ature

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1957

Continued from page 1

TAX SCANDAL

city’s assessment department
some 31 years. ago He be-
came deputy assessor under
Dalton.

Question: What were you
before Mr. Dalton became the
assessor?

McQueen: I was valuing
land assessing. I was engag-
ed in compilation of records,
and engaged to a limited de-
gree in the valuation of build-
ings.

Q.—What type of building?
A.—Minor buildings.

Q—When did you com-
mence to value buildings?

A.—Well, I wasn’t putting
the final value on buildings.

Q.—When did you commence
to put the final value on
buildings?

A.—When I became the as-
sessor. (In May, 1949.)

A city assessor, one would
think, should be a registered
engineer or architect with
many years experience in cost-
estimating all types of build-
ings. The job should not be
considered as a political plum
presented for faithful service.

Dealing with changes which
should be made in the assess-
ment department, the Public
Administration Service report
on civic efficiency said:

“Every effort should be made
to complete the survey and
diagramming of major build-
ings which is now underway.
To leave this stupendous jeb
up to one man who also has
other duties, is to consign it
to oblivion.

“Effort should be made to
recruit appraisers who bring
with them some knowledge of
buildings and their construc-
tion features and the relative
value of such features. To
promote clerks to technical
positions is a meritorious ac-
tion in many ways, but it
provides good technicians only
by coincidence. Certified ap-
praisers are not needed but
persons with building con-
struction and/or engineering
type backgrounds are requir-
ed.”

Vancouver City Council
should take a lorig, hard look

at Assessment Commissioner
McQueen and his staff to de-
termine if they fill the bill as
outlined in the PAS report,

At present the assessment
department appears to oper-
ate almost entirely on its own,
devoid of any direct responsi-
bility to anyone. City council
theoretically has the right (and
the responsibility) to check on
its work, but in practice Mc-
Queen is given a free hand.

It has been suggested that
the assessment department be
supervised by the finance de-
partment. An even better ar-
rangement, probably, would be
to put the assessment depart-
ment under control of the
town planning department.

Private citizens appearing
before the court of revision
appealing against assessments
on their homes, usually find it
a frustrating experience.

Not many years ago an old
age pensioner made his ap-
peal, and was callously told
by the chairman, “If you can’t
afford to. pay your taxes why
don’t you sell your house and
get out of Vancouver?”

“T have lived in this city all
my life,” responded the old
man, with dignity. “I helped
build Vancouver. When I mar-
ried I built my own house.
Now you tell me that I should
sell my house and get out of
town, because I can’t pay my
taxes, which are rising every
year.”

Cost-evaluating is a job for
experts. One of these experts
contends the assessment on
CPR property in many parts
of the city is too low — only a
quarter of what it should be—
and will fight. the case before
the court of ‘revision, which
opened Friday this week, His
arguments will be heard by
Ald. Cornett and two mem-
bers with construction experi-
ence, former city engineer
Charles Brackenridge and for-
mer chief engineer Andrew
Haggert.

Perhaps the evidence pre-
sented during the hearing of
the CPR case will spark a de-
mand for a complete overhaul
of the present assessment
methods, and the introduction
of a system which will take
some of the tax load off small
homeowners and place it on
those best able to bear it,
the big business interests,

CONTROLS SOUGHT

Labor asks gov’t
to probe prices

Forecast of higher prices for food, clothing, housing and rents, while profits
rise to record levels, has spurred new demands by organized labor for government
action to launch a federal probe, of prices and profits, restores the excess profits tat
and establish some controls on prices.

The presentations of Canada’s two major trade union centres, the Canadiafl

Labor Congress and the Can-
adian and Catholic Confedera-
tion of Labor, to the govern-
ment in the past two weeks
stressed the threat of inflation
and its pickpocket effects on
wage earners and farmers.

Representing hundreds of
thousands of Canadian fami-
lies (more than a quarter of
the population) the union
bodies called jointly for a re-
turn to wartime price controls
and a curb on profits,

Similar demands are also be-
ing made by the AFL-CIO in
the United States.

. The Canadian Labor Con-
gress warned about “the con-
trast between rising unemploy-
ment and living costs and
steeply rising profits.”

The Catholic Syndicates
group called for a return to
the wartime excess profits tax
and the setting up of prices
board with power to probe
prices.

One of the country’s biggest
union locals, United Auto
Workers Local 444, last week
demanded that the govern-
ment conduct an immediate in-

vestigation into the profit-price
scale in industry.

The CCCL brief noted the
five-point rise in the consumer
index in the last eight months
and warned that “the present
trend is toward further in-
creases,”

Curbing of credit and rais-
ing of interest rates under the
government’s “tight money”
policy, it added, had been “in-
adequate and potentially dis-

criminatory toward several
categories of citizens.”

It urged formation of a per-
manent price investigation
board that would be “highly
instrumental in ‘protecting the
consumer against rising prices,”

Current samples of the kind
of price rise that would be
probed were the recent sharp
boosts in the price of sugar.
Six weeks ago five pounds
sold at 47 cents. Currently the
same weight sells for 53 cents.

Similar sudden jumps in
price have recently been re-

corded for bread, milk, coffee
and shelter, The price of gaso-
line and fuel oil has also been
boosted despite record profits
in the oil industry. Forecast
is that men’s clothing will go
up 10-15 percent this year.

As soon as sugar prices start-
ed upward, jam producers
clamped increases on all their

Bushworkers down tools

current stocks (made with
sugar bought up at lowe
prices).

Lending point to the demand
for investigation, are forecasts

: a
by some leading U.S. econol |
ists that there is a build-up @ 7

|

a new recession if not ecol =

omic crisis in the U.S.
would seriously affect Canada

to back truckers’ stand

PORT ARTHUR
More than 3,000 bushwork-
ers have downed their tools
and silenced their motors in
a strike to back up demands
of independent, unorganized
truck and tractor owners for
higher pay
The movement began a week
ago when about 100 truckers
at the camps of the St Law-
rence Corporation east of Nipi-
gon stopped. work ‘to support
demands for higher’ truck
hauling rates. The sitdown fol-
lowed atiempts by the Lum-

ber and Sawmill Workers Ua

ion to mediate, which fai

i
|
|

|

when the company refused |

recognize the union as bargall”
ing agent for the independe?
and unorganized truck ownel®

The sitdown spread rapl y
as several hundred cuttet
members of the union, stopP®

ers and the movement spre@

work in support of the truck y

to Northern Ontario whet? =

hundreds of truckers and som
tractor drivers joined in an
were supported by ‘some 2,0

Hear:

Topic:

Place:

VINCENT DUNCAN- JONES,

Secretary, World Council of Peace.

“Can the peoples of the world prevent nuclear war?”

Bakers Summer Gardens, 641 Granville (upstairs)
(Old John Goss Studio)

Sunday, February 10
B.C, Peace Conference — 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Upper Hall in Pender Auditorium

Everyone welcome to discuss how we can work for
peace in B.C. Mr. Duncan-Jones will be present.

Sunday evening, 5:30 p.m,

Dinner at Russian People’s Home in honor of
Mr. Duncan-Jones who will speak briefly.

Sponsored by B.C. Peace Council.

i kers. \
union bushworke ——

A WEEK-END FOR PEACE

Friday, February 8 at 8 p.m.

— <

FEBRUARY 1, 1957 —

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 16