzuala
because he wanted to
present a good image in his
new home.

“We know the Canadian
authorities are watching us
and we don’t want them to
stop other Chileans from
coming in,” he said. ‘‘We’re
not political leaders. We left
Chile because it was
impossible for us to continue
living there after the coup.”
RISKED DEATH

The life of Valenzuala and’

his family was nearly
‘destroyed during the blood:
coup that depended,
Valenzuala said, on the
instilling of fear and
confusion among the people.

“Tt wasn't a revolution, it
was an all-out war. There
was indiscriminate killing of
people ... it didn’t matter if
they were rightist or
leftist.”

But he and his famil
vived the coup an
imprisonment,

Today, his English is
vastly improved and he can
carry on casual
conversations. His wife,
Miriam, an_ education
professor in Chile, has found

sur-
the

work aS a nurse’s aide.
Their two children, aged

18 and 15, have adapted well

to their new life. —

Valenzuala doesn’t think
of returning to Chile, saying
it is a useless dream. To
return would only result in

working conditions, she
makes comparisons with
Victorian England.

could have come here. He
would have had plenty of
material.” ,

Kong Federation of
Industries, which
1,000 companies, welcomed
the increased fines, but said,
“More inspec
one solution to stamp out the
problem."

washes

death or imprisonment,

Price plans to rectify the
situation with a new influx
of trainee inspectors.

When doubling the fines,
Price warned g Ko
firms about the dangers
being insular or complacent
about foreign criticisms.

“Such charges will be
particularly aging to
Hong Kong's reputation and
tra interests in the year
ahead when several major
international trade
agreements are due to be
renegotiated."

When discussing their
“I wish Charles Dickens

Aspokesman for the Hong

TOUDS

tors would be

dishes

vocational schools where’

- “We try to make a life for
ourselves here," he says. ‘‘I
tell the young people to go to

they an improve their;

language and specialize in
some ge ant

OTTAWA (CP) — The price of an
average house dropped significantly
in a number of major cities across
the country in the last year with
some of the largest decreases shown
in Quebec province, a survey by
Royal Trust shows.

House prices fell by as much as 10

r cent in some parts of Montreal
between last August and June 1 this
year but drops also were indicated in
Regina (12 per cent), Fredericton,
N.B. (4.3) and some suburban To-
ronto areas.

The Royal Trust survey, the only
national survey comparing the
average city-to-city price of similar
homes, found that prices either
dropped or showed no change in 33
locations.

Prices increased in 35 locations
but in only 12 did the rate of increase
equal or exceed the 6.1-per-cent
inflation rate during the period.

In Montreal and areas, where

prices already are among the lowest

HERE’S A CHANGE OF PACE:
HOUSE PRICES ARE FALLING

in the country, the survey found the
rice of an average three-bedroom
bungalow in Hudson dropped to
$48,000 from $53,000, in Pierrionds to
$29,000 from $32,000 and in Pointe
Claire to $36,500 from $39,000.

In the Town of Mount Royal, a

suburb of Montreal, the average

rice of a similar house dropped to

3,000 from $65,000 while in St.
Lambert, a suburb on the south
shore, the average price increased
to $47,500 from $45,000. |

A similar house in Halifax in-
creased to $53,900 during the fering
from $50,000 but dropped to
from $41,500 in Saint John, N.B.

The price of that average house
increased to $80,000 in central
Toronto from $76,000 in the last year
while dropping to $67,000 from
$69,000 in Mississa a and to $64,000
from $65,900 in Oakville, both dor-
mitory communities.

The survey found that the
suburban Kerrisdale area of

40,000

Vancouver continued to hold the |
record of the highest prices for an
average home. The price of -an.
average bungalow increased to
$94,000 from $93,000.

In Edmonton, the price dropped
marginally to $70,600 from. $71,000
since last August and in Regina, the
price, dropped to $54,590 from

The average price in Winnipeg
rose to $56,000 from $51,000.

This year, demand for homes has
been strong because of a drop in
mortgage rales since last December
olla cuts in the len ra
the Bark of Canada. ing y

While mortgages :were peaking -
cloge to 12 per cent last year’ buyers
began to resist and sellers of hauses
had a difficult time finding takers.

This led to a buildup in supply.
Now that demand is strong again;
the real estate industry in almos:
every part of the country has
reported a brisk business,