ei

— page 12

March 30, 1988
Bf 3

Vol. 51, No. 12
ais

‘Glasnost’ creds make elderly,

production

= | SICK pay in 88 budget

Whatever improvements there may have
been in economic performance over the
past year, B.C.’s working people and its
poor will not share in increased prosperity.

In past years successive provincial
budgets have reflected the essence of Social
Credit ideology — make low-income people
pay for capitalism’s repeated crises.

The budget tabled in the legislature by
Socred Finance Minister Mel Couvelier
continues that trend, even though there
have supposedly been marginal improve-
ments in industrial performance and

Editorial, page 4
Seniors set plans, page 7

employment. Sacrificed in the name of
making corporations wealthier are seniors,
the poor and all those who pay medical
premiums.

Meanwhile. to the surprise of few, corpo-
rations received further tax breaks — both
in the income tax and other departments.

And in case anyone had ideas about
overcoming the budget’s whammy through
increased wages, the finance minister
couched this threat in his budget speech:

““Wage increases in the private and public
sector must be tied to productivity and to
the maintenance of competitive position .. ..
The government recognizes that public sec-
tor wage settlements can create a domino

see BUDGET page 7

Trib contest
now barred

The Tribune has been forced to dis-
continue its annual financial drive
fund-raising contest under threat of
prosecution.

Sergeant D.D. Wakelam, national
gaming specialist for the Pacific
Region of the RCMP, told the Trib-
une in a letter last year that conduct-
ing the contest without a licence
constituted an offence under the
Criminal Code and warned that
“conducting similar schemes” would
result in a criminal investigation.

Because it is a limited company,
not a charitable foundation, the Trib-
une cannot qualify for a licence.

Subsequent legal efforts to find
alternative means to conduct a con-
test were unsuccessful.

The contest has been a regular fea-
ture of the financial drive for 50 years.
It was initiated by Arthur Evans when
| he was business manager of the paper
. in 1938 and was an important means
of fund-raising from the 1950s
through the early 1980s, even after the
Social Credit government brought in
lottery legiuslation in the 1970s.

Details on page 3

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

With volunteer Tiffany McDowell working behind her, End the Arms Race co-ordinator Phillipa Beck shows the new Walk
For Peace posters, part of EAR’s extensive publicity campaign that is now in full swing. This year’s walk, on April 23, is
jointly sponsored by EAR, Vancouver's city council, school board and parks board. Asin past years, assembly will be at 11
a.m. at Kitsilano Beach, with the march set to go at 12 noon. It will wind up with a rally at Sunset Beach at 1:30 p.m.
featuring Juno-award winning singer Charlotte Diamond.