a Gov't bites or deep into surpluses VICTORIA, B.C. Storm signals for the British -Columbia economy can be seen in the provincial budget presented to the legislature last week, des- Pite the “cautious optimism” ex- Pressed by Premier W. A. C. Ben- nett in the course of his budget Speech as finance minister. Provincial revenue has shown @ drop in the last half of 1954 and the level of government ex- Penditure for 1955 is only kept Up by biting deeply into sur- Pluses built up in previous years, Particularly significant is the cae In collections from the 5 per- ee Sales tax, reflecting a drop ry tee Sales in the last half of in year. Estimates for the com- ; i year budget for a smaller en from two: of the “big Runa items in provincial income. lk €ipts from both sales tax and dhe taxes are expected to be Own from last year’s estimates. ae year’s budget went up only es a $17 million chunk was : “en out of a $20 million revenue “a tblus, and this is a method that 8 800d only for this year. i In face of these facts, the direc- °n of Socred “pay-as-you-go” aa can be seen in the refer- Wars to Dominion-Provincial Tax sreements. ‘ ’ Premier Bennett revived that Aoariest of B.C. political slogans oer Terms from Ottawa.” He » ing -USly hopes to avoid impend- ; ¥ financial difficulties by get- te a More money from the Ot- t 4 government under a revised aX agreement, t This year there are none of © tax reductions given by the Rett government in__ its pee neon period — reduc- NS small in themselves but affecting a large number of : People,’ < cre ither are there any tax in- he — the Socreds seemingly tae abandoned any further at- Ho ach to tax the big monopolies ae Citing natural resources in ae for the support of big ty- Tee like H. R. MacMillan, and ti free on the small man would Tt the government’s popularity. In fact, the ‘budget is a model a Conservative financial ortho- Bi a It is indistinguishable from . Sets of -previous administra: Ns and would appear to mark complete ascendency of the aoe wing of ex-Tories ‘over he Monetary theories ‘and anti- hopolist wing of the Social edit party. ane budget address showed Bie: erable concern over the Saker prospects for B.C. It ae ed to the effect of unem- Se in the past year on prov- fea ig revenue but blamed the ah Tal government for failing to Sdeme erp ting no. provincial re- Ponsibility, ed remedies for slowed- a cre activity are not 4 ifferent than those put for- d by Liberal or Tory spokes- of ee They stress the need of -¥ ‘Sa export trade, but mention »- as the chief market. urgegiProcall trade agreements are ot but the government goes conven ith demands for dollar by We — a plan sponsored tawa, me pis backed by Ot- nie Socreds also ask that the with wee dollar be cut to parity Worth he U.S. dollar — it is now ~favori three cents more. This is a rite remedy offered by indus- tries that eae Market, See the US. = their big Urges China recognition | Canada was. urged to follow Britain’s lead and recognize the People’s government of China by Leo Nimsick (CCF, Cranbrook) speaking in the legislature last week. Nimsick referred to the great potentialities of China as a market and argued that much of current unemployment could be solved, at least for the time being, by open- ing up such a market. The Cranbrook MLA urged the provincial government to press - Ot- tawa to ask the United Nations to intervene to bring about a peaee- ful solution of the Formosa crisis. He charged that the UN had been slow in acting in a situation that was much more dangerous to world peace than either the Kash- mir or Palestine. crises. Nimsick scored the interven- tion of American officers in the affairs of Canadian union mem- bers. He cited the case of the oil pipeline contractors and the International Laborers -Union. “Canadians had no say in these agreements,” he said. The agreement with the Kaiser interests to build a dam on the Arrow Lakes was compared to the diversion, of the ‘Trans-Mountain pipeline to refineries in Washing- ton State. “These projects are not giving any jobs to Canada,” the CCF MLA said. ‘ \ Native Indians assist Champion VICTORIA, B.C. Authentic and seldom-perform- ed dances from the Kwakiutl win-|. ter festival were a feature of a highly successful concert in aid of the youth paper Champion held : in the capital last weekend. West Coast Indian dances were under the direction of Chief Mun- go Martin and his son David. Martin, last of the chiefs of his tribe who attempts to preserve the traditional culture of his peo- ple, pounded the deer-hide drum and chanted in accompaniment to} the dances. The dances put on were the “Goose” dance traditionally done by children as a preliminary to the winter festival and the ‘“‘Woman’s” dance, restricted to the highest circles of the secret societies of the Kwakiutl. Chief Martin and his son are presently employed by the Prov- incial Museum to recarve the totem poles in Thunderbird Park here. The old man, last of the totem pole carvers, is teaching the art to his son so that it will not be lost. ees NEW EDUCATIONAL FORMULA > gives gt By KEITH RALSTON Gov't holds sales tax, ants-in=aid | VICTORIA, B.C. Sixty percent of total school budgets in 1955 will be paid directly by the provincial government through grants under the new school financing formula announced in the House last week. Taken together with a new local government grant, it will mean that the pro- vince will underwrite about two-thirds of school costs borne by the municipalities. However, the new school grants rep the share of sales tax and motor vehicle license receipts, which for- merly ‘went to the municipalities. While school costs financed by direct property taxation will be lower indirectly taxpayers will still foot the bill through the five percent sales tax. Total increase in the amount paid by the province will be $5,- 300,000, more than the muncipali- ties would have got under the old system, and $7,800,000 more than was budgeted for these purposes in the 1954 budget. The new formula does not rep- resent: any big increase in the share of educational costs paid by the provincial government, Last year’ Hon. Robert Bonner, then minister of education, told the legislature that money made avail- able to municipal governments and school boards amounted to 65 percent of total cost. Average share of educational costs paid by the province over \the past ten .years, according to the LPP brief on educational fin- ance, ran to only 40 percent of school budgets. : The new educational formula follows in the main the proposals made by the late Dr. M. A. Cam- eron of UBC and partially adopted by the Coalition. It scraps prac- tically all of the so-called Rolston formula introduced two years ago by the Socreds and withdrawn der public protest. This plan carries out two of the Cameron proposals not hitherto put into effect: It is based on equalized assessments and is to be revised every three years. Main features of the new grants arencit: In 1955 the provincial govern- ment will pay two distinct grants, one to meet ordin- ary running expenses and the second to pay for such capital costs as new school build- ings. “ : Local taxpayers will have to pay a share equal to the money raised by ten mills in municipalities and seven mills / in unorganized teritory, plus half of the capital costs. This year the mill rate for schools will average 13.85 mills in cities and districts and 10.62 mills in rural areas. In 1956 and thereafter, the province will pay a_ third grant—a supplementary grant to meet 75 percent of approv- ed increases. Local ratepay- ers will have to pay the re- maining 25 percent plus any unapproved expenses, as, for instance, higher teachers’ sal- aries than in surrounding districts. The province will pay a local government grant, based on a sliding scale. This replaces un-" lace money previously paid in school grants and money paid from the 5 per- cent sales tax and motor vehicle licence fees. Many of the details of the grant system are not yet clear. - It has not been announced, for instance, how the grants will: be calculated. But it seems likely that there will be increased provincial govern- ment control over school budgets. Premier Bennett said in an- nouncing the formula that the province would pay for what he called “approved” school costs. Just what will be “approved” and what will not is yet to be revealed. Greater control over teach- ers’ salaries appears almost cer- tain. One item specifically men- tioned in computing the grants was “a realistic salary grant scale” and school districts were warned that they would have to pay themselves for salary scales higher than the B.C.-approved level. But increased cost due to annu&l increments will be taken care of. One feature of the new system will be to restore a more realistic picture of the relative costs of schools and general expenses in municipal budgets. In the past, municipal councils have used their share of the sales tax to keep down general purpose rates and have foisted the full amount of school costs on to taxpayers. ‘The new grants will be paid directly to the school boards and only the local share will appear on the tax notices. This will mean a sharp drop in school mill rates, and some rise in the rates for general purposes, but in most cases the increase will be offset by higher assessments. Net result will be that mill rates will be lower and for the first time in years school rates will be less than other local government ex- penditures. But there is no indication that the provincial government has any plans either for a provincially- owned pipeline from the Peace River or for the commission to take retailing of gas from the B.C. Electric. ' Arthur Turner (CCF, Vancouver East) has asked that the B.C. Power Commission take com- plete jurisdiction over the whole- gas in the province, ing present facilities of the B.C. Electric. * Turner called the B.C. Power the value of public ownership.” He said that control by the commission was necessary to prevent concentration in the densely-populated areas. “‘We can‘t develop the province un- less we can get cheap electricity and following it, cheap natural gas,” Turner argued. He said the lucrative operations of the B.C. Electric should be taken over and the profits used to subsidize service in the less dense areas. : Natural gas would not be allow- ed to compete in price with oil if the interlocked private gas and oil interests were allowed to remain in control, Turned warned. oil people are not going to let the in the red.” saling and retailing of natural| includ- |. Commission “an. ogject lesson in| “The | : ‘nental” gas policy would serve the gas end of their business put them | ed needs of Canada and the Commission will get public gas authority VICTORIA, B.C. Machinery that would allow the British Columbia Power Com- mission to pipe and distribute natural gas is provided in amendments to the “Power Act” introduced in the legislature.~ would permit the commission to distribute and market gas in the | same way as it now produces and sells electric power. : The new clauses aananennie: sheers ARTHUR TURNER posing the piping %f natural gas from Alberta to Ontario and Que- bec and supporting a’ “contin- ental” gas policy of piping Alberta gas to the Pacific northwest states — and Texas and Oklahoma gas to central Canada. * Of the all-Canada pipeline he said, “If you tell me it is econ- omical and - efficient, I have no more respect for your use of words.” as Turner argued that the “conti- S. and said there must be co- operation between the various Turner quoted with approval a|provinces and the federal govern- Vancouver Province editorial op-|ment ana the United States. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 11, 1955 — PAGE 3