ULL PET

| :

By FRED WILSON

The Socred cabinet has deliver-
‘ed a multi-million dollar gift to in-
dustrialists and resource compan-
les in B.C. by cutting their school
taxes, and adding the balance to
the taxes of homeowners and
shopkeepers.

The decision was announced
quietly last week by Socred fin-
| 4nce minister Evan Wolfe after
cabinet passed an order-imcouncil
| Changing the procedures that will
be used to work out the 1980 pro-
perty and school taxes.

The changes affect the assess-
‘Ment base for taxation, the
Percentage of the real market
Value of the property which is
taken as the taxable value. Differ-
€nt percentages or assessment

ifications of property.

give a welcome break to farmers
by reducing the assessment for
School purposes from 15 per cent
Of real value to 10 per cent.

: But the other major benefactor
Of the changes will be industrial
Property owners who will have
their school taxes slashed through
4 reduction in the assessment base
for machinery and equipment
from 30 per cent of real value to
5 per cent.

Machinery and equipment are
Not taxed at all for general muni-

bases are taken for different class- .

The new assessment bases will

cipal purposes, only for school
taxes. The exemption has long
been criticized as a basic inequity
in the property tax system.

The cabinet decision to lower
the assessment base on machinery
and equipment for school taxes

will reduce by 16.6 per cent the ~

portion of the real value of ma-
chinery and equipment that will be
taxed. And that will result in sub-
stantial savings. for industry, and
higher taxes for homeowners and
shopkeepers.

Jack Moore, the province’s sur-
veyor of taxes in the ministry of fi-
nance, confirmed to the Tribune
Tuesday that the lower assessment
base on machinery will effect a 2.8
per cent shift in the tax burden
away from industry to homeown-
ers and commercial property.

The impact in industrial cities
where machinery and equipment
are a larger portion of the tax base
will be greater. Port Alberni alder-
man George McKnight predicted
Tuesday that the change will raise
homeowners’ school taxes in- Al-
berni by as much as 10 per cent in.
1980. :

Last year 41.9 per cent of all as-
sessed values for school purposes
in Port alberni was in machinery
and equipment, McKnight said,
and the lower assessment on ma-
chinery for 1980 will exempt near-
ly $8 million worth of machinery

~ and equipment from taxation.

‘*There is no doubt that this will
be a substantial shift in the tax
burden on to-homeowners and
small businessmen,”’’ he said.

In Vancouver there were $813
million worth of machinery and
equipment assessed in 1979, and
$243.9 million or 30 per cent was
taxed. The new assessment base of
25 per cent will see only $203.3
million taxed in 1980, exempting
$40.6 million worth of machinery
and equipment from taxation.

This year’s taxes in Vancouver
worked out to a 46.8 mill rate,

which if applied to the $40 million °

in values exempted for 1980 would
amount to nearly $2 million. That
$2 million will have to be paid by
other classifications of property,
primarily residential and commer-
cial owners. ;
Although 1980 assessments-are
not ready yet, based on 1979 as-
sessments it will mean a shift of

about $1.1 million in taxes from |

industry on to commercial prop-

erty and about $720,000 from in-_

dustry on to homeowners. And
that would translate into about
$8.50. more in school taxes for
each homeowner.

The shift in the tax burden from
industry to other classifications
works like*this:. after the assess-
ment base is applied to all.of the
property values in a_ school
district, the total assessed value is
calculated. The school district

School taxes to rise as industry gets gift

then works out a mill rate by
dividing the amount of money
that it needs, over and above the
grant from the province, into the
total assessed value. The mill rate
is then applied to each individual
piece of property. By this method,
if some industrial values are ex-
empted, it will be transferred to
the other classifications through a
higher mill rate.

The Socreds claim that the shift
in the tax burden will be offset by
the basic grant from the ministry
of education. According to the
ministry’s formula, if the assessed
value in a school district falls, the
grant will be increased. Theoreti-
cally, this would result in the
school district needing less money-
and applying a lower mill rate so
that school taxes for homeonwers
would not rise, or at least not as
much.

In reality, however, the Socreds
have been reducing the basic edu-
cation grants in relation to infla-
tion so that each year the local
school boards are forced to im-
pose higher mill rates. Unless that

policy is changed, the increased *

grant will have no effect on the
shift in the tax burden, and taxes
on homes and businesses will inev-
itably rise in 1980.

The reduced assessment base
for farms will, unfortunately,
have a similar effect in some rural
school districts where farm prop-

’ kinds of property, residences and

oo

—
‘

erty values dominate the assess-
ment rolls.

While farmers and the labor
movement have long called for the
elimination of school taxes on
homes and family farms, this re-
duction in taxes on farms, which
the Socreds claim will be as high
as 20 per cent, is not being trans-
ferred to the province, but to
other classifications of real pro-
perty.

In spite of mounting pressure
on the provincial government to
adopt the provisions of the Mc-
Math Report, which would have
the province pay 75 per cent of all
education costs, greatly reducing
the school tax on all classifications
of property, there is no indication
from the government that it will
pay a greater share of the costs.

Rather the government clearly
intends to maintain the heavy
school tax burden on homeowners
and shopkeepers, but has moved
to give big industry a break. In
justifying the assessment changes,
Wolfe said the changes are part of
a move to “‘consolidate classifica-
tions’’ of property — a long term
objective which would: see all

industry, pay the same rate. But
because there are so many more
residences than industrial and bus-
iness properties, homeowners
would end up paying the over-
whelming majority of the tax bill J

the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Jua : :
“ti de Fuca at Port Angeles, due
uth of Victoria. It would then

: * States to the midwest.
Wither tills made its strategic
: drawal from the hearings Mon-

ake recommendation on one
come proposal which could
 the.P&te with the American Nor-
ler project.
Sothills was in large part forced
ting draw, however, by the ac-
- dian Of the Council of Yukon In-
"Which and environmental groups
When Won a ruling two weeks ago
( ane NEB hearings opened in
eXten @ to force Foothills to supply
Sive and detailed environmen-
a about its proposed project.
ang pay the Society for Pollution
Supp ‘Vironmental Control (SPEC)
dig, ted by the Union of B.C. In-
tal prcis and other environmen-
vain ©Ps moved a similar motion
St Trans Mountain to force it

Ud a pipeline across the northern.

; a Supposedly to allow the NEB -

TRANSMOUNTAIN SPOKESMEN AT HEARINGS . . . renewing the threat of su

to supply basic information about
its proposed port and pipeline. A
ruling from the NEB was expected
Thursday morning as the Tribune

went to press. é
The United Fishermen and Allied

Workers Union which although not
an intervenor in the present hear-
ings has led the fight against*a west
coast oil port in previous hearings
and in the 1977 Thompson Inquiry,
this week threw its support behind
the SPEC motion.

Union business agent Bill Pro-
copation said Wednesday that an

oil port at either Low Point or Port.

Angeles ‘‘will bring an inevitable oil
spill, and irreparable damage to our
coast line and to our fishery.”’
Procopation said that the U.S.
Northern Tier proposal is actually

worse than the Trans Mountain one

and can’t be left solely to U.S. deci-
sion making. ‘‘Juan de Fuca ls a
mutual waterway and Canadian in-
terests must be protected,”’ he said.
. The Trans Mountain proposal is

—Sean Griffin photo
pertankers in

“only slightly less hazardous than
Port Angeles,’? UFAWU en-
vironmental researcher Arnie
Thomlinson said. “‘As far as Cana-

- dian“interests are concerned there is

no significant difference in risks.

Either way an oil spill will hit the-

beaches of Vancouver Island and
spread into the Straits of Georgia
and over the Gulf Islands.”’

In the U.S. Carter is under heavy
pressure to recommend an all-U.S.
route by Dec. 6 and this week U.S.
secretary of the interior Cecil An-
drus recommended to Carter that
he approve the Northern Tier pro-
posal. : \

In ‘Canada, the Socred govern-
ment in B.C. and the former
Liberal federal government, and the

“new Tory government,- had all

backed the Foothills project
because of the opposition on the
west coast to tanker traffic, and

because the oil pipeline would help .

get the Alcan gas pipeline project
going. The $10 billion gas pipeline

Socred land deals|
spark wide protest

The provincial cabinet has en-
countered mounting opposition to
its arbitrary action in cutting 626
acres in Langley out Of the
agricultural land reserve as labor
joined municipal councils in
demanding a reversal of the deci-
sion and an end to the further

* alienation of valuable farm land.

Unionists have also coupled their
demand with a call for a full public
investigation into charges of ‘‘in-
fluence peddling and collusion with
land developers by members of the
Socred government.”’

Municipal councils in Burnaby,
Richmond and Delta have protested
the move by the provincial cabinet
which overturned the decision of
the B.C. Land Commission and
removed the 626 acres to pave the

. way for the establishment of an in-
dustrial park.

Gloucester Properties, whose
president is the consul in Vancouver

YI forces Foothills to withdraw bid

project has been stalled with financ-
ing problems, and if the oil pipeline
is rejected, the Alcan line may never
be built.

When the Foothills project was”

ordered to carry out environmental
studies by the NEB, Tory en-
vironmental minister John Fraser
gave tentative support to the Trans
Mountain proposal. :

If the Trans Mountain proposal
also meets the stiff opposition from
intervenors the Foothills remains
in the wings with its proposal still
very much alive.

‘Foothills’ move is .completely
strategic,’’ the UFAWU’s Thomlin-
son said. ‘‘When they saw they
wouldn’t get everything their way at
the NEB, they pulled out to circum-
vent the entire process.’’ Thomlin-
son predicted that Foothills would
try to get political approval by lob-
bying prime minister Joe Clark
before he meets with president

~ Carter on the issue. -

for the fascist Chilean junta, sought
the release of the land for its
development plans. Its bid was sup-
ported by B.C. Hydro which also
stands to gain if the decision is not
reversed,-- 13:

On Tuesday, delegates to the-

“Vancouver and District Council

unanimously endorsed a motion
calling on the provincial govern-
ment to rescind the release of land
in Langley and declare an im-
mediate moratorium on_ further
release of land from the reserve.
. Charging that decisions by the
cabinet’s land use committee were
“putting the interests of developers
before people’’ and ‘‘undermining
the Land Commission’’, the motion
demanded the Victoria ‘‘initiate a
public inquiry into charges of in-
fluence peddling and collusion with
land developers by members of the
Socred government and B.C.
Hydro and into the whole issue of
alienation of agricultural land.”’
The charges of ‘‘influence peddl-

‘ing”’ were also in reference to a land

deal in Chilliwack involving
Chilliwack. mayor and former
Socred cabinet minister Ken Kier-
nan and Chilliwack car dealers.
The resolution demanding the

provincial government take action

was also passed by the
Marineworkers and Boilermakers
Union. The Telecommunciations
Workers Union had earlier
demanded the cabinet reverse its
decision.

The Social Credit ‘‘dirty tricks’’
scandal was the subject of another
resolution from the labor council
delegates who warned that the “‘let-

tergate’’ affair ‘‘casts a long
shadow over government
morality.”

‘The resolution noted, ‘‘indica-
tions are that the campaign was ap-
proved of at the highest level of the -
Social Credit government,’’? and
urged the B.C. Federation of Labor
to call for a public commission of
inquiry to investigate the scandal,
establish blame and bring all the
fcts and those involved “‘before the
public.’’ -

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— OCTOBER 19, 1979—Page 3