!

_ BRITISH COLUMBIA

Kootenay
motion seeks
N-weapons

We need $69,000 by June 20

Continued from page 1

the Arms Race, those municipalities contain
65 per cent of the population of the pro-

fight, remains strong.

i with 1986. At this time last year we had
f raised $37,000 on a target of $95,000. As
’ ree B. a of Tuesday, the total figure achieved on
! a target of $98,000 stood at slightly more GREATER VANCOUVER OKANAGAN
A renewed bid to have the province of than $29,000.
i British Columbia declared a nuclear wea- That means we have an astronomical Quota Achieved © Kamloops 1,000 182
| Pons free zone will be put before the Social $69,000 left to raise before the Tribune Penticton 780 315
§ Credit government as the result of an initia- Victory Banquet on June 20. eile 560 +e - Vernon 1,600 450
t tive earlier this month by the Association of That’s less than 3 % weeks away. puree 6.100 1.951. N. COAST/INTERIOR
ootenay and Boundary Municipalities. The Tribune has among its supporters Coquitlam 2700 1.561 :
i ___Delegates to the AKBM annual meeting fundraisers who are first-rate at that CURE 500 583 Correspondence 2,100 75
fin Fairmont May 8-10 voted to endorse a task. Their efforts are the mainstay of Effie Jones 2,000 1,489 Creston 400 300
f Tesolution submitted by Castlegar calling our drives and are crucial in putting us Kingsway 6,000. 2406 Fernie 250 125
} ane association o Bae te the tier over target year after year. ag, tee say 96 i coor ou ete oe
overnment to declare the province 0 ~ Z igel Morgan
0 British Columbia a soe Sear: free Others, we know, ow not as gifted North Van. 2,900. 1,557 Prince Rupert - 380 20
| Zone.” when it comes to selling the paper. But Richmond 1,700 1,180 Sunshine Coast 800 698
f The resolution noted that a “clear major- many are in positions to at least intro- Searer Seb pee ate 300 | 18
ity of the people of British Columbia have duce the Tribune to new readers. a ace 2008 3421 ee ees oe
j demonstrated their concern about the con- Acquainting others with the Woe coe — 5 Ao0 1 coe ne eee ee
( tinuing buildup of nuclear weapons and paper — or gently pressing those who a "= = VANCOUVER ISLAND
x their desire for a nuclear weapons free have read the Tribune for years to con- — . oe oo
* €nvironment by establishing nuclear wea- tribute a little more than the yearly sub- FRASER VALLEY Campbell River 2,200 932
ii . Pons free zones.” scription rate — is the other key to _ .——rs—ses——se Comox, Valley _ 1,500 48
The AKBM resolution will also go to the keeping the paper alive and active each : De iso » 860. : Oo Aneel : — a
Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Year ; : Fraser Valley 300k Bork Alberni 1.500 220
( September. We've said all this before. But we lencley 750 50 vices ' ean aes
i Nanaimo and Prince George are the can’t recall a time, at least in recent ‘Mole Ridge = 2600 140 .
| latest to declare themselves nuclear wea- years, when we said it with such urgency. Surrey. —«=«'s—is=w000.s« Ba ‘Miscellaneous, 3,000 657
Pons free zones, bringing the number of Vander Zalm’s bills necessitate a White Rock ==: 1,400 © 694 TOTAL: 76,400 : 29,368
f nuclear weapons free municipalities in the paper like the Tribune. Please help —— - : : : :
6 Province to 56. ensure, when fighting reactionary Socred
"} According to statistics compiled by End legislation, that a key component in that .

vince.

Services contracted out to the
private sector on the pretext of
cutting government costs have
often cost taxpayers more money
and the. services provided have
been inferior — sometimes to
the point of being dangerous, the
B.C. Government Employees
Union has revealed in a review
released this week.

And even though the added
costs resulting from privatization
can be demonstrated, the Social
Credit government has frequently
buried them through its account-
Ing procedures, the union’s report
Shows.

The report, entitled ““Contract-
ing Out in Public Services in B.C.:
A Review,” covers some 55 servi-
ces that have been contracted out
to the private sector since 1980.
They cover virtually every pro-
Vincial ministry and include such
services as food services in pri-
sons, document serving, fish tag-
ging, forestry scaling, hospital
laundry services, Tranquille
School, group homes and tourist
information centres.

BCGEU president John Shields
said that the union published the
report “because we believe it is
high time to take a close look at
services the government has con-

* tracted out and to see whether the
results live up to the promises.
_ “The report concludes that
contracting out has reduced the
quality and quantity of services, is

less efficient and costs more,” he
said.

In one case — food services in
prisons — contracting out to pri-
vate catering firms not only
increased costs to the public but
also created a dangerous situa-
tion in prisons supplied by one
particular firm. Protests over the
quality of food touched off a riot
in Oakalla in 1984 and were
responsible for near-riots on four
other occasions, the report says.

The company involved, Versa
Foods, a subsidiary of a U.S.-
owned multinational, was finally
replaced by another company but
the quality of the food has
changed little and the costs are
still higher than they would be if
the services were supplied by in-
house government catering.

The report notes: “A confiden-
tial study at Marpole Community
Correctional Centre in Van-
couver showed that Versa’s meals
cost $2.91 each and meals pre-
pared by the government’s Food
Service Officer cost $2.12. The
extra 79 cents per meal — they
served roughly 62 meals per day
to about 20 inmates — translated
to an annual increase of $17,895
or almost $1,000 per inmate per
year. ; :
“Four small prisons in the
Fraser Valley showed similar
increases: the total additional cost
each year was $74,260,” the
report notes. “Figures are not
available for other prisons but if

Contracting-out: it means
more costs, poorer service

they are approximately the same,
the total cost to taxpayers could
be very high.”

The report also notes other
instances where contracting-out
to the private sector resulted in
increased costs to the public but
in many cases, those costs were
hidden.

When Manning Park near

‘Hope was turned was over to a

private resort operator in 1984,
the park facility came with $1 mil-
lion in upgrading work on the ski
lift and a brand new $350,000 die-
sel generator — all work done at
public expense just before the pri-
vate owner took over.

In addition, the facility, valued
at some $10 million, has been
leased to the contractor, Gibson
Pass Reports Ltd., for only
$500,000 a year and continues to
get various services such as snow
plowing, provided at no cost, the
report states.

In a variety of other cases, pri-
vatizing of services has resulted in
a serious deterioration in the
quality of services, notably build-
ing cleaning services and laundry
services. A key example is the
contracting-out of work pre-
viously done by the Coquitlam
Regional Laundry to Keefer
Laundry, a private company.
According to the report, “gar-
ments were often improperly
cleaned or were too stiff. Some
diapers came back caked with
dried feces. Others contained

noxious substances which gave
residents rashes, . ..”

Similar results were found by
the Hospital Employees Union
when it investigated the contract-
ing-out of laundry services two
years ago.

The BCGEU has called for a
full review of contracting out
practices that would take into
account public needs, the cost to
taxpayers, the rights of public

employees and public accounta-
bility.

“The trend of the provincial
government is clear: to continue
to contract out an increasing
range of services to the private
sector. with no guarantees that
needed services will continue to
be provided or that tax dollars
will not be wasted on subsidies to
contractors who provide poorer
quality service,” the report states.
“Tt is time for a serious review of
current policies.”

| See

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 1987 e 3