B ritish Columbians will be happy to learn that in

the Socred fiscal year which ended March 31, 1969,
their consumption of well-diluted booze reached a grand total
of $184.9 million, or some $15.9 million over the 1967-68 period
of ‘‘affluent’”’ drouth.

The Liquor Control Board (LCB) which holds exclusive
rights to the sale of all alcoholic beverages in B.C. reports a
net profit ‘‘take’’ out of the past year’s sales of some $38-
million, or approximately 30-cents out of every dollar spent on
LCB products. . -

That figure, in keeping with typical Socred financial
finagling, is a bit misleading, since it omits all mention of the
heavy volume of pure Capilano water injected into that dollar’s
worth of hootch before the customer has even had a chance to
say ‘‘Skol’’. Hence 60-cents clear profit on every dollar ‘‘down
the hatch’’ would probably be much closer to the real profit
return to the LCB.

No wonder the Socreds boast so loudly about our
“continental water resources’’, readily given away to a water-
hungry U.S. monopoly at basement-bargain prices, but a very
high priced commodity when consumed by the home folks via
an anemic quart of ‘‘Heather Dew’.

* * *

During recent weeks M. Trudeau seems to be feeling the
“burdens of state.’” What with French disregard of ‘‘protocol’’
(as seen by M. Trudeau), the alleged shenanigans of the
Liberal-sponsored Company of Young Canadians, Rene
Levesque’s Parti Quebecois, and Quebec Separatists in
particular, plus diplomatic exchanges with the Vatican and all

that sort of thing, the P.M. begins to look and act like a jilted’

spinster after her fourth face-lift.

When Jean De Lipkowski, secretary. of state in the French
Foreign Ministry paid a courtesy visit to Quebec, but omitted
Ottawa in his tour de bonhomme, that really gave M. Trudeau
the “‘protocol’’ DT’s— just after having so recently disposed of
the De Gaulle ‘‘Viva Quebec libre’ tender spot.

Meantime while Trudeau was pouring his scorn (in polite
language of course) on De Lipkowski for ‘‘snubbing’’ Ottawa,
another French government diplomat, M. Joseph Comite,
French secretary of state for Youth and Sports, arrived in
Quebec hot-foot from Paris — with no advance notice of his

~ coming— no intention— of visiting Ottawa. Mon Dieu.

As if that weren’t enough to etch haggard lines on the
Trudeau brow and put the old ‘‘swinger’’ charisma into
mothballs for the duration, along comes the youthful Parti
Quebecois convention, evolving plans and vivre which could
well catapult it into a winning position come the next Quebec
election. Especially with Trudeau’s Liberals in La Belle
province literally ‘‘hanging on the ropes’.

M. Trudeau has been reported during recent weeks of
planning to ‘‘close down’ a number of Canadian embassies
abroad as part of ‘‘cutting government expenditures’’, thereby
taking a side-swipe at the inflation bogie. But is seems the
Vatican diplomatic exchange will be a trifling expense, and
therefore no great burden on the public purse.

It may be however that the ultra hard-core Protestants in
Quebec and their co-religionists in Orange Ontario may further
contribute to the PM’s mounting “headaches when the
“diplomatic”? machinery of Vatican-Canada ‘‘accord’’ gets
rolling in high gear — if Ulster is any criteria of the ‘‘amity”’
between these heavenly bodies.

Be that as it may, in this writer’s opinion ‘‘recognition’’ of
Peoples’ China, the GDR or a whole number of other
iad states would have served Canada’s interests much

tter.

No help from Victoria —
TATE on civic financial crisis |

(Alberni alderman George
McKnight recently published an
analysis of the 1969 convention of
the Union of B.C. Municipalities held
in Kamloops in September. The PT
publishes below, in abridged form,
some of the main points made by
Ald. McKnight which are of
particular interest in view of the fact
that civic elections -in B.C.
municipalities are to be held early in
December.)

By ALD. GEORGE McKNIGHT

A real financial crisis faces all
our municipalities. Long before
the 1969 convention opened we
were informed that over $50
million worth of Municipal
Bonds were unsold in the
province and interest rates were
climbing ever higher . . . Rapid
and drastic mill rate increases
have deen imposed upon almost
every city, town and village in
the province. . .

The opening ceremonies
included addresses by Mr.
Gaglardi and Mr. Campbell, two
cabinet ministers of the provin-
cial government. In effect, they
told the convention that little, if
any help was to be forthcoming
from the provincial government
to help meet the problems of the
municipalities. Their message
was plain and simple. Tighten
our belts and cut down on munici-
pal expenditures.

Mr. Campbell offered a ‘‘new
formula’ for selling and
guaranteeing muncipal deben-
tures. This amounts to the
following: A province-wide
authority would be established
consisting of a representative
from each Regional District.
This authority would undertake
te market and to guarantee all
municipal bond issues. The
guarantee would be in the form
of the right of this authority to
levy a provincewide special tax
upon all real property to pay off
any. debt the authority might
inherit by reason of default by
any municipality on its
debenture debt.

In other words Mr. Campbell’s
‘‘new formula’’ amounts to this!
That the home owner, in addition
to paying interest of 9, 10 or
more percent on any municipal
borrowing will face the prospect
of having to pay a special levy to
cover the debts of any other
municipality in the Province

New Zealand housing plan has merit

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

New Zealand, like Canada, has
,a family allowance plan, only
there it is called a family
benefit. Allowances are payable
up to the age of 16. The amount is
$1.50 per week for each child
which works out to $6.50 a
month.

But the New Zealand plan has
a unique feature that we might
think about. Family benefits may
be capitalized, that is, they may
be paid in advance in a lump
sum, to help parents buy a home.

Limiting clauses to this cap-
italization include: (a) The child
must be one year old before the
benefit can be capitalized; (b)
The maximum payable for one
child is $947.60. If there are
several children the maximum is
$2,000.

The capitalized benefit may be
applied to the purchase of land,
. -the:building of a new home, the’

- purchase of an old home, buying

a state rental house from the
government, building an addition
to an existing house which will
provide additional accom-
modation, or to pay off a
mortgage on a house already
owned.

It seems to me there is a good
deal of merit in this New
Zealand scheme. Its_ effec-
tiveness depends, of course, on
how high housing costs and
interest rates are in_ that
country.

It could also be effective in
Canada provided (a) that it
would be combined with the
$1,000. housing grant that our pro-

vincial government makes
available under’ certain
conditions to people purchasing
a new home, and (b) that the
federal government provide low
interest loans for the balance of
‘the mortgage. ;

governments.

A loan of from two to five per
cent interest is quite feasible for
Ottawa. It has the financial
resources and a broad enough
tax base to help our prospective
home owners. Instituting a
capital gains tax on big corpor-
ations, or cutting our enormous
armament expenditures which
today amount to $1800 million a
year, or cutting down on
subsidies to railways, oil and
mining nterests aré just three
methods that could be used to
finance low interest loans to
home owners. :

Our prime minister has been
Stressing the need for defla-
tionary easures; cutting interest
rates in this way would be a good
place to start.

To sum up: Capitalizing
family allowances in Canada
could be beneficial to many
families provided it is combined
with additional help from senior

ALD. McKNIGHT

which may ‘“‘go under”’ in this
high interest money market
merry go round. Such is the
meaning of Mr. Campbell’s

‘new formula’’ as I understand

it.

As for the instructions to ‘‘cut
down on Municipal expendi-
tures’”’ this proposal needs to be
examined. We can agree that
there are areas in which some
economies can be _ introduced
and efficiency increased, where
money can be saved and expendi-
tures reduced and it is the duty

of a City Council to search out ~

these areas and to put the needed
reforms and improvements into
effect. The following facts stand
out when we examine municipal

spending!
®@

(1) School and education
costs. — Municipalities pay from
30 to 40 mills for education in
property tax and they have no
control over this expenditure
whatever, and costs in this field
continue. to rise as the need
grows.

(2) Social welare costs. —
This too is a co:* over which the
municipality has no control. It is
a Provincial programme for
which the City pays 20% of the
cost and it amounts to about 6
mills.

(3) Police and fire protection.
— Costs in these services are
increasing and there is no
prospect of reducing them while
salaries and the number of
people needed for them are
increasing. Presently our police

_ the spokesmen for the Pre

_ ments which need to be made lf

~ is the basic cause of our

PRERSR IEEE: Ef

no opportunity
expenditures. :
(5) In addition to all of this
Provincial regulations requyy
that we install sewage trealiné
and improve sewage collection
facilities.
An analysis of the proposals

cial Government at
convention leaves only 2
possible answer for their fu
ment; that is, cut down of
services to the people.

completely.
that in the year 1970 we my
move ahead, not backwa
terms of improving Our C
and our communities. © t

whatever changes or adjus-—

achieve this must be made arte .
made some proposals 0. a
convention along these li”

These were:

‘e Remove the cost of edu
from the’ municipalities 1 é
gether and adopt the princlP:
that education must-be finan
out of the exploitation and S2©
of our natural resources by 4
levied at the point of extracl0”
This would remove some 30 ie
mills from the tax levy of
municipalities.

cation

jal
eRemove the cost of Ss

welfare and hospitals from
municipalities as well. ~
would account for a saviNé il
about 6 to 9 mills in the local
rate as well. The combined i
ing would be from 36 to 49 mills.

The policy of the Governmet)
is to encourage the develoP
of extraction industries Bi,
supplying other countries 7
these raw materials at
away prices. This, in my °

pinio®
final
cial troubles for which
municipal ratepayer is the "1
and. main victim, due t ust
excessive cost which WE “iy
now bear as taxes upoM =,
homes and property to fine j
such school, welfare and hose ot i
costs from a source which
related to the production
wealth in our industrial abe ace
homes, after all are only 4 ‘4
to live and taxation upon t tual
should be limited to the ae ity j
services which the commu og |
provides to those homes
properties.

LAHTI ILL

force is pressing for more staff
and can produce figures and
facts to prove the need.

Osmo Lahti, manager
Co-Op Bookstore, is on sic ;
and is expected to unders 2 10
operation in the near futur
restore his health. The P "any
readers, and Ossie’s on #
friends, join in wishing hi
speedy recovery.

of
x leave

(4) Works department, Gar-
bage collection and disposal,
Capital cost of machinery, water
works, all of these and other
necessary services offer little or

ibune

Tr
ceo

Associate Editor—MAURICE RUSH -

Editor—TOM McEWEN
Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St
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