VANCOUVER

Continued from page 1

The report makes several cuts, targeting
not only jobs but also staff layoffs, to the
fire department, parks, libraries, commun-
ity centres and city hall.

The one that attracted the most press
attention was the chopping of the city’s
— and the Vancouver harbor’s — sole
remaining fireboat. It was obviously per-
ceived as politically vulnerable by the
Campbell administration, since only a few
minor fires involving the boat occurred in
the harbor last year and because the city
has tried unsuccessfully for years to get the
federal government and other municipali-
ties on the harbor to share the costs.

There is also a reduction, to four from
five members, in pumping crews on fire
trucks. In all, the department faces the loss
of 51 jobs.

Spokesmen for the Vancouver Firefigh-
ters’ Union said the local would not havea
comment until Wednesday, but referred
the Tribune to the comments of Van-
couver fire chief Donald Pamplin in his
reports to the priorities committee.

Commenting on the reduced crews,
Pamplin wrote: “We will still put out
fires — it will just take longer to do it.”

The chief warned that the reduction in
crews would mean higher monetary losses
and “potentially higher citizen injury and
death rates.”

He recommended that no cuts be made
until the city-had a chance to analyze the
department's needs and called for a “mas-
ter plan strategy” to fight fires in Van-
couver. ‘7
x the termination of the fire

~ ‘boat — which will cause the layoff of 12
fire Shines — Pamplin noted that during

the recent rupture of the city’s water main
the fire boat maintained emergency servi-
ces by pumping sea water into special
water mains. He also wrote, “Although
there has been considerable upgrading
along the harbor shoreline, land based fire
crews carinot adequately defend those
installations without marine assistance.”

The report recommends the city cut the
professional position of librarian at
branches, replacing them with non-
professional staff and ultimately reducing
regular, full-time staff through attrition.

President Nancy Clegg of the Canadian
Union of Public Employees, Local 291,
said the cuts came as a “great blow to the
professional pride” of the city’s library
staff. :

She cited a survey carried out for the
ete in which respondents rated the ser-

“of great importance.”

We? ve been asked to provide service
for which the demand has been growing
over the last few years, and we’re certainly
saddened that we’re going to have to lower
the level of that service,” Clegg said.

Aileen Tufts, director of the Vancouver
Public Library, told the committee that
the professional staff reduction would
mean cancellation of the outreach pro-
gram, a 50-per cent reduction in the reader
advisory service, a 75-per cent reduction in

the adult program and numerous other -

cuts.

Included among the cuts to inside
workers are two positions in the city
clerk’s office, $160,000 worth of cleaning
cuts in city hall for a reduction to 15 from
25 positions, the axing of the bicycle co-

ordinator and the elimination of a part- 5

time position“in the Equal Opportunities
Program.

By HARRY RANKIN

During last November’s civic election
campaign, the Non-Partisan Association
_ angrily denied charges from the Committee
of Progressive Electors that it was planning
cuts in city staff and services. That was its

public stance, its public agenda.
Now its real agenda, its secret agenda, is
being revealed. A special council committee

NPA, true to form,
cuts people’ Ss services

be made among firefighting crews — here
the reduction will be a total of 54.

There will be no cuts in service to devel-
opers and other corporate interests that
bankrolled. the NPA’s election campaign.
All the cuts are in services to people. Those
cuts will do serious harm.

The cut in staff at the information desk

~ on the main floor of city hall may, accord-

Three social worker positions in the
prevention service of the city health

department are axed, several cuts toclean- *

ing and other community centre services
are proposed, and the internal auditing
staff faces a reduction to eight or nine from
the current 14 positions.

David Cadman of the Vancouver
Municipal and Regional Employees Union,
said the latter cut means cases of embez-
zlement, which the city experienced a few
years ago, will be much harder to detect.
Cadman said he was “concerned” that a
proposed reduction of 10 full-time equi-
valent positions in the planning depart-
ment — long the target of some city
councilors and the city’s big developers
— will mean a reduced role for the city in
planning for the B.C. Place lands and the
downtown core.

He also noted the reduction to three
from four members in the city’s surveying
crews could result in contracting out the
service to avoid delays: “If they contract
out, there’ll certainly be no savings.”

Cuts in the engineering department
include reductions in garbage pickup, the
elimination of a planned newspaper recy-
cling service, a reduction in sewer pump-
ing crews to two from three workers,
cancellation of earthquake insurance for
the city’s bridges and cuts in parks main-
tenance.

Officials at CUPE Local 1004, which
represents the city’s outside workers, said
the impact on jobs was still being assessed.
But seven or eight jobs which would have
been retained through the introduction of

COPE, unions hit city cutbacks

a city recycling service are now in ques-
tion.

COPE Ald. Bruce Eriksen has plenty to
say about the proposed cutbacks. He calls
them “totally outrageous.”

He charged that the agenda ignores the
four-year capital plan through which city
voters in a plebiscite approved higher
taxes for new projects. And he said that
Campbell, unlike previous mayoral can-
didates for the NPA who were unsuccess-
ful in their electoral bids, denied he would
enact cuts to the city.

But Campbell did say he would reduce
property endowment fund transfers to the
city’s budget — a practice the previous
progressive administrations had initiated
to balance the budget without severe tax
hikes or service cuts in the face of declining
revenues.

The city. budget, passed April 28,
includes a transfer from the $470 million
fund of $9 million — 13.8 per cent less
than the $10.4 million transferred from the
fund last year. The transfers are less than
what the fund earns in interest yearly.

Eriksen said he and fellow COPE Ald.
Libby Davies voted against the budget
— not because they disagreed with its
tenets, but because it hid the real cuts they
knew were coming.

“All sorts of people and groups made
presentations on what they thought was
the real budget — but this is the real one,
and it means cutbacks now and in the
future,” Eriksen warned.

Eriksen said all the positions axed “are
absolutely necessary to the running of the
city.”

ges ja ing to the city clerk’s department, bring “a aes = SSS ay
Mayor Campbell and reduction in service to the public,” cause the Pai and swimming spook: aise as New Biighton in Vancouver's east Cont are the
‘AME Pal anitio information desk to be vacant at times, and victims if city council's cutback plans go through.
: : tours may have to be cancelled.” - :

appointed officials Lavi fF st oe library department. The director notes that hiring of summer students from the plan-
— city manager Fritz i S io Shag nas a “a M re the cuts would result in: ning school at UBC would be terminated.
Bowers and director = ar ee ames rae » Cepart- @ Alllibrarians at library branches being _ To add insult to injury, concession prices if
of finance Peter eae ae oe “ WS Stee laid off and replaced by lower-paid, non- city parks would be raised to bring in af
Leckie — is bringing sg ed aed, Ne Ges tek cae professional staff; additional $113,000 in revenue, while golf
in proposals for a f m8 Perera tak Asn ai satin’ apf os hed The role of the Vancouver Public course fee increases would bring in an addi
whole series of cuts ss ESS =a . sy 1c Ceadlines, warns the city Library as a major information, reference __ tional $683,000. a
in essential services HARRY : : and resource library being “severely dam- All these cuts in staff and services are
and a staff reduc- RANKIN Garbage collection, will be reduced by _ aged.” expected to save the city some $5 million, —
tion of at least 110 people. one day a month on the average. Services provided by the parks and _ but thereisno need for any of them becausé

In doing so, the NPA is also introducing The city willnotimplementanagreement __ recreation commission would also be money to retain service is available in thé

a new philosophy into city council, namely it made with the Greater Vancouver severely curtailed. This would include interest that accumulates every year in the
that whenever the city proposes and voters _ regional district to pick up newspapers for _ reduction in iceman janitorial services at ice city’s property endowment fund. This intet™
accept capital work projects such asthenew recycling. = rinks, in the maintenance of public beaches _ est is part of the city’s annual revenue, but
Cambie Street bridge, street and sewer ren- The engineering department notes that and surrounding lawn areas, in mainte- the NPA council wants to set it aside and
ovations, and so on, these capital expendi- _ reducing the sewer flushing crew “would __ nance of neighborhood parks, in mainte- _ not use it. That way the NPA will have af
ture items must be paid for not by increases reduce the amount of flushing activityand nance of the city’s 124 ball diamonds, andin _ excuse for cutting staff and services.

in taxes or by using the interest generated by _ potentially result in an increase in flooding —_ maintenance of floral displays in Stanley These cuts in staff and services cannot be ~

the city’s property endownment fund, but due to the build-up of debris in some sew- _ Park and Queen Elizabeth Park. defeated in council where the NPA has 4
by cuts in services and staff. : ers. = The cuts would also leave big gaps inthe huge majority. But they can be defeated by
The service and staff cuts will affect The equal employment opportunities city’s planning department. Public meetings citizen groups sending delegations to coun-

almost every department of the city. The —_ program will be reduced. This program was __ on neighborhood pubs to hear neighbor- cil and telling the mayor and council in 2°
staff cuts to be made include clerks, stenos, _ designed to help Native Indians, persons hood concerns, for example, would no uncertain fee that these cuts must not be
firefighters, librarians, social workers, with disabilities, visible minorities and — longerbesponsored by the city. Alocalarea made. .City staff and city services can an
waetie: ermal tar seg ace bea bay in seeking sacs Hues planning program for Kerrisdale would be must be maintained at their present en
maintenance crews in ct Library services would be severely cur- _ deferred. Planning concerns in Chinatown Harry Rankin was a COPE alderman for
beaches, ice rinks, ball diamonds, planners __ tailed with a resulting “deterioration of ser- _ would not be addressed. Work on the cen- years and chair of council's finance pe
and many others. The biggest cuts of all will _—_ vices to the public” as pointed out by the tral area plan (city centre) would becut. The tee. Pe

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 6, 1987