You DONT CALL
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Board should answer
for actions — Rankin

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

I believe that the parks board,
.which is an elected body just like
the school board, should have the
right and responsibility of levying
a separate mill rate to cover the
cost of its administration.

The ways things are now, the

parks board comes to city council.

when it needs money. This
naturally leads to a lot of conflict.
But the worst feature of it is that
the parks board is accountable
only to council and not to the
taxpayers who foot the bill for its
expenses.

It’s a basic principle of our
democracy that elected bodies who
spend public funds must be ac-
countable to the electorate. That
principle is being violated by the
-setuup we have with the parks
board in Vancouver today.

What makes matters worse is
that in recent years the parks
board has followed a policy of
catering to the well-to-do and the
tourist trade rather than the needs
of Vancouver citizens. Admission
prices at the aquarium in Stanley

Park, for example, are far out of
line. At most they should be 25c or
50c so that a family there for an
outing can afford to go. Today the
aquarium is being boosted mainly
as a tourist attraction.

The same thing applies to our
new VanDusen Gardens on which
the parks board not only spent but
also wasted a good deal of money.
Here again admission prices are
set not to accommodate local
families who would like to spend an
interesting and educational af-
ternoon in the Gardens; admission
prices are geared to the tourist
trade.

The parks board, at great ex-

pense, built a restaurant at Queen
Elizabeth Park. Then it turned the
whole thing over to private en-
terprise which is charging all that
the traffic can bear for meals. This
is one more example of how a
publicly built facility which should
serve the average family in
Vancouver instead is priced to
serve only the well-to-do and the
tourists.
See PARKS, pg. 12

Critics face Vander Zalm_
| at city parley on June 20

Socred human _ resources
minister William Vander Zalm will
come face to face with the angry
opposition to his anti-people
policies on June 20 at a public
meeting at Vancouver City Hall.

Organized by the Downtown
Eastside Residents Association,
the meeting will replace the
planned July 1 demonstration in
front of Vander Zalm’s home in
Surrey.

“The incredible personal
animosity which many GAIn
victims feel towards you could
have unfortunate results,” DERA
vice-president Bruce Eriksen told
Vander Zalm as he cancelled the
demonstration. In place of the
demonstration, DERA called on
Vander Zalm to meet with repre-
sentatives of all groups concerned
about Human Resources rates and
policies.

Vander Zalm agreed to attend
the June 20 meeting at City Hall
after being contacted directly by
Eriksen. ‘I told him that unless we
could offer the participants in the
demonstration an alternative, they
might show up anyway,” Eriksen
told the Tribune.

The City Hall encounter will take
place at 11 a.m. in Committee
Room number one and will be

~ Paying for corruption with

By MAURICE RUSH

chaired by Alderman Harry
Rankin. The Vancouver and
District Labor Council, the B.C.
Coalition of the Disabled and a
number of other organizations, will
jon with DERA to challenge
Vander Zalm on his policies.

“It seems to us that our dims and
recommendations are totally
compatible with your stated ob-
jective of using taxpayer’s money
to help the deserving,’’ DERA said
to Vander Zalm. “‘Our immediate
concern is the proper allocation of
the $100 million surplus.”

DERA, the Vancouver Labor
Council, the VRB, and Vancouver
City Council’s committee on social
services have all agreed on a six-
point’ program to improve
department of human resources
allocations. The main demand is
that the basic rate for social
assistance be increased to $230 per
month for single persons and to
$284 per month for handicapped
persons.

While a growing number of
organizations throughout the
province are lending their support
to DERA’s program, Vander Zalm
has toughened his stand and has
begun a counter offensive against
the poor.

Last

week Vander Zalm

our taxes

repeated his controversial “shovel
statements” with another attack
on ‘“‘employables.” ‘Those wh
can work had best pick up a shovel
or a shovel will be given to them,
Vander Zalm ranted to a meetiné
of the B.C. Medical Association:
Then Vander Zalm attended 4
Social Credit rally in Vancouver’
Point Grey district and attack
all people on “‘LIP, NIP and CRA
programs of the federal govell
ment. a
‘The minister’s statements wel®
thrown back in his face by DE
vice-president Bruce Eriksen wh?
pointed out that Vander Zalm we
using federal work programs
artificially inflate the figures {0
his own “make work program,
PREP.
Eriksen says that job applicanl
from Canada Manpower offitt
arrive at DERA’s office with thell
application stamped ‘PREP.’ “He
wants to take credit for jobs thi)
we created,” Eriksen said, “ant
then he slanders people working’
government work programs.”
Eriksen said that DERA h®
agreed not to hire any applicanl
who have their forms stam
‘PREP.’ ‘‘We are not going to ke
used by him to pad his figures,” #*
said.

oth Vancouver dailies gave front page coverage to the
Becandai which broke out in Britain last week con-
cerning allegations that the Leyland car company has
paid out $19,450,000 in ‘‘slush money”’ in the form of bribes
and undercover commissions to further their business
interests. The British government last Thursday set up a
high-level inquiry and British prime minister James
Callaghan told Parliament, ‘We will not tolerate these
kinds of practices and they must be rooted out.”’

Compare the front page coverage given by the big
business press in B.C. to events in Britain with the low
profile they are maintaining on a similar scandal closer to
_ home — the Mac Blo disclosures in which the company
admits to having paid out $3.2 million in questionable
practices in domestic and overseas transactions.

Silence continues to surround the Mac Blo payoff
scandal. The giant forest company is stonewalling it,
refusing any further comments, even though the Van-
couver Labor Council has demanded a public inquiry.
Outside of reporting the actions of the labor council, the
media remains silent. They have almost totally ignored
the exposure sent out by the Tribune in a press release and
letter. Our letter brought an acknowledgment from the
premier’s office and a statement from the B.C. Tory
leader that he will raise the matter in the House when it
reconvenes. Significantly, Liberal leader Gordon Gibson,
whose party is reported to be the largest recipient of
political contributions from Mac Blo, has said nothing.
And NDP leader Dave Barrett hasn’t even had the
courtesy to acknowledge our letter.

No one knows at this moment how much of the $3.2
million went to corrupt officials abroad or at home. The
Mac Blo press release on the subject said the ‘study
covered MB’s domestic and overseas transactions for the
five years ending December 31, 1976.’ Whether the money
was used to further Mac Blo’s interests abroad or closer to
home does not make their actions any more palatable. But
certainly the public in B.C. have a right to know the
details as to where and to whom the money went in these
“questionable” practices.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 27, 1977 — Page 2

Wewill never know if we wait for Mac Blo to tell us. It’s
not enough for company officials to say they conducted an
internal investigation and that’s all that’s needed. And
then in the next breath to say — as if admitting guilt —
that they’ll never do it again. The public has a right to
know and only a public inquiry can get the facts out.

There’s a phrase lawyers never tire of using: that
justice should not only be done, but also appear to be done.
In the Mac Blo case neither justice or the appearance of
justice is evident when the wrongdoer investigates
himself. The matter cannot be allowed to rest there.

* * *

Another interesting angle on the Mac Blo case came up
in April which was brought to my attention recently. On
April 5, Stuart Leggatt, the NDP MP from New Westmins-
ter, raised the matter in Parliament. ‘‘Some of MacMillan
Bloedel’s payments were likely used to subvert foreign
governments,’ hesaid and then added that it was “‘iniqui-
tous” that Canadian corporations may legally deduct such
payments from taxes owed the federal government.

Leggatt demanded that this tax provision be ended and
moved a motion to that effect. The Speaker pointed out
that such a motion under Standing Order 43 required
unanimous consent, and when he asked, “Is there such
consent?’’ some MPs cried “‘No.”’ That killed the measure.
_ But the interesting point raised by Leggatt’s action is
that here we have a company which profits from ex-
ploiting vast areas of Crown forests, and then uses
millions of dollars from its operations to pay for
“questionable payments and practices’ — and then
deducts those payments from its taxes. And our elected
MPs continue to defend such practices!

At the London Western economic summit conference
recently, which was attended by the prime minister and
other top Canadian officials, a ‘‘pledge”’ was signed by the
government’s taking part to stamp out international
corruption. I don’t know if Canada signed that ‘‘pledge.”’ I
presume we did. But in Canada the government not only
turns a blind eye to such practices — it makes them tax
exempt:

An irate reader of the Tribune in Port Alberni — a ll i
dominated by Mac Blo — felt so strongly about the iss¥
that he went to city council where he handed out copies?
the Tribune to aldermen and asked that council requé
the media to give full exposure to the issue. Councillo
agreedit was regrettable that the securities and exchal
disclosures resulting in the stories had to be made in th
U.S. The council passed a motion saying that the me@
has access to the information reported in the Vancouv®
Pacific Tribune and that action is up to the ne
organizations.

Don’t hold your breath in anticipation that the big.
business press, which is largely dominated by the are
corporations, is suddenly going to change its tune ad
expose the whole rotten situation. The days of an #
dependent, public-serving press, bent on exposing wr0
doing, is long gone. It went out when the monopolies too .
over. : |

The Mac Blo scandal points up the need for a paper such
as the Tribune. Without our paper the issue would have
been buried and forgotten. We are the only genuine a?!
monopoly, people-owned and oriented weekly labor pa t
That’s one strong reason why it should get the support }
needs in the current financial drive to ensure
publication in the coming year. If you haven’t sent y'
donation in yet — do it now.

Editor - MAURICE RUSH

Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN
-. Business and Circulation Manager — FRED WILSON

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