BRITISH COLUMBIA
CSP commissioner Peck

has ‘dictatorial powers’

Continued from page 1

brought under the government’s
wage controls. There is also provi-
sionin the legislation to establish an
agreement with Ottawa to include
federal public employees who work
in B.C.

According to the program, all
public sector employers are to reg-
ister with the commissioner of the
Compensation Stabilization Pro-
gram (CSP), Ed Peck, and to filea
list of current negotiations.

Once contracts with employees
are concluded, employers are to file
the terms of settlement with Peck
— within 30 days — who will then
determine if they fall within the
guidelines (which, however, arenot
specified in the legislation).

Public sector employers are un-
der penalty of fines and prison sen-
tences for failure to register con-
tract details.

Peck is authorized to order em-
ployers to renegotiate contracts
which do not fall within the guide-
lines and to roll them back if the re-
negotiation process fails. He is also
given discretionary powers to de-
termine the size and implementa-
tion of increases as well as the tim-
ing of the restraint program —
when it takes effect and when it
ends — for any given contract.

New Act

Local school board autonomy is
being virtually “‘strangled”’ by the
provincial government’s initiatives
to slash education spending under
its restraints program, according to
its critics.

Gary Begin, president of the
B.C. School Trustees Association
charged that the new interim

Education Finance Act, introduc-
ed into the legislature Apr. 13,
could slash local budgets by
limiting yearly increases to even less
than the 12 percent announced by
premier Bennett in his televised
speech in February. And the new
Act contains provisions by which

the education minister may tell
local trustees exactly where they
must cut their budgets, said Begin.

And ‘‘conspicuously absent”’
from the Act is any mention of a
previously touted cost-sharing for-

mula, 65-35-05,” raising fears

that the ministry of education may

change the rules and impose a

heavier financial burden on boards
than was initially expected.

The BCSTA had already con-
demned the restraints as an attack
on school board autonomy and the
quality of education when the pro-
gram as it affects education was
first announced. The association
encouraged its 75 member districts
not to table revised budgets for
1982 until the guidelines became
legislation. Only about half of the
boards compiled with a ministry
directive to do so before the end of
March. a

The new Act, by failing to spell

out how education restraints are to —

be applied and by granting the
minister discretionary powers not
originally mentioned when the
restraints were announced, con-
firms the BCSTA charges accor-
ding to Begin.

He has pointed to a section call-

The cabinet itself can determine
the disposition of wage and benefit
provisions in any contract settle-
ment if the employer and the union
cannot come to agreement.

One particularly ominous fea-

ture of the legislation is the provi-
sion allowing Peck to file any of his
orders with the Supreme Court
from which there is no appeal, ex-
cept one based on lack of jurisdic-
tion.

But even more disturbing is the
absence in the bill of the wage con-
trol ceilings which are to be set in
regulations by cabinet order-in-
council.

Premier Bennett did state in his
television speech Feb. 18 announc-
ing the wage controls that the ceil-
ing would be set at 10 percent, with
some provision for additional in-
creases of up to four percent.

But since there is no figure speci- ©

fied in the bill, the cabinet would be
free to set the ceiling at any level it
deemed appropriate.

“Under Bill 28, the cabinet will
take upon itself the power to rule
on every detail of a contract settle-
ment and have the final word with-
out any right to appeal by an injur-
ed party,’’ Rush warned.

He termed the powers given the
CSP commissioner ‘‘complete and
outright dictatorship’’ noting that
Peck is effectively given the author-

ity of a Supreme Court justice to
compel compliance with any order
he may issue. All that is required is
for the order to be filed with the Su-
preme Court for enforcement.

“If these measures are allowed
to stand they will open the way for
the assumption of more arrogant
powers by the cabinet in all other
branches of government,’’ the
Communist Party leader empha-
sized. ‘‘The victim will be parlia-
mentary democracy.””

New Démocratic Party leader
Dave Barrett deplored the action of
the Socreds in leaving ‘‘everything
to secret cabinet order.’’ The NDP
has stated that it will not support
the legislation.

Rush urged wide opposition to
stop the legislation, warning that
the government, by introducing the
bill, ‘has taken a long step towards
abrogating democracy and estab-
lishing the principle of rule by cabi-
net decree.

“Not only should the trade un-
ion movement answer this attack
on labor and labor’s rights but it
should also join with all other Brit-
ish Columbians who cherish de-
mocracy to demand that the pro-
vincial government withdraw Bill
28 now,”’ he said.

“This is no longer labor’s fight
alone. All British Columbians
would be the victims of Bill 28.”’

strangles boards

ed, ‘‘Minister
directives,’’

may issue
under which the

minister may hold budgetary in-.

creases below the initial 12 percent,
and effectively punish local
districts that fail to comply with his
directives.

“The minister has the right to see
how a local board has pared its
budget. If he disagrees with their
decision he can issue a directive tell-
ing them where they should make
cuts. If the board refuses his order,
he can apply to the Lieutenant-
governor in Council and override
the board’s decision. He can reduce
the provincial grant to that district
by whatever amount he considers
appropriate,”’ said Begin.

With such legislation, efforts to
preserve items such as special
education programs as the Van-
couver School Board is attempting
to do, could be thwarted by the
education ministry.

The Act also fails to mention a
new formula previously announc-
ed to replace the current method
whereby school boards have raised
most of their money through local
taxes. The new plan committed the
province to provide 65 percent of
education costs, and share the next

35 percent according to the

district’s ability to raise finances.
The remaining .05 percent was to
be raised through local home taxes.
“Instead, the Act allows the pro-
vince to pay a share ‘prescribed by
the minister’ and in reality this gives
the minister complete and unfet-
tered authority to come with
whatever cost sharing scheme he
likes,’’ Begin charged.
Also unclear is how the govern-
ment intends to spend $75 million it
has been holding in a “‘cost
stabilization account,” said Begin.
“This is a sum finance minister
Hugh Curtis set aside for education

see Ss ee ee Se ee ee a »

purposes. It was our understanding
that this would be used to offset
financial shortfalls in some
districts,” said the BCSTA presi-
dent.

But where the money goes may
be ‘‘a political decision”, accor-
ding to information Begin received
from a “‘senior staff person” in the
ministry, an indication that Social
Credit ridings may be financially
favored.

Government claims that these
changes give local boards and the
Act “flexibility”? are deceiving.
“The flexibility is totally at the
discretion of the ministry while
trustees, the people elected to
oversee public education, are being
legislated so closely that the
government’s stated committment
to local control of education is
becoming farcical,’’ Begin charg-
ed

Meanwhile, Courtenay school
trustee Wayne Bradley has
reported his board was given an
“ultimatum” by the ministry, since
the board has refused to revise its
1982 budget. Either the district
tables a new budget by Apr. 23, or
the ministry itself will trim the
Courtenay budget, said Bradley.

BCSTA information officer
Steve Bareham said it appeared the
directive was given to all boards
which have refused to comply with
the initial order to revise their 1982
budgets. He said this would mean
the ministry would simply limit the
truant boards’ budgets to 12 per-
cent, rather than instituting cuts in
specific areas of the budget.

But Begin said he believed the
ultimatum means the ministry will
make specific cuts to the errant
boards. ‘‘What else could it mean?
The ministry already has the global
figure. Only the specifics are at
question.””

Thanks for the
first $10,000

With one-third of the drive period now behind us, we reached the
$10,487 mark — but that’s only one-eighth of the goal of $82,000 that
we have to reach by June 12. We’re off
to a convincing start but we fervently
hope that the pace will accelerate
over the next few weeks. As
always, we’re counting on you.

From the targets below, you can
- see that some clubs including

Burnaby, North Vancouver,
Nanaimo, Nigel Morgan and

Vancouver East, have already got theirs well under way. The events
are beginning to fill up the calendar — one of them, the oolichan
feast, last week brought the Coquitlam club over $500. For those
with a flair for the sea, there’s a unique one-day cruise on a 31-foot
cabin cruiser, for only $30, with eveything going to the Tribune
(check Coming Events, page 11 for details). And a date has now
been set for the Burke Mountain Labor Festival. It’ll take place May
30 with more details to come next week. —

Burnaby’s perennial top money raiser Bill Chobotuck has added
his name to the list of 500 clubs members, and the list of names of
honor press builders ($150 or more) and press builders ($65 or more)
is growing week by week. There, too, we hope the pace quickens.

Help us to reach our goal of ’82 in ’82’.

GREATER VANCOUVER Creston 350 200
Belogiannis 1200 Fernie 200

Bill Bennett 1,200 61 Powell River 550
Burnaby 5,000. 1,218 Prince George 200
Coquitlam 2,500 507. Sointula 200 14
‘Kingsway 6,700 752 Terrace 200

N. Westminster 1,500 Trail 850 20
Nigel Morgan 1,300 1,000

Nilo Makela 1,000... 75. FRASER VALLEY

North Van 3,800 1,261 Chilliwack 300

Olgin 500 Delta 1,000
Richmond 1,300 50 Langley 650 345
Seamen 500 Maple Ridge 3,000 176
Van. East 8,500 2,262. Surrey 4,500 419
_Van. Fishermen 600 White Rock 1,100
yells a os 349 VANCOUVER ISLAND
OKANAGAN Campbell River 1,500 ie

Comox Valley 1,500

Aura bn 2 Nanaimo 2,000 807
Shuswap 700 Port Alberni 1,500 8
Vernon 1,300 Victoria 2,200 251
N. COAST/INTERIOR Miscellaneous 348
Correspondence 3,150 305 TOTAL: 82,000 10,487

ee

A SALUTE TO PAUL ROBESON

SUNDAY MAY 16 — 2 P.M. (SOLD OUT)
MONDAY MAY 17 — 8 P.M.
QUEEN ELIZABETH PLAYHOUSE
e TICKETS AVAILABLE ¢

C.B.O. 501 W. Georgia — 687-2801
A & A Records, Lansdowne Mall, Richmond
All Lower Mainland Woodward’s
AMS, UBC

e Odetta e Themba T ana
(from South Africa)

@ Ash Street e Jim Johnson

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 23, 1982—Page 3