oe Oe er a a |

applauded

LAST WEEK'S provincial
budget was a ‘‘pleasant surprise”

‘for businesses, says the president

of the Terrace and District Cham-
ber of Commerce.

‘It looked more like a free en-
terprise budget,” said Sharon
Taylor of the provincial govern-
ment’s spending plans which cut
the deficit to $900 million on

‘planned spending of just under

_ > $20 billion.

She called the restoration of the
automobile trade in allowance
and a freeze on public sector
wages welcome moves,

. “Pm a little disappointed there
was not more altention paid to the
debt. but I didn’t think it was a
bad document,” Taylor added,

She did warn that the provincial

~ government could still offer some

surprises, among them im-

.plementing changes in employ-

ment standards which could raise

- business costs,

‘have the

Also: calling the budget good
news for its elimination of the
one per cent property transfer tax
for first time home buyers is local
fealtor Dick Evans.

“Tt was one of our recom-

_ mendations. It hasn’t been com-

pletely eliminated but we do feel
for first time home buyers, it will
intent of assisting
them,” said Evans who sits on
the provincial real estate associa-

‘tion’s -government liaison com-
‘-miltec,: -

With average house prices in

the $100,000 range here, Evans
. continued,

the elimination
represents a savings of $1,000.
*'The one per cent was a tax

and with it gone, it means first

time buyers could use the $1,000
for a lot of things. They could put
it into the local economy where
itll. keep circulating”? Evans
said,

He estimated that first time

‘home buyers represent 20 per

cent of the home buying market
in Terrace and area.

The restoration of the used car
trade in allowance also puts
money into the pockets of con-

. sumer, SAY two local car dealers.

Provincial budget measures

by local business

BUDGET MOVE: to revive the used car trade in allowance is pleasing news for Ted Hicks, sales
manager at McEwan GM. He and other dealers around town said it'll provide a welcome tax break
for people trading in used cars an new models. The car industry conducted a year long lobby to re-
store the allowance which was eliminated in last year’s budget.

Both Leo De Jong of Thornhill
Motors and Ted Hicks of
McEwan GM said purchasers had
been scared off by the prospect of
paying more taxes.

Last year’s budget wiped out
the allowance so that a new car
buyer with a trade in paid sales

Pace

houetes

* Total government
expenditure to rise 3.5 per
cent to $18.73 billion.

* Deficit for 1994/95
forecast at $898 million.

* Promise of no new taxes
or increase in existing taxes
for the next three years.

* Property tax for first time
_ home buyers eliminated.

_ * Trade-in allowance on
_ vehicle purchases restored.

* Health care expenditure
up $200 million or 3.3 per
_ cent.

* No new money available

for teacher salary increases
~ and a cap on school district

administration costs.

Budget in brief

* Grants to elementary and
secondary schools up $130
million or four per cent to
$3.38 billion.

* Grants for universities and
colleges up 3.4 per cent to
$1.06 billion.

* Threshold for corporation
capital tax increased to $1.5
million of paid-up capital,

* Introduction of $18
million of tax
reductions/increased rants
for mining industry.

* Three month amnesty for
businesses to remit overdue
sales tax money after which
enforcement will be stepped

up.

BRITISH COLUMBIANS should
feel comfortable knowing that
taxes are frozen for the next three
years, says Skeena NDP MLA

. Helmut Giesbrecht.

Speaking after last week’s
budget, Giesbrecht said the freeze

_ and deficit reduction make for a_

healthy economy.
-“TPs what the Premicr an-

- nounced some time ago and he’s
‘. keeping to that plan,”’ the MLA

added.
“There isn’t much in this
budget that could make anybody
unhappy,” he said,
Although the government will
have to borrow just under $900
million to meet its. operating
cosis, Glesbrecht said that’s a
manageable figure and ons which

‘will go down in future years.

~ “We're looking at a deficit in
the order of four or five per cent.
We have the best economy (of
any province in Canada) and the

best credit rating,” the MLA con-

tinued. -
“I. suppose you could have a.

Helmut Glesbrecht .

situation like Alberta but I don’t
think anybody wants that,’’ said
Giesbrecht of that province’s 20
per cent spending cut brought in
this year.

Giesbrecht did concede that
some fees are rising, but said they
aren’t considered a tax. |

tax on the entire purchase price.

Restoring the allowance means
the purchaser pays tax on the dif-
ference between the trade in and
the new car.

*Tt’s the best news we’ve had
for a long time. There’s going to
be more trade ins and less private

sales,”’ said De Jong.

_McEwan's Hicks said a lot of
customers didn’t realize what
their tax bite would be when the
trade in allowance was eliminated
last year.

“Tt really turned them off,’’ "he
said,

Lib claims ‘tax

freeze’ a hoax

“SAY IT LOUD and long
enough and the public will be-
lieve i?

That, says Liberal MLA Ken
Jones, is Finance minister
Elizabeth Cull’s strategy when it
comes to the budget she brought
down last Tuesday.

Jones dismissed Cull’s claim
the budget kept faith with premier
Mike Harcourt's televised decla-
ration of a tax freeze.

“Fee increases are just taxation
in another guise,’? he maintained,
referring to NDP plans to in-
crease fees on a range of items
from fishing licences to marriage
certificates.

He also pointed out that under
the New Democrats the amount
collected in taxes from each fam-
ily had climbed $2,400 while the
amount of government spending
per family had increased only
$2,100.

As for government claims to be
tackling the deficit, Jones said
that was a fallacy.

Noting government plans in-
cluded borrowing another $2 bil-

“The difference of course Is
that don’t affect the entire group
of taxpayers, They fail under a
user pay system to make services
self supporting,”’ he said.

The MLA said the $112 million
in tax culs announced by finance
minister Elizabeth Cull will help
people.

“There has always been the in-
tent to look at this,’’ said Gies-
brecht of ike elimination of the
real estate purchase tax for first
time home buyers.

He noted that the government
also followed through on @ prom-
isc to review an unpopular
automobile lax decision brought
in last year.

That decision forced people
trading in a used car to buy a new
one to pay sales tax on the full
purchase price.

This budget bas gone back to
the previous miethad by which the
trade in value.is deducted: from
the ‘new purchase price when
sales tax is calculated... :

lion, he suggested it was trying to
pretend the debt had nothing to
do with the deficit.

The reality was when the NDP
took power, the direct debt per
family was $7,832. Now, it had
hit $11,660, an increase of 30 per
cent.

Jones also ridiculed Cull’s an-

nouncement the government's air
services would be sold off as a
cost culting measure.

At the same time the Treasury
Board had been examining this
possibility, he said, the govern-
ment spent ‘‘a couple of million’
on buying a refurbished Cessna
for its air ambulance service.

Atid last October it had signed a
10-year lease on a ‘‘very fancy,
very posh’? hangar and office for
the service.

While the government sald it
was going to sublet the facility,
Jones doubted any private opera-
tion would pay the $1 million a
year leasing fee to which Victoria
had agreed,

“We're in the glue for it
regardless,"’ he said.

Tax freeze pleases MLA |

Giesbrecht is curious about how
the government is going to bring
ina cap on school district admin-
istrative costs,

“I don’t know if there is golng -

to be some flexibility in this or if
there is going to be direction to
reduce them,’ he said,

The MLA defended a plan to
borrow $300 million for the con-
Struction of a new highway up
Vancouver Island.

‘Those’ days. are gone,”’ said
Glesbrecht of a time when the
construction may have been cov-
ered by the highways ministry’s
operating budget.

**In the old days there were op-
erating surpluses and the province
was ona boom. We don’t have
that anymore,’ said Giesorecht.

“The argument is that this is
not money used for operating, but
‘for building something, to add to
the assets of the province.’”

**Tn this way you can’! consider
it an operating deficit but a debt
that adds. io the amenities of the

~. provines,’* Glesbrecht added, -

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 30, 1994 - AS

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Mail Bag

Daycare out of hand
Dear Sir:

The issue of Discovery Daycare, and the whole daycare situation
in Terrace, has gotten so completely out of hand it’s disgusting,

Mickey and Sharon Bromiley are not deceitful people who are in-
considerate of the people around them.

Their house building decisions:

1, Provide more than adequate fencing around their home to aid in
quicting the ‘noise’ of eight children’s laughter, while enjoying
their playtime outdoors, so as not to disturb the neighbours. When
there were 16 children at the daycare on Agar the children played
outside in two separate groups of eight. The system would have
been the same on Hamer Ave, so as not to disturb people in the
ares,

2, Mickey and Sharon planned their circular driveway so when we
brought our children to the daycare, there would be no vehicles
parked on the street, This was designed for traffic and safety con-
siderations of the neighbours and the children walking on the sireet.

3. The home and daycare was designed to look like a louse, 50 as
not to ruin the look of the neighbourhood. The Bromley home and
daycare facility is an asset to Hamer Ave., not a home with fic-
titious garage doors hiding an area to house 16 to 20 child care
spaces,

The focus of the Terrace council should be not just be the wishes
of a few residents but the needs of the community as a whole. If
Terrace is going to continue to grow, it has to provide the needed
services for its residents and their children,

The other issue I would like to direct your attention to is Council-
lor Gordon Hull’s suggestion that council should not have to hear
presentations over again after a decision has been made.

Councillor Hull, maybe if you could have demonstrated enough
courtesy to at least have shown up on time to the Feb. 7, 1994 meet-
ing concerning this issue, instead of being 45 minutes late, and if
you had taken the time to listen to Mickey Bromley’s presentation
concerning the daycare issue, other presentations would not have
been needed.

This daycare issue is not going to go away because you decided
that it’s over. In case you have not tealized it, families are the back-
bone of any community, councillor. And for your information, this
is The Year of the Family! —

Sherry i Eidsvik
_» Terrace, B.C,

~-Saddened d by city council”

Dear Sir:

We are disillusioned and saddened by city council’s decision to
close the Discovery Daycare Centre.

We have recently moved here from the Okanagan. We had heard
that Terrace was a friendly place where a young family would have
a chance to grow and prosper, a place of opportunity, away from the
constriction and rigidity of big city life.

One of our three children is of pre-school age. We had hoped to
properly prepare -her for school. Our research led us to the Dis-
covery Daycare Centre and the Bromley family. They have won our

_ complete trust.

Our littie gitl' lias grown to'love' and’ réspedt*the Brorhibys" and
their program, When she found out she could no longer attend the
centre she cried. Her little world had been turned upside down,

Every night when she says her prayers, she asks for the reopening

of her school so she can join her friends and leam to go to school.

It is disheartening to see this petty behaviour happening in our
new community. We have become aware that the Bromleys have
worked hard, sacrificed, and saved for several years and long hours
to accumulate what little they have and to fulfil their dreams to be-
come self-sustaining. .

To own a home and to provide our families with the necessities of
life, most often means. both parents’ have to work. As a con-
sequence, daycares have become an essential service, just as essen-
tial as hospitals, schools, boarding houses, hostels, halfway houses
or nursing homes, which incidentally, have been set up in highly
residential areas throughout the country.

To equate a pub to a daycare centre Is ludicrous and small
minded,

Recently our various levels of government have targeted the need
fo enhance smali business and entrepreneurial enterprise as the
Means to create jobs and to stimulate the economy, They have
recognized the need to become less restrictive.

They concede they must begin by relaxing licensing practises, by
cutting back on rd tape, by providing tax incentives, and by
making loans and government more accessible. It would, thus, seem
appropriate to begin this ‘Practice in our own back yards. ;

' Elby and Lenore Campbell,
Terrace, B.C,

Ea I
THE START IS FOR PEOPLE LEARNING TO READ

~ The Start ©

Petition starts _
DARLENE GAGNON is separated from her husband,

She has two children. She gets money for child support.

But she has to pay income tax on the money. ;

Darlene says that is not fair. She says the money is
needed for her children. So Darlene wants the govern-
ment to change the tax rule.

She has started a petition. It is asking the government
to change the rule. The petition will go to the govern-
ment in Ottawa, Darlene wants many people to sign. A
copy is at the Terrace Women’ 8 Resource Centre. eo

“Forestry ‘meeting Bees

‘THE CHAMBER of commerce is having @ a meeting. April 14 The

topic is the forest indusiry.

The chamber is worried that more and more lend will be saved
from logging. This could mean fewer and fewer jobs, aays the
chamber.’

There will be three speakers at the meeting. Ono speaker is Mike
Morton. He works for Share B.C. It has done’a lot of work for
forest workers on Vancouver Island. Share group members were at
the recent jobs rally in Victoria

Jack Munro will also be at the meeting. He is president of the
B.C, Forest Alllance. The meeting takes Pine 8 at the Terrace Inn. It
starts sat 7 p.m. -