Reader wrings his

hands in restraint

Sol Jackson, Vancouver,
writes: Premier Bennett’s call
for wage restraint has not gone
unheeded

Last Saturday, my wife and I
went shopping for a ring for
number one son’s birthday.
Keeping Bennett’s plea in mind
we shopped around for a ring

which was just 10 percent more

than last year. After walking
around for an hour and a half
and stopping at seven shops the
only money we spent was for
parking meters.

So far the premier’s call for
restraint was working.

We decided to return home to
think about rings — silver rings
and other kinds.

Just as we opened the door,
there was a ringon the phone. It
was a teacher, an innocent vic-
tim of the premier’s call for cut-
backs in educational services.
She was wondering what was
going to happen to the Van-
couver School Board program
against racism and the special
programs for the handicapped.

“Must we reduce services to the.

handicapped because 1981 is
past and the Year of the Disabl-

ed is over?’’ she asked.

That call started a ringing in
my ears. I wondered why Ben-
nett did not cut back on B.C.
Place. The cost of anew Cambie
Street bridge will be more than
50 million dollars — probably

over 100 million with access
roads and services — that could
have been used to ease the
pressure on school costs or pro-
vide seed money for affordable
housing.

Has Bennett tossed his hat in
the ring? It looks that way. He
knows that municipal govern-
ments will find it almost im-
possible to keep spending to 12
percent above 1981. That was
the year of reduced budgets
because of the three month
municipal workers’ strike. It
was also the year the provincial
government signed a contract
with the RCMP which increased
the RCMP costs for 1982 by 75
percent over the previous year
(this is a sizeable part of the in-
crease in any municipal budget).

But Bennett will sound like he
is ringing out a warming about
the big buck spenders while the
municipalities will look for the

However, if the NPA and
TEAM majority of Vancouver
city council refused to beled like
calves by approving the B.C.

Fae SSS ENnEnsenennssee 1
_ SrA a ca gre ame oe nER ERS mit

Place roadway, the city would
have been in a better position to
fight for a reasonable budget.
The COPE aldermen argued
that a roadway decision should
not be made until all the costs
were known and the impact
studies were in. But they lost the
battle.

The other obvious saving
could-be made by ringing down
the curtain on Expo 86. How
much? Who knows — 12 or 50
million? But it would help
reduce the health care cutbacks
that will inevitably come if the
10 percent ceiling is firm. That
has a healthy ring to it!

Which brings me back full
circle to my son’s birthday ring.

I went right out and bought my
son a package of Cracker Jack.
He will just have to take his
chances on finding a ring in the
box. That way we will stay with-
in the guidelines set by the prem-
ier. It’s the least I can do to com-
ply with his call for restraint.

Socreds'
hypocrisy

Jim Green, Vancouver,
writes: What can we say about
the Social Credit attorney-
general Allan Williams who
hands out bags full of money to
a murderer-rapist and at the
same time withdraws the fund-
ing from the community-based
rape relief centres? What can
anyone say about an attorney-
general who threatens the cen-
tres where the survivors of at-
tacks from the likes of Olsen
must go for help? Why must the
confidentiality that is essential
to rape relief centres be
threatened? Why are victims be-
ing victimized again? It is just
the logical extension of the
Social Credit policy?

Welfare mothers were cut $55
per month, single people on
assistance had their medical and
dental benefits taken away, bus
passes for the handicapped went
up in cost and now the rape
relief centres are being threaten-
ed with closure. Could it be that
the Social Credit attack on the
people of this province is just
warming up? Can we allow this
to continue? The Downtown
Eastside Residents’ Association
urges everyone to take a stand
on this issue.

COPE INVITES YOU TO

A PEOPLE’S CONFERENCE
“THE BENNETT DECREE”

Sunday, March 7, 2 p.m.
Plaza 500, Granville Room
(12th and Cambie)

@ What will it mean to the budget of the city of

Vancouver.

_ @ What should Vancouver's spending priorities be?
@ How will Vancouver's priorities be determined, and by

whom?

The COPE aldermen want to hear your views.
COPE needs your input to fight for your priorities!

GREATER VANCOUVER

By FRED WILSON

Representatives of the Com-
mittee of Progressive Electors
(COPE) and mayor Mike Har-
court and his ‘New Democratic
Party supporters met this week in
an attempt to forge a unity slate
and campaign for the 1982 Van-
couver civic election.

The negotiations were initiated
by COPE several months ago and
began in January under the aus-
pices of the Vancouver and Dis-
trict Labor Council. Separate
meetings between COPE and the
VDLC and Harcourt forces and
the VDLC were followed last Sat-
urday by a meeting of all three
groups.

The initial meeting of the labor
council table officers, COPE’s
three aldermen and its president
Jim Quail, mayor Harcourt and
his NDP associates Ron Wick-
strom and Gerry Scott, did not
reach a consensus. COPE and the
Harcourt committee were sched-
uled to meet directly on Wednes-
day totry again for an agreement.

Hanging in the balance of the
negotiations is no less than: the
outcome of the November elec-
tion. Harcourt in particular is ina

Harcourt-COPE agreement :
needed for fall elections

perilous situation. The 1980 vote
saw him upset Jack Volrich by a
3,100 plurality, while TEAM’s
Martin Zlotnick and.;right wing
independent David Ingram to-
gether polled 8,000 votes. Har-
court may be able to repeat the
50,000 votes he took in 1980, but
the likelihood is that the right will
unite around a single candidate —
Volrich.

The COPE incumbents on city
council and parks board, and the
majority on the school board face
similar problems. The Non-Par-
tisan Association and the estab-
lishment forces they represent are
burning over the result of the last
election. A virtual stalemate exists
on.council and on some major is-
sues like Pier BC and the ward
system the balance has swung
against them. On the school
board the city’s establishment is
reduced to an absolute minority.

A well-financed, slick NPA
campaign can be predicted. To
some extent it will be aided by
TEAM’s continuing slide. It is
doubtful that TEAM will field
full slates.

In 1980, despite Harcourt’s
standoffish approach to COPE,

minimum, will be needed t

unity was achieved around a slate
of candidates which was endorsed
by the labor council. That, at the

year. But to ensure Harcourt’s
election or to make any fi
gains at any level, more will bé
needed.
The current negotiations re
flect grudging recognition of thal
by the mayor and his NDP back
ers. But they want some aldet|
manic nominations as the prict]
for unity. a
COPE has spent 14 years al
tempting to build a left-centre un
ity slate, and it sees clearly
pressing need for broad unity this
year. COPE wants to talk about
what kind of unity. Will Harcout
endorse the COPE candidates, of
play the same game asin 1980 and)
attempt to distance himself from
the labor council slate? Will nee :
be co-ordination of the campaigt
itself, between COPE, the Hat-|
court committee and the VDLC!
The labor council, understand
ably, wants a slate of 10 aldet~
manic candidates united in 4|
common effort. It has made that | _
the price for its effort, which it
promises will be considerable.

Labor and environmental
groups are demanding the creation
of a modern waste disposal facility
following opposition from local
groups to the Greater Vancouver
Regional District’s attempts to
create dump sites in their districts.

The Vancouver and_ District
Labor Council has endorsed a mo-
tion urging the GVRD to scrap its
plans for a new dumpsite at either
Pitt Polder or Langley and instead
seek a cost-sharing agreement with
the provincial government on in-
stalling a new, environmentally
sound waste disposal system.

The GVRD was turned down by
the neighboring Dewdney-
Alouette Regional District after

400 Pitt Meadows residents crowd- .

ed the local hall Feb. 24 to tell
DARD directors they opposed the
GVRD’s attempts to dump gar-
bage at nearby Pitt Polder. One of

the leaders of the citizens’ move-
ment, Pat Freeman, said 11,000

dumpsite.

In a brief to DARD, the Van-
couver Natural History Society
said the site, located next to the Pitt
wildlife management area, would
draw huge numbers of scavenger

_ birds and threaten the local water

tables with liquid waste runoff. The
society instead urges waste recycl-
ing and incinerators to dispose of
the GVRD’s garbage.

The region is seeking a new

New dump policy demanded

dumpsite because Coquitlam’s
Terra Nova site, which also serves
Burnaby, New Westminster, Port
Moody and Port Coquitlam must
close this summer. The GVRD is
also considering using the Burns
Bog landfill currently used by Van-
couver and Delta, but Vancouver
mayor Michael Harcourt says his
council will likely oppose this.

- GVRD’s waste and water com-
mittee chairman Jack Loucks has
said he has not ruled out expropria-
tion of the Pitt Polder site.

The VDLC motion, submitted —-

by the UFA WU local 1, noted that
landfill sites are proven threats to
water courses, fish stocks and are
generally detrimental to the en-
vironment. The motion also stated,
“energy minister Bob McClelland,
in opposing a proposed landfill site
near Fort Langley, is on record as
reminding Greater Vancouver
Regional District that there are
more modern ways of disposing of
wastes than in a landfill and
benefits to be derived from recycl-
ing and utilization of energy.”
The GVRD was urged “‘to face
up to the fact that the narrow
economic argument it advances to
justify its continued use of landfill
sites merely passes to a future
generation the far greater ultimate
cost of installing modern waste
disposal facilities and repairing the

damage being done to the environ-

ment. :
“We urge the GVRD to aban-

eee,
5

COPE
Annual General Meeting

Sunday, March 14, 1:30 p.m.
Ironworkers Hall, 2415 Columbia St.
Vancouver, B.C.

The Committee of Progressive Electors
Number Three, 2414 Main St. 876-2615

~ resolution said.

“| Cook also supported Operation

fill site and open negotiations
mediately with the proving?
government for a cost sh

agreement that will enable
modern waste disposal facilities"
be built without further ue
and delay of a project that must!
evitably be undertaken,’

don its proposed Pitt Polder fe

Peace poll
supported

“Do you support the goal of
disarmament and mandate you!
government to negotiate and
implement with other gover
ments the balanced steps thal
would lead to the earliest poss
ble achievement of this goal?

Citizens of Toronto, OttaW#]
and Hamilton, and most recest”
ly, the District of North Va"
couver will be asked this que”
tion, or one worded similarly,”
referendums when they gO
the polls in civic elections
fall. The city councils of North
Vancouver and Vancouver wil
also consider putting this qu
tion on the ballot.

The initiative comes from)
Operation Dismantle, a
group conducting a Canada
wide campaign asking cil
councils to approve the refer
dum “‘to mobilize publi
awareness and pressure
cians into speaking up on the
issue.”’ a

North Vancouver pistrit
council agreed, with only one
opposed, to alderman Ere
Crist’s recommendation that
the disarmament question beif
cluded in this year’s electio™
Local Conservative MP Chuck

Dismantle’s effort. _ o

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 5, 1982—Page Z

A aE re a ee a SE