Apart

Vander

zalm
Talks

Peace
But he’s

Old Bill is back.

Bill Vander Zalm said he could be non-
confrontational. He promised consultation,
democracy, and open government.

But today, the man who helped Bill Bennett
invent confrontation is taking it to new
extremes.

Working and middle-income families are
paying the price: in lost jobs, economic
uncertainty, upheaval in their kids’ schools, and
higher taxes.

Vander Zalm simply doesn’t understand or
care about the interests of ordinary people.

He doesn’t even care about kids.

“It’s hard to understand a man like Premier
Vander Zalm who believes in massive
intervention in industrial relations, but doesn’t
‘get the connection’ between government and
hungry schoolchildren,” said The Province in an
editorial.

“You look in vain for some logic in the
contradiction. But even if you were to find it,
you'd still wonder why a premier would seem so
callous toward the young,” The Province said.

Vander Zalm is continuing where he left off
when he was education minister, with a
vicious, unprecedented attack on teachers. That
means turmoil and confrontation — as well as
hunger — in our schools, and it makes it harder

for your son and daughter to get a good
education.

He’s attacking working women and men,
threatening their livelihood. It means an

uncertain economic future for all of us: less

investment, less consumer confidence, and
worst of all, fewer jobs.

Vander Zalm has hit the people who own or
operate small businesses with a tax increase of
more than one-third. Oksana Exell, of the
Canadian Federation of Independent Business,
says small business has been “hoodwinked,
insulted and hammered”.

The average family will pay an extra $566 in
taxes each year thanks to the first Vander
Zalm budget. But those who earn more than
$100,000 a year will pay less.

The people who built our province have been
insulted with a huge tax and fee increase.
Vander Zalm has told seniors to pay new health
care user fees, new prescription drug fees, and
higher minimum property taxes. It could cost a
homeowner couple over 65 an extra $1,069 a
year!

Young people hoping to buy a home will find
it harder to make their dream come true
thanks to a property purchase tax that adds to
the cost of a home every time land is sold.

Young people in schools will see a small
increase to education this year. But it doesn’t
even begin to make up for the years of cutbacks.
And for every dollar per student increase to
public schools, private schools get five dollars.

The Vander Zalm budget — his blueprint for
economic action — has no provision whatever
for job creation. It even acknowledges that
unemployment will continue to increase this
year. Already, more than 13 percent of British
Columbia's workers are unable to find work.

Lumber Worker! July, 1987/3