Civic groups meet Ward system plan adopted Vancouver civic groups have arrived at a consensus on three Options for a ward system in Vancouver that will be placed before community organizations for discussion. The three options were arrived at last Tuesday evening in the Britannia Centre in East Van- Couver when about 25 civic groups Came together to hear the steering committee of the Vancouver Ward System Committee report. The committee was established about five months ago following the 1976 civic election. Headed by Aldermen Rankin, Marzari and Harcourt, the committee of about 60 civic organizations established working groups to propose actual boundaries for the wards. The options arefor ward systems that would divide Vancouver into seven wards, 14 wards or 22 wards. DERA’s Jean Swanson _ in- troduced the ward concepts and stressed the importance of the homogeneity of the wards. To be representative, she said, the wards should group voters of similar Socio-economic and cultural back- grounds. : The favored option of the organizations present was that of 14 wards, roughly following the divisions used by the Community Resources Boards. COPE alderman Harry Rankin pointed out that the Resources Boards have shown the ward proposals to be practicable and workable. ‘‘The Resources Board setup improved the delivery of “social services in Vancouver by 100 per cent,’” he said. A number of speakers suggested that each ward should be repre- sented by two aldermen. Burnaby Council hits Socred municipal act The amendments to B.C.’s municipal act brought down last week by the Socred government _ amount to a “big stick wielded” over municipalities and give the Minister of municipal affairs Control that he shouldn’t have,”’ € mayor of Burnaby, Tom Constable, told the Tribune this Week, The Burnaby municipal council Went on record at their last Meeting tooppose section 879 of the new act which gives the minister Power to overturn zoning and development decisions _of Municipal councils. Ccording to Constable the amendment is a threat to the ability of municipalities to plan development. By shifting ultimate Power to the province, he said, the ity of people to influence S0vernment is weakened and local needs may be sacrificed for big witerests that can influence Provincial governments. € other changes in the municipal act that deal with the “eMoval of the land use contract Nd its replacement with develop- “nt permits do not affect Bur- Raby directly, Constable said, as Z Municipality already uses a Ystem similar to the development ermit system, 4 other municipalities the land Se contract was used by councils TOM CONSTABLE to charge developers with extra costs that their developments would place on the municipality. The proposal to do away with the contract and to speed up the development process comes from Socred Sam = Bawlf, himself a developer, and was widely dis- credited as a developer’s scheme. “Ultimately what is needed is a public land bank,’’ Constable commented, ‘‘where the _govern- ment controls land and builds on it so that the municipality and consumer benefit all around. Another committee, headed by Alderman Mike Harcourt, con- sidered the various arguments that would be raised by opponents of the ward system. The two main arguments to be countered, Harcourt noted, would be the contention that the ward system was already defeated by the 1973 plebiscite, and that ward systems lead to corruption with aldermen having vested interests to protect. The committee pointed out that the 1973 plebiscite was held with a confusing and badly worded ballot, and even then 40 cent of the electorate voted for the ward system. On the question of corruption it was pointed out that Vancouver has a centralized finance depart- ment and budgeting and a per- sonnel department that should guarantee merit hiring rather than patronage hiring and promotion. Strong inside and outside labor unions are an added safeguard against corrupt practises, Har- court said. The steering committee produced data that showed that 66 per cent of the population of Vancouver lives east of Cambie St., but only 15 per cent of the elected officials reside in that area. The percentage of appointed of- ficials is even worse with only 14 per cent of those residing east of Cambie St. aa Food price probe launched in B.C. The decision of the B.C. government early this month to launch an investigation into the reasons for B.C.’s high food prices is long overdue and would nor- mally be welcomed by the public except for the fact that the com- mittee is so one-sided that it is unlikely to do the job expected by the public. It has been common knowledge for a long time that the cost of living, especially food prices, are higher in Vancouver than any other North American city. This was confirmed again by Statistics Canada figures released at the end of March which showed that Van- couver consumers faced the biggest price hikes across Canada in the past year — 9.1 percent. The committee set up by the Socred government is actually the legislature’s standing committee on agriculture. Six out of 10 members are Socreds, and nearly all of them are connected with agriculture, and some are big farmers. There are no represen- tatives of consumer or labor groups on the committee. Although the terms of reference set out for ° the committee to probe the reason for high food prices are laudatory and far-reaching, it is not within the competence of the present committee to be able to do the job required. The committee will hold public and private meetings throughout the province and will have the power to put witnesses under oath. The probe will be conducted in four phases with the final report due to be brought down by March 31, 1978. The report of the first phase is due August 31 this year and will deal with the amount of agricultural land available and in use, and future requirements. : Thereporton the second phase is also due August 31 and is aimed at marketing boards. It will deal with their effect on retail prices. It is also expected to go into producer profits and compare them with profits in Alberta. Food items to be included in the phase two probe include such products as milk, eggs, apples, chicken, mushrooms, salmon, beef, pork, lamb, bacon and breakfast cereals. Phase three will examine the pricing practices and mer- chandising methods of producers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers and price mark-ups at Record year possible as drive hits $10,000 The large scoreboard across the Tribune offices shows our financial drive doing well with more than $10,000 raised as of April 20. That puts the drive just slightly ahead of where it was on the same date last year. It’s a good sign, and it holds out the prospect of another record year — providing that we improve on last year’s record in the remaining four-fifths of the drive. Down one side of the board about 15 honor press builders are already listed. Mike Stevens is pushing $2,000. Steve Nickyforuk is close to ‘$1,500. So far there have not been very many pledges to: join our ‘400 Club” — but the club is being formed anyway. Julius Stelp, at 95 years of age; Maurice Rush and Rita Tanche have pushed their way into the $400 range. But the ‘400 Club” could use some extra members. How about it? Make your pledge to the Tribune office. Another promising list is that of the various events scheduled to raise money. Our classified ads: show at least 10 events in the next two or three weeks. The “‘Oolichan Feed” which has become an in- Stitution in the Tribune drive will go April 23 in Coquitlam. May 1, the Vancouver East club will add to its total with a May Day bash following the May Day rally. And on May 7, Maurice Rush and George Hewison will be in Camp- bell River at their annual Tribune dinner. There are many ways that every reader and supporter of this paper can participate in our drive. We need your support now as never before. : Please do what you can to keep the Tribune fighting! various levels. The report on this phase is due December 31. The final phase to be ready by March 31 next year is termed an “overview” and will include the committee’s conclusions and recommendations. This report will include labor costs, transportation, labelling costs, competition at the retail level, As said earlier, the terms of reference are sweeping and the probe could conclude with some worthwhile material. At present it is not known who will be allowed to appear before the committee. The one-sided character of the in- vestigation committee does not leave one with confidence that the kind of thorough job needed will be done. The Socred government would be well advised to proceed with an inquiry on the terms of reference mentioned above, but the present committee should have the probe taken out of its hands. Instead a broadly-based committee with labor, consumer and small producer representation should be set up to carry through the probe. Ottawa ferry deal blasted Announcement of premier Bill Bennett's deal with Ottawa to trade-off an annual $8 million transportation subsidy for B.C.’s assumption of “full responsibility” for coastal shipping and ferry services has brought sharp public criticism. The provincial government has $8 million morein the treasury, but no relief is in sight for Mainland- Vancouver Island ferry users or u- coast passengers faced with dif- ficulties getting deliveries of goods, and sharply rising freight and passenger costs. Upcoast prices have jumped more than 200 per cent and ferry fares weredoubled last year for six million passengers and two million vehicles. “B.C. has been sold short again, and the $8 million subsidy is obviously inadequate to meet what is required,’ Nigel Morgan, provincial leader of the Com- munist Party declared Monday. “If the $8 million was distributed equally between the eight million passengers and vehicles carried by the ferries last year, it would amount to only one dollar apiece. Little, if any reduction, can be expected unless strong, united mass pressure can compel the provincial government to change the course it has set,” Morgan said. Premier Bennett’s statement that B.C. is “not responsible for freight service along the mid- and north coast’? brought an angry response from a delegation of five coastal mayors and regional representatives at a meeting with the government in Victoria. It is already evident that considerably more than the slight upgrading in services is expected and being demanded by those suffering in the up-coast communities, and passengers hit last year by fare increases. The South Fraser Valley regional convention of the Com- munist Party, meeting in White Rock last Sunday, adopted a resolution calling on Ottawa to recognize the ferry system as an extension of the Trans-Canada highway, and be subsidized by the federal government. The resolution also calls for a sub- stantial reduction in ferry fares to reflect federal aid.