| BRITISH COLUMBIA

Public works plan rejects ‘restraint

Continued from page 1
claimed the money for infrastructure
improvement would have to be taken out of
funds earmarked for health and education.
Ritchie’s comments drew the fire of Van-
couver Mayor Mike Harcourt, who said of

Ritchie: “It’s apparent that he regards’

municipalities negatively...as a problem,
Not a solution.

“I don’t know if it’s ignorance or if he has
Contempt for municipal government,” Har-
court said.

(The Vancouver mayor might have also
noted the fact that B.C.’s Socred govern-
ment has raised the ire of students and
health workers’ unions for its practice of
diverting federal fiscal transfers earmarked
for education and health into general
Tevenues. Expo 86, the northeast coal disas-
ter and other government megaprojects
have been funded from those diverted
Tevenues, critics charge.)

Ritchie’s dismissal
of the municipalities’
Proposal could be
expected. Spending
Public funds on
employment is an
anathema to the
Monetarist policies
vigorously pursued
by the Socreds on the
advice of B.C.’s chief
Proponent of mon-
etarism, the Fraser
Institute.

; Even more ruinous that the Socred’s
‘Testraint” version of monetarism are its
Manifestations south of the border. There,
the administration of President Ronald
Reagan, under its deceptive “no tax hike”
Policy, has pursued social spending cut-
backs with a vengeance.
_ The illusion fostered by right-wing
demagogues that across-the-board tax
cuts — as distinct from the demand for tax
teform — are a form of economic salva-
Hon, resulted in the passage of the devastat-
oe Proposition 13 in California four years

0,

Promoted by Reagan advisor Howard
Jarvis, Proposition 13 and its clones have
Passed by ballot in some 15 U.S. states. The
resulting tax cuts have been devastating for
cities which were already in desperate need
of funds for their much older, in compari-
Son to Canada, deteriorating sidewalks,
Sewers, roads and bridges.

The F CM report acknowledges the desire
ae US. Cities to upgrade their infrastruc-

€S In sounding its alarm over the deterio-
“om condition of Canada’s municipalities.

t quotes federation president Ald. Ron
, Tomwell: “For generations, we put people
© Work building the facilities which are the
: or of all economic activity: the canals,
en the Tailroads, then the roads. We are
he allowing much of what we have built to
€rlorate while more than 10 per cent of
Our workforce is idle.”
ete € report also quotes Vancouver city
Ngineer Bill Curtis as warning, “There are
ee Toad and bridge systems in Canada
eis are on the point of collapse, and, in
iat € cases, it is slowing down the econo-
'€s of the communities that are affected.”
th Urtis chairs the technical committee of
€ task force in charge of implementing the
Proposals. The task force chairman is
: estes mayor of a city where a progres-
Pane on council has utilized city
ai ces to prevent layoffs and maintain
Ost of the city’s services.
= arcourt in the report’s introduction
«Sues that the municipal government’s
ae peering. a public works investment
tiga: at carries with it the maximum e€co-
‘3 mic multiplier effect. We are offering the
ey to train thousands of unem-
a Canadian youth in useful trades and
in The cities’ program has the strong back-
8 of one of Canada’s largest public sector

MAURICE
RUSH

All Canadian municipalities, even the relatively well-off Vancouver, must hold back on necessary repairs to sewers, sidewalks
and other elemetns of municipal infrastructure due to senior government cutbacks. Provincial and federal municipal
organizations argue that increased spending on infrastructure will bring jobs and a measure of prosperity.

- unions, the Canadian Union of Public

Employees.

In the July-August edition of CUPE’s
The Facts, the union notes that “for a
decade, CUPE has been arguing that public
sector restraint programs are causing severe
harships for public employees and the
citizen-taxpayers they serve.

“More recently, we’ve been documenting
the negative impact cutbacks and a weak-
ened public sector have on the quality of life
in our communities.

“Finally,” the magazine observes, “mun-
icipal politicians are beginning to draw the
same conclusions.”

CUPE’s researchers, who studied the
report and the surveys in some detail, wrote
that the FCM technical committee visited
cities in Europe and the U.S. and concluded
that, “while our municipal infrastructure
has not deteriorated to the abysmal extent
typical of the U.S., we are well behind the
maintenance’ standards prevailing in
Europe.” 3

In announcing that CUPE is co-
operating with the FCM on the program,
writer-researcher Larry Katz praised the
conclusions drawn by Informetrica, the
consulting company hired to do the original
study.

Following the firm’s recommendations,
the municipalities federation calls for the
three levels of government to each assume
one-third the cost of the $12-billion upgrad-
ing program. :

petite the question, “Where does
the money come from?” Informetrica poses
two choices: borrow (which it favors) or
increase taxes and impose or increase ser-
vice user fees. The agency reasoned that as
the latter proposal eats away at income, the
former, realizing increased personal incomes,
higher employment and a marginal effect
on inflation, is the superior proposal.

The firm also observed that government
expenditures create 300 per cent more jobs
than a comparable cut in corporate taxes.

In a summary of the report, entitled
Work, Work, Work, the FCM merely notes
it is examining the various options for
revenue sources. That cautionary note may
have much to do with the fact that corpo-
rate tax breaks are the practice of the Mul-
roney Conservative government, which
may — given that the machine used to elect
the Tory majority comprised many ele-
ments of the Socred electoral team — mean
that in any case, Ottawa will treat the
municipalities’ proposal with something
less than enthusiasm. As it is, the FCM
report simply announcees that its people are
“working” with senior government to
“structure” the program.

In its own survey, the UBCM found that _

lack of funding was the most serious imped-
iment to upgrading infrastructure. More
than 90 per cent of the responding commun-
ities cited financial shortfalls as they key
problem. Some 42 per cent cited “political
inaction” as another major impediment.
But the need for infrastructure renewal,
opposed by the Socreds, will be corner-
stones in the electoral platforms of both the
NDP and the Communist Party.
Provincial New Democrat leader Bob
Skelly said last month that an “NDP
government would act quickly to bring
together local government and the federal
government to negotiate a cost-sharing

. agreement” on infrastructure repair. He said

the plan would be part of the NDP’s “jobs
first” program to provide 60,000 new jobs.

Provincial Communist Party leader
Maurice Rush said his party would
demand, during the upcoming election
campaign, that a B.C. provincial govern-

ment. “take action to implement the FCM

plan.”

Calling the municipalities’ proposal
“long overdue”, Rush said the party’s pro-
vincial committee is incorporating the pro-
gram’s recommendations into the CP’s

overall demands for job creation, which

include increased housing construction and

forestry enhancement.

“Our call for implementation of the
infrastructure program is part of our gen-
eral call for a major overhaul of the B.C.
economy with the aim of transforming it for
public ownership,” he said.

“In implementing that program, while
there should be sharing among the three
levels of government, the major role in
planning should be given to the municipali-
ties. They know best what needs to be
done,” Rush contended.

Noting the Socreds’ seizure of planning
powers,from the regional districts, such as
the Greater Vancouver Regional District,
Rush called for “the immediate restoration
of powers to the districts.” 2

Economist Dave Fairey of the Trade
Union Research Bureau said the infrastruc-
ture plan would be positive for both Van-
couver and the region.

He said the project would be cost-effective
for Vancouver, “already known for the high
degree of city-owned construction.” And
infrastructure upgrading presents “all kinds
of possibilities for intermunicipal co-
operation, to help the municipalities realize
economies of scale in their projects.”

Dave Long, president of CUPE Local
1004, which represents Vancouver’s out-
side municipal workers, said the FCM and
UBCM plans would be “a major theme” at
CUPE’s national convention in Winnipeg
Nov. 14.

“We've already suffered a good deal
from the cutbacks in provincial government
revenue sharing. If we didn’t have those
people (the progressive majority) on (Van-
couver) council, we'd be a lot worse off,” he
said.

Long said the biggest problem is the lack
of publicity on the municipalities’ plan,
which he said is largely unknown both to
ee general public and CUPE’s member-
ship.

“Among our own members, there’ll be
an ongoing educational process,” he said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 9, 1985 e 3