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VANCOUVER

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Weinstein joins COPE council slate

COPE CAMPAIGN ‘86 ..

. Mayoral candidate Ald. Harry Rankin addresses media

and supporters at official opening of election office, 108 East Broadway St.;

Continued from page 1

ces criticized the plan for over-spending on
sidewalks, sewers, parks and other capital
projects, the chair of the parks board — still
dominated by NPA commissioners — was
trying to make political capital out of coun-
cil’s paring of the parks portion of the capi-
tal budget.

Rankin also nominated school board
chair Pauline Weinstein for an aldermanic

slot, completing the list of seven council
contenders.

The other six nominees had been pre-
viously announced. They include incum-
bents Libby Davies, Bruce Eriksen and
Bruce Yorke, joined by Vancouver and
District Labor Council secretary Frank
Kennedy, anti-poverty representative Jean
Swanson, and community activist Carole
Walker.

Capital plan deserves
your vote on Nov. 15

Vancouver city council has adopted
a four year capital plan to cover major
capital public works projects for the
years 1987-90. Such plans are periodi-
cally adopted by city council and are an
integral part of the city planning pro-
cess.

They are necessary because large
expenditures obviously can’t come out
of general revenues. Much of this
money must be borrowed and amor-
tized over a lengthy period.

The capital plan calls for the expen-
diture of $143.5 million, which consists
of three parts. .

1. $63.7 million will be borrowed and
will be spent as follows: engineering
and firehalls, $32 million; parks board,
$20.3 million; library, $1.4 million and
$10 million for infrastructure. This will
be submitted to a plebiscite of voters as
tequired by law.

2.$46.8 million will go for sewers and
will also be borrowed, Under the Van-
couver Charter money borrowed for
sewers does not have to be submitted to
a referendum.

3. The remaining $33 million will
come out of general revenue and will be
used as follows: another $17.3 million
for engineering and firehalls; another
$10.9 million for the parks board;
library board, $776,000; capital grants,
$4 million.

The parks board expenditures will
include alterations to Carnegie Centre,
to increase the floor space, and upgrad-
ing of the Britannia Centre swimming
pools. Even with this improvement,
Vancouver East will still be deficient in
park and other facilities.

Another $1.2 million will go towards
improving library facilities (renova-
tions at Dunbar, South Hill and Kitsi-
lano branches.)

The $4 million for capital grants will

provide approximately $1 million for
the new Arts, Science and Technology

Centre and another $1 million for the
PNE Stadium. The remaining $2 mil-
lion will be kept in reserve to meet grant
needs as they arise.

Before arriving at a decision, council
heard delegations from the parks board
and citizen organizations, and appeals
from various city departments. The
final vote on the capital plan.was 5-4.
Voting for it were aldermen Bill Yee
and the four Committee of Progressive
Electors. aldermen, Libby Davies,
Bruce Eriksen, Bruce Yorke and
myself. Opposed were aldermen George
Puil, Don Bellamy, Gordon Campbell
and May Brown. Ald. Marguerite Ford
and Mayor Mike Harcourt were
absent.

Harry
Rankin

Whether the Non-Partisan Associa-
tion and The Electors Action Move-
ment aldermen will now campaign
againt the capital plan in the upcoming
civic elections, and try to defeat it for
narrow partisan advantage, remains to
be seen. My view is that all of these
expenditures are needed, they are reas-
onable and they will benefit the people
of our city and provide many jobs dur-
ing the four-year period.

They will enhance our credit rating.
They will cause a moderate increase in
taxes, but that is the price we will have
to pay if we want to keep up services
and facilities in our city. 1 strongly urge
all voters to support the Nov. 15 plebis-
cite for the borrowing of $63.7 million.

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 17, 1986

JAGR QAM
for Mayor

—ceeenarnininenannctaccennnnctit

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Val

Pauline Weinstein, Vancouver school board chair, addresses nomination mee

that acclaimed her as city council candidate.

Rankin told the meeting that the school
board’s removal last year by the provincial
government constituted a fight over educa-
tion financing that “was the most important
in municipal politics in Canada.”

He noted that the subsequent byelection
in January saw COPE candidates take all
nine school board seats. “With Polly on our
slate for city hall, we’ll do the same this

‘ election,” he vowed.

Susan Dahlin replaces Weinstein as a
school board candidate, joining the incum-
bents for the fall race. They include trustees
Bill Darnell, Sadie Kuehn, Gary Onstad,
Phil Rankin, John Church, Chris Allnutt,
Carmela Allevato and Charles Ungerleider.

In his acceptance speech Onstad noted
Premier Bill Vander Zalm, as ‘the Socred
education minister in 1982 “softened up the
education system” for cutbacks. Phil Ran-
kin said the current race centres on the issue

‘of changing the fiscal framework fot edu
tion funding. gate

Parks board veteran Pat Wilson int det
meeting that when she and current
man Libby Davies were first elected 1
board in 1980, it was an “old boys ¢l¥ fot

“In 1984, we had a quantum leaP"
ward when we elected three of us Wome,
she said in reference to herself, and ©
sioners Sue Harris and Connie Fogal:

Since then the COPE minority 0%
seven-member board has wrung Se
concessions from the NPA, including 4
use of facilities for GAIN recipients,
“they can no longer be as antila
they’d like to be ,” said Wilson. Ks

Joining the incumbents in the P*,,
board race are lawyer and activist Oh.
disabled, Tim Louis, community ac# iad
Mike O’Neill and Joe Arnaud, and ele
cian Mike Chrunik.

VSB trustees air plan
for schools ‘recovery’

The Socred government’s four years of
restraint introduced “unprecedented chaos”
into the province’s public education system,
the Vancouver school board has charged in
a document that offers a four-year plan for
recovery for Vancouver’s and the rest of
B:C.’s public schools.

In a document released Monday and
entitled, ““Four Years of Restraint, Four
Years to Recover,” the nine-member
board — all members of the civic alliance,
the Committee of Progressive Electors —
tabled 12 recommendations to recover the
service lost since restraint first hit public
education in 1982.

Trustee Chris Allnutt, who chairs the
board’s finance and legal committee, said
ending the political “porkbarrel” of the so-
called Fund for Excellence, returning the
industrial and commercial property tax
base to school districts, and overhauling the
fiscal framework whereby the province
funds schools are key recommendations.

Last week Education Minister Tony
Brummett announced a $3-million grant
from the fund for the Vancouver school
district, effective April 1, 1987. But Allnutt
dismissed this as a pre-election “political”
move and called the excellence fund a “‘real
scam.”

“Of all the money awarded during the
past year, only $11 million went for specific
proposals.. The rest ($99. million) went to
make up for the cuts already done,” he said.

Allnutt also termed it “supremely arro-
gant” for a government that “may not bein
power next year” to grant funds for that
year.

In its document the Vancouver board

je
asserts that “the recovery of services; ee
important, is but one step in an ong?
process. ati?
“Improvement through reorganiZ’ ig
and consolidation will also be rec
careful consideration,”’ it states. ws
The document also asserts that thet®
“no fat” in the Vancouver school syne
prior to restraint, and charges that ihe
impact of restraint has affected bot fof
quality of instruction and the desifé
learning.” fi!
The Vancouver trustees call 1986 the”,
year of recovery, noting that, due oA
return of residential taxing powers to © ,
districts, Vancouver was able to lowe! :
sizes and hire new staff, includiné wy
teachers and 34 part-time and full-tim®*
port staff. fo
The list of 12 recommendations call d
hiring several hundred more teache! "9
staff and a greater reduction in class 3”
be phased in yearly until 1990. will pe
Copies of the recommendations d
sent to parents, trade unions, teachel® ut
other groups for comment, said oe
The board will consider the responses i's
ing the next few months before tab
final plan for 1987, he said. Re nds
On the broader issues of educatio? g0
ing, the trustees call for a total revamp! sf
the fiscal framework to reflect distric® 7
cial needs, plowing the $500 million rem 10
ing in the Fund for Excellence net
operating revenues, and returning com
cial taxing powers to the districts. gh
Allnutt said residential taxes coul
halved if Vancouver had the powet by
industrial and commercial properties