BRITISH COLUMBIA _

1 |

ame | we

Socred axe heaviest in Canada —

A survey conducted by the
B.C. School Trustees Association
and released Friday shows that
the Social Credit government has
Slashed its provincial share of
education costs by more than any
other province across Canada.

In fact, according to ‘the
Survey, the restraint program,
aimed at cutting teachers’ salaries
and reducing the provincial share
of education, has been more
draconian than that anywhere
else, with the possible exception
of Quebec where teachers are cur-
rently on strike in a bid to force
the Levesque government to res-
cind legislation rolling public sec-
tor wages back 20 percent.

“Economic restraint has left its
mark on public education across
Canada but in no other province,
with the exception perhaps of
Quebec, have financial cutbacks

been as severe or as strictly
legislated as in BC. ,22 the
BCSTA stated in releasing the
survey results.

But even in Quebec, where the-

Parti Quebecois government has
also reduced its grants to school
boards, the cutback has ziot been
as massive as in this province.

The survey shows that
throughout the 1982-83 budget
year, the Socreds withdrew $115
million in provincial funds. The
government also seized the tax
base for commercial and in-
dustrial properties (for school
Purposes) and removed the
authority from school boards to
set tax levels for residential pro-
perty.

In addition, education minister
Bill Vander Zalm has instructed
school boards to hold budgets at a
level about four percent lower

than their restrained budgets in
1982. “‘Government grants will
fall by at least 3.7 percent and
perhaps by as much as 23.8 per-
cent,” the BCSTA survey reveal-
ed. “Teacher salary increases,
estimated to be in the three per-
cent range, are likely to be
negated by the loss of five days
pay under Bill 89 (the Education
[Interim] Finance Act).””

Those drastic cutbacks com-
pare with the situation in other
Provinces, such as Alberta where
Provincial grants to education are
to rise by five percent; in Saskat-
chewan, where they are expected
to go up by six percent; in
Manitoba where they will rise by
five to six percent; in Ontario,
where the projected increase in
three to five percent; in Nova
Scotia, where grants will go up by
8.8. percent; and in New-

foundland, where the grants will
likely go up by five to seven per-
cent. :

Figures for New Brunswick
and Prince Edward Island were
not known.

In the provinces surveyed, ex-
cepting Quebec, teachers’ salary
increases were nearly all in the six
percent range with Nova Scotia
projecting an increase of 11 per-
cent.

The survey follows a similar
study conducted by the trustees’
association in September, 1982
which showed that the percentage
Provincial share of education
Costs paid by B.C. was the lowest
of any province in Canada.

That will also be the case in
1983, with the Social Credit
government funding an ever-
diminishing share of the cost of
education.

‘that other conservative gover |

survey

In 1980, the province pickeduf |
39.6 percent of the share 0
education cpsts. Last year
dropped to 32.6 percent. And a¢-
cording to the BCSTA, depei
ding on what happens with pro |
perty taxes, it could drop aslow# |
25.8 percent in 1983. + ||

The total result of the Socreds
restraint program is a massive |
shift of the cost on to working |
people who will pay not only i! |
increased property taxes but als |
in decreased wages, A ||

Not surprisingly, premier Bet |
nett won applause from his al:
dience of corporation executiv® |
at the Canadian Club in Toront0
Monday when he presented |
the public sector wage contra! |
program and budget cutbacks 4 |,
an example ofa restraint program |

ments should follow. |

2a
Delta demonstrators cheer as mo

Y Wa
iy r=

re arrive to swell the ranks at school cutbacks rally Tuesday.

TRIBUNE PHOTO—DAN KEETON

oT

1,200 pack Robson
Square in protest |
of Delta cutbacks

In one of the largest protests so
far against the education cutbacks
of the Social Credit government,
more than 1,200 parents and
children jammed Robson Square
plaza Tuesday night to dramatize
the plight of schools:in Delta, one
of the hardest hit districts in the
province.

Despite the wind and rain they
huddled under a sea of umbrellas
and placards to cheer speakers
from all groups affected by the
school cuts, in a united protest
against the closure of schools, pro-
gram cancellations and layoffs.

“‘We want Bill!’’ the crowd yell-
ed repeatedly at one point, a

A nybody perusing the professional and managerial help wanted ads
in the business section of the news

The position, according to the job description, calls for someone to

implementation and maintenance of mine

cost accounting and budgeting . . .”

The ad has been running for some weeks now — but it shouldn’t be
Quintette that is looking for such an accountant.

It should be the Social Credit government. Moreover, they should

have advertised for a cost and budget accountant a long time ago. And

if that accountant had been anything other than a Socred hack bent on

selling out the province’s

resources, he would have thrown out the

whole NE coal deal as a complete financial boondoggle.

We said that a long time ago,

of course. But according to figures

issued last week by the New Democratic Party, public costs for the coal
project, including new borrowing, continue to rise while the Japanese
are seeking reductions in the negotiated price of coal. °

The ministry of finance has now admitted that it has authorized the
borrowing of $300 million to finance the Tumbler Ridge portion of
B.C. Railway’s construction commitment — and that is on top of two
earlier loans that were sought, for $88 million and $45 million.

The interest charges alone on the current estimated costs of BCR
tunnels and track — and the Socreds are notorious for estimating low
— will be some $50 million annually. Yet the surcharge of $2.50 to $3

per tonne will only bring in about $21

tracts.

million based on current con-

In addition, the Japanese are curtailing their demand for coal —
which has already resulted in layoffs in the southeastern coal fields —

and are pressing for price cuts in contracts

price cuts would inevitably result in demands by thecoal multinationals

to reduce the surcharge which goes to the province. And so it goes.
As we’ve said before, the NE coal project will saddle us with debt,

strip our vast resources to provide cheap coal for Japan and profits for

Teck Corporation and Denison Min
grams to finance the sellout. It shoul
is spent — and the resources used

dustry.

which they now hold. Those

es and cutback more social pro-
d be scrapped before more money
0 develop B.C., not Japanese in-

‘PEOPLE AND ISSUES
Baebes orc een area nen eee ar engane a RNS ROR res

A n interview which we ran last October, courtesy of the U.S.
People’s World, with Vivienne Verdon-Roe, producer of the film
“Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow — What the Children Can Tell
Us’’, drew a considerable response from readers when it appeared.
And many of them might be interested to snow that See will
be appearing as a guest s €r at a somewhat unique conference, en-
titled “Education for Avr which is scheduled for Mar. 19.

Organized by a new group based in the Surrey-White Rock area,
New Horizons Peacemakers, the conference is
educators and will feature three workshops on
social studies curriculum’’, ‘Building a peaceful world” and “‘Music
and the arts to educate for peace.’” Among the moderators will be Dr.
Pauline Wesinstein, a UBC education professor and past president of
the Vancouver School board and U.S. educator Beverly Taylor who
developed a kit on peace for use in Seattle schools.

More information on the conference is available from new Horizons
Peacemakers secretary Bette Pepper, 1570 Cory St., White Rock.

= * *
T he progressive movement in the Fraser Valley lost a link with its
early beginnings with the passing of Pearl Treliving who died as

she was being admitted to hospital J;

Born in Prince Edward Island in 1901 , She spent all but one of her 81
first on Barnston Island and later in Fort
Langley where her husband Jack still lives.

A long time supporter of the Tribune she was also a veteran member
of the Communist Party, having joined along with Jack in the first
years of the depression in 1932. A memorial service was held in Langley

years in the Fraser Valley,

Feb. 2.

* oe ok

j Ni page 11 of this issue, readers will find the third and final coupon

which we will be using to monitor delivery of the Tribune. Please,
fill out the date of the issue, the date you received it and mail it, together
with the coupons from the previous two issues to the Tribune office.
Your cooperation is important if we are to press the Canada Post to get

your paper coming to you sooner.

an. 27.

aimed primarily at
“Peace as part of the

PACIFIC, TRIBUNE FEBRUARY.11°1983=,Page'2

reference to either premier Bill a .
nett or education minister hal
Vander Zalm, both of whom h#
been invited to attend, and we
notably absent from, the rally.
Delta School ‘board chairm#!
Caroline Porter held aloft a bundlé |
of petitions from the speakers’ a
at the head of the courthouse steps
announcing that more than 10,00
signatures had been gathered. TH
petitions supported the board int
recent action of filing with vl
education ministry a budget whi¢ :
exceeds the education ministry
funding by $3 million. |
Other districts — most recently:
Surrey and Mission — have als?
sent “real needs” budgets rath
than plan school closures apd
layoffs necessary to accomm
government underfunding. |
Delta’s case, further acceptance 9
government restraint (the
had willingly trimmed its budg@
before restraints were announces
last year, and still faces another §
million cut) would mean thé
closure of three schools, pro, f
cancellations and layoffs %
100-150 teachers and 50 suppot
staff.
Some speakers at the rally made
much of the fact that Delta, whic!
had cooperated in the past wit
restraint, had little in the way 9
‘frills’ — field trips or hot lunch@
— enjoyed by other Lowé!
Mainland districts, while beit
forced to cut back on scho0
libraries by as much as 50 percett:
In contrast, Delta Teachet>)
Association president Calvet!
Moore noted that while “‘it is really
tragic what’s happening in Delta’
cautioned against pointing the
finger “‘for example, at those ‘fat
cats’ in Burnaby. a
““We’ve got to go for a quality
education in all parts of the pro”
vince. We cannot affort a split i
the education lobby,”’ he said t0
strong cheers from the assembly. _
That sentiment was echoed by
North Delta student council presi |
dent Karen Thiele, who in citing the
“disastrous” effects of cutbacks
said, “I believe I’m expressing the
feelings of every student in B.C.”

|