A second look at Walesa and Solidarnose

— page 7

Unions, Pro-Canada set
for Apr. 7-9 GST protest

— page 3

Assembly of First Nations chief
Georges Erasmus addresses rally
outside the Globe 90 conference
| on the environment and business
opportunities at the Vancouver
| Trade and Convention Centre
March 21. Called by the Union of
B.C. Indian Chiefs and backed by
the Western Canada Wilderness
Committee and Project North, the
demonstration was intended to
bring the issue of Native land
| claims and the federal govern-
ment’s continued stonewalling on
| negotiations to the international
forum. UBCIC president Chief
: Saul Terry told participants that the
best demonstration of the federal
government's commitment to the
environment “‘would be a just set-
tlement of the Indian land question

- and recognition of aboriginal
title.”’ ;

Specific votes hinted
in school referendums

_ The legislation currently being drafted
by the provincial government on school
district referendums is likely to include
an unprecedented — and undoubtedly
contentious — provision for votes on
specific budget items, the Tribune has
learned.

A memorandum sent to boards last
week from the presidents of the B.C.
School District Secretary-Treasurer’s
Association (BCSDSTA) and the B.C.
School Superintendents Association
(BCSSA), stated that the referendum leg-
islation now being written by the

attorney-general’s department would
probably incorporate two options.
Those options, according to the
memo, which was written following a
meeting between Education Minister
Tony Brummet and officers of the two
associations, would be: 1) a single vote
referendum on an overall budget figure
or; 2)an itemized referendum that would
likely be capped at five specific items,
with voters entitled to vote on each item.
Brummet also indicated, according to
the memo, that there would only be two
see CHAOS page 2

March 26, 1990
50°

Vol. 53, No. 11

Teachers’

- meet hits
funding»
scheme

B.C. public school teachers opted to hit
back at the provincial government March
19 by resolving to continue uniting with
other groups in the education community
against the Socreds’ plans of block funding
and a referendum system.

Delegates to the annual general meeting
of the B.C. Teachers Federation last week
unanimously adopted an executive recom-
mendation while members spoke of the
urgency of mounting an effective fightback
against the system before it becomes law
when the legislature convenes next month.

In a speech which outlined the truckload
of issues teachers face in consolidating their
two-year-old “union of professionals,”
BCTF president Ken Novakowski slammed
“the folly of referendum financing.”

Novakowski, handily re-elected to a
second term of office, charged that the
Social Credit government created an artifi-
cial “taxpayer revolt” to bolster its block
funding formula.

The provincial government has pledged
to end the system whereby school districts,
faced with shortfalls in the grants they
receive from government, supplement their
yearly budgets with increases to property
taxes on homeowners.

In the days before the Socreds imposed
the restraint program in 1982, school dis-
tricts could tax industrial and commercial
properties. But that power was seized by the
province, Novakowski noted.

“The entire burden was (then) borne by
the homeowner. Taxes went up. Trustees
and taxpayers felt the strain. But polls con-
tinued to show that people valued public
education and were willing to pay for it,” he
told the opening session of the convention.

“So in January the government declared
a taxpayer revolt, and without consultation,
introduced a new education funding sys-
tem.”

The new system will force school districts
seeking funds beyond those provided in the
provincial grant go to public referendum.
The system is widely used in the United
States, where inequities among districts
have increased because voters in poorer

‘regions naturally reject higher taxes.

The government has demanded school
boards file budgets reflecting the new block
funding system by March 30, even though
the legislation is not in place. Meanwhile,
school trustees in several districts will soon
be bargaining new collective agreements
with teachers and non-teaching staff — a
clear indication that the changes are
intended to limit salary increases.

But as Novakowski noted, teachers have
allies: “School boards around the province
have condemned it. ...Municipal council-

see TEACHERS page 12

eas

EL a ee ae