Socreds’ growing attack
on municipal democracy
key civic election issue

_ The Socred government is mak-
ing itself the major issue in the elec-
tion campaign towards the Nov. 21
municipal elections in B.C. as it
Pushes onward with its campaign
tocurtail municipal democracy and
force up local taxes.

Relations between the province
and B.C. municipalities have
deteriorated steadily since the elec-
tion of the Socreds in 1975. How-
~ €ver, a series of attacks on munici-

Palities this year, and the proposed
-Introduction of the Planning Act
for the spring, 1982 session of the
legislature, have threatened a back-
lash, as municipalities find no alter-
Native but to fight back.
“That government has one basic
in its relations with us: to
teduce more and more the munici-
Palities and the city of Vancouver
to the role of tax collector, of
higher and higher taxes, while all
Significant political power is cen-
tralized in their handsin the provin-
Clal cabinet,’”? says Vancouver
alderman Harry Rankin.

7 RIBUNE

This four page supplement
On B.C. municipal politics
has been produced by the Pa-
cific Tribune to assist the
Progressive civic reform
movement in its campaign to
the Nov. 21 municipal elec-
tions across B.C.

Rankin has long been the
spokesman for the left in municipal
politics, but his sentiments are
shared by a growing number of
municipal officials of all political
shades who are feeling the tip of the
Socred screw.

The Socreds’ fear of local

government, and its determination ~

to impose its own political and
economic policies on all public
bodies regardless of the election
mandates received by them, has
prompted a steady attack on
municipal authority and
autonomy, coupled with a growing
shift of social costs out of the pro-
vincial budget and on to the local
tax base. The effect of the shifting
of the tax burden to the local base
has been to force cutbacks in social
services, and higher user fees for
services like transit, while the major
public blame is laid at the feet of
municipal politicians.

The attack has grown in intensity
since 1977 when the Municipal Act
was amended to give the then
minister of municipal affairs Hugh
Curtis the right to overrule any
municipal decision if in his opinion
it was ‘‘contrary to the public in-
terest.””

The next year then finance
minister Evan Wolfe fired a broad-
side at local autonomy with his de-
cree limiting municipal budgets toa
five percent increase over the pre-
vious year, forcing the Socred aus-

terity program on to all govern-
ment bodies in B.C.

With the assignment of Bill
Vander Zalm to municipal affairs
in 1979, the Socreds signalled their
intention to step up the attack. The
Urban Transit Authority followed
quickly after which ignored pro-
tests from the Greater Vancouver
Regional District and dumped
transit deficits and new taxes on the
-GVRD. Vander Zalm followed in
short order with attacks on local
government salaries, threatening to
impose “‘guidelines’’ on salaries
from Victoria, and on the powers
of Regional Districts, which he
charged were a “‘fourth level of
bureaucracy.”

This year, more interference in
local affairs, attacks on municipal
autonomy and the imposition of
economic hardship has sparked
animosity between the Socreds and
even the most conservative -of
municipal administrations.

When school taxes in the Lower

‘Mainland soared this year because

of inflation in land prices and the
outmoded school tax formula, the
Socreds snubbed appeals from
school boards and the GVRD for
measures to hold down the tax in-
creases. The result was tax in-
creases of as much as 400 percent in
Surrey, while the provincial con-
tribution to education. declined
once again.

Next was Vander Zalm’s attack
on Surrey alderman Garry
Watkins (a former NDP candidate

Progressive reform forces in
Burnaby are off to a solid start for
the Nov. 21 election with the
nomination of the strongest Bur-
naby Citizens Association slate in
recent years.

Over 120 BCA members Sept.
10 nominated a full slate commit-
ted to carry out BCA’s reform
Program.

At the head of the slate is
28-year-old mayoralty candidate,
Journalist Lee Rankin. Rankin is
the former editor of the Bound-
ary Road, a weekly community
Newspaper in which he focused
On Burnaby municipal affairs.

_ Eight aldermanic candidates
Mclude incumbent alderman

Drummond, Dean head strong
BCA slate in Burnaby race

sta

BARRY JONES .

. former
school board chairman leads
BCA school slate.
this year due to pressure of his
union work.

The BCA has held a majority
on council and school board sev-

new confidence in the organiza-
tion that the lost ground can be re-
gained this year. :
Both Burnaby council and
school board are dominated by
the right wing Burnaby Voters
Association, representing devel-
oper and business interests.

The BVA is vulnerable on sev-
eral basicissues. It has failed todo
anything about the housing crisis,
choosing instead to crack down
on basement suites — making the
crisis worse. While property taxes
rose sharply, the BVA council re-
fused to support a citizen move-
ment demanding that the Shell
Oil refinery and other large busi-

HARRY RANKIN . . . Socreds reducing municipalities to role of tax
collectors.

against him in Surrey) for Watkins
and two other Surrey aldermen’s
refusal to cross a picket line during
the spring strike of municipal
workers in the GVRD. The
minister threatened to remove the
aldermen from office, showing

how far he is prepared to go in ar- -

bitrary use of power for directly
partisan purposes.

However, the latest move by the
Socreds. in. withholding
homeowner grants from
municipalities for more than a
month, and, in effect, stealing
from them millions of dollars in in-
terest payments normally received,
has sent local officials all over B.C.
into a rage.

And the anger will only increase
as the implications of Vander
Zalm’s Planning Act become
clearer. Called ‘“‘fascist’’? by the
NDP’s Jim Lorimer when first in-
troduced, the label fits in terms of
authoritarian, centralized control
over all planning and land use
decisions in B.C.

The Planning Act forces every
municipality to adopt a community

- plan with zonings and outright uses

for all parts of the community, but
subject to strict political guidelines
imposed by the provincial cabinet,
and to Vander Zalm’s personal ap-
proval. The Act will have a large
impact on the future growth of
municipalities, especially rapidly
expanding ones. But municipal
governments will have less power,
and in some cases no powenat all,

to determine the nature and extent

of future development
Perhaps less important, but to

many what are more\ ir some
features of the Planing Act are the

Developers are wild with glee
over the Planning Act; in fact,
Vander Zalm admitted that
HUDAC, the developer’s or-
ganization, had a hand in drafting
it.

But for local government and
community organizations con-
cerned about development trends
in their area, the Planning Act is a
slap in the face which significantly
restricts municipal democracy by
curtailing the ability of local
communities to plan and control
development according to their
needs.

In all of this the Socreds seem to
have a special animosity for Van-
couver. It is there that the finan-
cial hardship of loading transit and
education costs on the local tax
base hit hardest. It is there too,
where political interference has
been most gross. The unilateral im-
position of ALRT, the denial of a
ward system for Vancouver, and
the redevelopment of the heart of
Vancouver in the B.C. Place pro-
ject, allowing the city only token
participation, really amount to a
war declaration against the city.

It remains to be seen if the left on
Vancouver city council, mayor
Harcourt and COPE aldermen
Bruce Eriksen, Bruce Yorke and
Harry Rankin, will get the support
of the vacillating liberal-TEAM
‘members on council to lead an ef-
fective fight against the Socreds.

However, all over B.C. as the
campaign towards the Nov. 21
municipal elections unfolds, the
real issue in the elections has been
made clear. Whether the debate is

Doug Drumm ee _eraltimesinits 25 yearsof activity Ness Properties be assessed at a eee over taxes, housing, planning and
Hisie Dean Aen ace in Burnaby. However it has often higher value. ume os ee on eo development or civic democracy —
council race, trade unionist. been harmed by opportunist poli- BCA policy calls for a ward pate Seceases permits “ t the Socreds have been identified as
Paul Bjarnason, lawyer Gayle  ticians unwilling to carry out the —_ system in the municipality, an af- bts plage ena r — the enemy.
Gavin, school teacher Gordon BCA program. . fordable housing program, a} (Gor, speal reise pal h = Municipal politicians who at-
Smith, lawyer John Motiuk, ten- ‘In the 1979 elections, BCA moratorium on the illegal suite | netcipal SOunGlais phan enibiito beidenliteSocred canis:
ant leader Tom Lalonde, and mayor Tom Constable went _ bylaw, strengthening of rent con- si ie pny lantingiarenehe Gan " will find themselves in an untenable
lawyer and BCA president Derek down to defeat and the BCA lost _trols, restrictions on density and a yP spits Lede laad position this November
Corrigan. its majority on council. Soon af- height of high rises, a convention- : :
The school board slate ishead- ter Constableand one of threeal- _ al rapid transit system, and a re-
by incumbent trustee Barry dermenelectedleftthe BCA amid — vamped bus system in Burnaby,
Jones, the former chairman of criticism that their departure and tax reform to force industrial Ta xXes, hou si ng ~
the board, and includes Linda from BCA policy on several key _ properties to pay a larger share of \
__|[Chobotuck, Mauritz Mann, _ issues had beenamajor factor in the tax burden. On school taxes, \
{Anne Smith, Frank Boden and — the BCA’s setback. : the BCA reaffirmed its support of N x Van : Alberni,
_ ~ {Pam Turner. At a policy Sarpy pe the McMath eeu to ae Sa
BCA incumbent aldermanand _ this month the BC. irmed _ province pay 75 percent of schoo!
le uni Randall, its licy line and with the nomin- . costs. The BCA also wants a re-
an alderman yi an an- anch of a united slate pledged to —_ duction in class sizes in Burnal Coquitlam elections
/Ounced that he would step down _ stand by the program, there isa schools next year. :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 18, 1981—Page 5