Sales tax proposal exposed as
move to evade business tax

(Special to the Pacific Tribune)

VICTORIA, B.C.--If every municipal voter in British Columbia could have crowded
into the Coalition government members’ room at the parliament buildings Tuesday, there
is no doubt that in the forthcoming municipal elections they would vote out of office 95
percent of the mayors, reeves and commissioners of the province.

Sixty-five delegates, mostly

business ‘tax, shielding of cor-
porate wealth. from bearing its
share of cost of education, and
ending of democratic local con-
trol of schools through aboli-
tion of school boards.

The gathering, presided over by
Mayor Wm. Mott of New West-
minster, met withthe cabinet next
day to demand:

“That the provincial government
educational department undertake
to finance and. control through
our elected school boards as pres-
ently constituted the entire educa-
tional program of the province
. . - (and) that the necessary funds
be obtained by the imposition of
an education tax based upon the
sales tax principle—essential foods
to be exempted—and that the en-
tire net proceeds of such tax,
after providing for the present
municipal share of educational
costs, be used to relieve the mun-

icipalities and unorganized dis-
tricts of their present obliga-
tions for hospital, health and so-
cial services.”

Ample evidence was presented
by such spokesmen as Reeve Don
Brown of Coldstream revealing
the stark urgency of municipal
financial problems, especially in
regard to rising educational costs
where the whole burden of in-
creases is falling on the local
property-holder.

Salient feature of the meeting,
however, was attempts to direct
the seething discontent of muni-
cipal taxpayers jnto channels that
would impose no additional bur-
den on business:

Mayor George of Victoria tipped
his hand when he said “this
meeting would never have been
held if we had agreed with p. 74
of the Goldenburg report” (refer-
ring to the Goldenburg Commis-
sion’s recommendation for a busi-
ness tax) “. .. our selection is
the sales tax.”

Further indication of the mo-
tive of the dominant group of
“militants” came wher this

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one week

| Inthe LT -Southam Dispute :

The LT.U. is not seeking higher wages.
Shorter work week is not an issue

A master contract is not asked for.
Dues check-off is not wanted.

We do not seek a welfare fund.

Holidays with pay are not sought.

.

The only issue is
Company give the

treatment to each division.

group squelched proposals for
meeting the bulk of educational
costs from the province’s con-
solidated revenue fund.

This fund can be augmented
at the expense of corporate
wealth in a variety of ways. For
example if the municipalities fail
to follow the government’s urg-
ings to levy a business tax the
government itself could step ‘into
this field, to say nothing of mak-
ing lumber, mining, fishing and
other interests carry their fair
share of the educational load.

* * *

What was to have been “plain
sailing” in the preliminary inter-
view with Municipalities Minister
R. C. McDonald, Tuesday morn-
ing, was almost upset when, after
a number of representatives had
been called on by Mayor Mott
to speak, Reeve Warren of Saan-
ich abruptly rose and read a
resolution from Saanich Council.

The resolution,’ one of the brief-
est on record dealing with major
issues, stated simply, “We do not
endorse the sales tax.”

“That is a blunt resolution,”
said Reeve Warren. “Our reasons
are that while we are certainly
up against a serious problem,
with education taking 50 cents
of every tax dollar, and will al-
ways support taking taxes off
land, we don’t think it is our
function to advise the senior gov-
ernment how to implement this.”

“Furthermore,” he continued,
“the sales tax will increase the
cost of living. We don’t think
this necessary because the’ gov-
ernment is having continuous
surpluses. The Dominion vacat-
ing the gasoline tax field, to
mention just one item, adds one
amd a half millions to the pro-
cincial surplus.”

Mayor Mott adjourned the
meeting as Commissioner Morri-
son was on his feet to support
Reeve Warren, but in the after-
noon, with the minister absent,
Morrison was able to move an
amendment omitting the sales tax
proposals and calling on the govy-
ernment to finance 80 percent of

.}the cost of education from con-

solidated revenue, with further
relief for hospitalization and so-
cial services, and asking that a
provincial assessment board be
set up.

Morrison pointed out that
Parksville, “B.C.’s. newest muni-
cipality, saw nothing about the
sales tax on the agenda of the
September UBCM convention,
and didn’t attend. But we are
opposed to the sales tax be-
cause it has been proven in
Montreal and Saskatchewan to
be a nuisance tax, hard to en-
force, and p' 'y because it
would raise the cost of living.”
Morrison’s amendment was not
put to a vote. + .
There were protests at’ undemo-
cratic procedure: in. pushing
through the sales tax resolution
without warning at the end of the
UBCM Convention,

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ELGIN

Civic Reform candidate for
alderman in the Vancouver civic
elections, who was the first to
inject the issue of the business
tax into civic politics and who
has consistently opposed all
municipal attempts to foist a
provincial. sales tax on the
people.

RUDDELL \

White-haired Harvey Davis
from the north, speaking for
Smithers, Terrace and Burns
Lake, objected that “a two, three
or four percent increase in the
cost of living through a sales
tax was too much to stand.” His
districts favored raising the cost
from “natural resources—forests
and mines.”

Mayor Mott interjected to put
the sales tax resolution, which
carried with Morrison and War-
ren dissenting. Demands were
immediately raised that the lat-
ter be barred from the inter-
view with the cabinet, but
Reeve Warren denied the right
of any to prevent him from
speaking on behalf of Saanich.

Mayoralty

city council for refusing to op-
pose the BCElectric’s application
for a fare increase and delegates
sustained his criticism by voting
to protest “most vigorously” the
increased fare to come into ef-

fect December 1, demanding the

right to present their protest be-
fore the Public Utilities Com-
mission. :

A strong contender for council
and school board office in the
past Mrs. Jones has a long record
in the progressive movement.

Her mother, Annie Griffiths,
claimed a record 41 years unin-
terrupted. membership in the Na-
tional Union of Teachers. Her
father, James Rhys Griffiths, was
also a member of the union, and
Effie Jones, following them into
the teaching profession, held a
union card for the nine years she
taught school before leaving her
native Wales for Canada to marry

Frank Jones, a veteran of the
First World War. :
Since 1920, the Jones family,

which has grown to include a 27
year-old daughter, Mrs. Margaret
Smeal and a 16 month-old grand-
daughter, Judy, has lived ‘in the
5000-block Sherbrooke Street.

In the mid-thirties, when Mrs.
Jones was secretary of South Hill
CCF club, it was the place where
relief demonstrations and organ-
izational meetings were discussed.
It was also an unofficial head-
quarters for scores of jobless boys,
for Mrs. Jones was one of the
most active members of the wo-
men’s committees formed to feed
and help the single unemployed.

Until its disbandment during the
war years, Mrs. Jones was pro-
vincial organizer for the B.C.
Housewives League, and since the
war she has served as president
of the Tenants’ and Homeowners’
League, president of the South
Hill Community Association and —
secretary of the Associated Coun-
cil of Vancouver South. i

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