BRITISH COLUMBIA

Boards voting ‘no
to school cutbacks

as deadline nears
a ee

The schools fight continued to heat up last week and
Onday with 11 school districts voting to submit anti-
Cutbacks budgets to Victoria Mar. 15, and with the leader
of B.C.’s top university resigning in protest of education

Cutbacks.

According to sources in the education community, the
number of defiant districts will swell to between 20 and 25
boards submitting “needs” or “maintenance” budgets to
the education ministry by the mid-March deadline.

The Vancouver school board, with a majority of trus-
tees members of the Committee of Progressive Electors, is
expected to join those boards with a no-cuts budget at a
Widely-publicized board meeting this Thursday.

“We're expecting citizens — parents and even those
Without children in the public school system — to pack
the place and back our call for a budget that means no
More layoffs and course cutbacks,” said VSB chair Pauline
Weinstein, The meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Mar. 14 at the
Mount Pleasant Elementary School.

Boards were encouraged
to file no-cuts budgets in
defiance of ministry guide-
lines in a resolution over-
whelmingly adopted at a
Special meeting of the B.C.

_ School Trustees Association
Mar. 2-3, :
That B.C. trustees, many

of them conservatives, are

Prepared to take action that

could result in a trusteeship

imposed by the ministry can
be credited in large part to
the role of parents. Their © PAULINE WEINSTEIN

action forced the Surrey board to adopt in a 6-1 vote a

needs budget two weeks ago, and last week the Delta

school board, facing a meeting of angry parents protesting

a $300,000 fine imposed by Education Minister Jack Hein-
Tich, decided to send in two budget estimates by Friday.

Members of the audience of some 800 in Delta Secon-
dary School Mar. 4 demanded trustees defy ministry direc-
lives resulting in a ‘$1.59 million shortfall for the 1985-86
School term, or resign.

In Vancouver, 125 teachers jobs are on the line if the
Ministry’s directives become reality, trustees were told

ar. 4,

The board -subsequently passed a resolution from

COPE trustee Phil Rankin delaying more than $300,000 in

Spending until the 1985-86 fiscal year, as well as incurring a

deficit of more than $700,000 for the current January to

June term.

_ In this way the trustees were able to comply with Hein-
Tich’s order that the board meet ministry directives and
Withdraw the needs budget the board had filed for the
Six-month term. Five other B.C. boards also withdrew
their needs budgets for the short fiscal year, but most if not
all are expected to make a stand against the cuts in their

ar. 1S submissions. ae

Meanwhile, attention has shifted to B.C. univerisities
with the dramatic resignation of University of B.C. presi-
dent George Pederson Mar. 7. He cited university funding
Cuts of five per-cent this year as his reason.

“Tf my resignation does nothing more than dramatize to
the general public the plight of our university system, it will

€ an action worthy of taking,” he said.

University of Victoria president Howard Petch com-
mented, “As president of one of the three provincially
Supported universities, I can’t help but sympathize with

T. Pederson’s sense of frustration.”

Petch said the government’s announced five-per-cent
Cuts, which came “long after the fiscal year has started (and
Which) makes well-considered financial decisions and for-
Ward planning alniost impossible.”

Victoria’s underfunding of universities has reached
Chronic proportions in the last two years, with the decline
IN the province’s share funding with the federal govern-
Ment declining to 16 from 50 per cent.

Last week the board of governors at Simon Fraser

Niversity were considering raising tuition fees by 10.25
Per cent, which, if approved, will mean a 139 per cent fees

Ike since the 1979-80 school year, the UBC governors
Voted an average 10-per cent hike Mar. 7, following on the

€els of a 33-per cent hike the previous year.

| Gov’tthrone speech signalled
phase II of Socred restraint

se xo

ByMAURICERUSH _—

The throne speech at the opening of :

_ the legislature Mar. 4 and the televi-

sion address by Premier Bill Bennett
two weeks earlier, indicate that the

Socreds and big business in B.C. have

embarked ona new phase of the right

_ wing offensive against labor and the

people. _ —
_ The slogan “partnership for eco-

nomic renewal” now replaces “res-

traint” in the government’s jargon but

the main thrust and direction of the

- government remains — more right

‘wing policies based on the Socred
acceptance of Reaganomics as the
way to cope with B.C.’s crisis.

“Restraint” has become a very dis-

credited word over the past three

years and has been exposed as a pro-

gram to wipe out most of the social
gains won by the people over genera-
tions, a program of massive layoffs of

government employees, cut backs in

education, health and all other public
services, the wiping out of human
rights legislation, emasculation of
labor rights, and above all, a program
to weaken the trade union movement

and drive down wage standards. _

Under this program B.C.’s econ-

; omy has been turned*into a disaster

area with the highest unemployment

and worst economic performance of

any part of Canada, except possibly

_ Newfoundland. The unemployment

rate in three years of restraint has been

doubled. Social welfare payments

have been cut in many instances and
increases frozen for three years with

_. the result that nearly 200,000 people

~ live on welfare payments which are

half that required to bringthem upto
the poverty line in Canada. One out of _
every five people in B.C. is either job-

less or on welfare.

_ The massive government layoffs '
and attacks on workers’ living stand-

ards, taken together with cutbacks in
all social services and growing poverty

in the province, have deprived the’

__ people of consumer purchasing power

and deepened the economic crisis in

BC a
The first phase of the right wing

offensive in B.C., which was carried
through under the guise of restraint,
has also created a crisis for the

- government. Faced with growing

public criticism of the restraint pro-

- gram and falling popularity, the

Socreds have now decided to adopt
new tactics, but basically to continue

_ the right wing offensive aimed at serv-_
ing the interests of the big corpora-

tions. The throne speech reflected this

change in tactics. What the throne

- Socreds have launched phase two of —
the right wing offensive.
The throne speech contains no

speech really means is that the

_ proposals to deal with the aggravated

unemployment and poverty problems

_ in B.C. There are no job-creation pro-

jects, nothing to restore labor rights or

-enable unions to gain badly needed

wage increases. Nothing is done to
restore social legislation wiped out in
the past three years. And the Socreds

~ are continuing their program of sharp

~ cutbacks in education. Nothing is

proposed in the throne speech to halt
the devastation

~~ <

of the province’s —

ment’s restraint policies of the last

icies favoring big business.
_ Every major proposal outlined in
general in the throne speech is aimed

at giving bigger concessions to the —

corporations. The Socred govern-

‘ment Is putting public funds and the

entire services of the state to work to
aid “the private sector” make more
profit on the pretext that this is the
way to “economic renewal”. This is in
line with the Socred right wing philo-
sophy adopted from the Fraser
Institue and Reagnomics.

Here are the some of the main mea-
sures offered in the throne speech:

@ Initiatives to attract new invest-
ment to B.C. and increase exports.

What the new initiatives will be has

not been spelled out. Still on the
government’s agenda but held up
until agreement has been reached with
the Tory government are the free eco-
nomic zones. Don Phillips has been
appointed the new Minister of Inter-
national Trade who is supposed to
blast our way into the world markets,
like R.B. Bennett promised in the
hungry thirties.

© The establishment of a Commis-
sioner of Critical Industries whose job
will be to work out plans by which the
government can increase handouts to

corporations “in difficulties”. This

means concessions on taxes, energy
costs, savings on land and transporta-
tion. In other words, it will be a pro-
gram of public subsidies to corpora-

- the anti-union drive. —
three years remain in place. Now, _
_ there will be additional right wing pol-

© Government encouragement fo

people to invest their savings in busi-
_ nesses by buying stocks and bonds.

This is aimed at people who still have _
some money in the bank. Remember —
the last time Bennett launcheda bond _
selling campaign to “share in B.C.’s _
resources” by buying BCRIC shares?

_ Thousands lost their life’s savings in

that venture into “people’s capital-
ism”. They are not likely to fall for this —
big business gimmick a second time. ©
@ About the only thing said in the —
throne speech on education was that a
system of “merit” will be imple-
mented for “good” teachers. =
These are only some of the goodies _ |
around which the Socreds want a
“partnership for economic renewal”.
It’s a program designed to mobilize all —
of the province’s revenues and resour-
ces to come to the aid of the private

- sector. As part of this they want con- —

sultation between the government,
business and labor. Whenever big
business wants labor involved in con- —
sultation, they usually want labor to
give something up. Otherwise they

don’t bother. Labor will have to be

wary not to be sucked into any tripar-

tite schemes which will prove costly to

them in the end. :
Instead of another program of right -

wing policies, B.C. needs new policies

which will put people back to work.
That requires government action — _
both provincial and federal. Job- —
creating projects like a massive
program of reforestation and salmon

_ enhancement, a large scale housing —
_ including’ attempts to get. -

program, a shorter work week, higher

_ The province

Maurice Rush [9%

workers to give up wage standards

and other contract gains to make
companies more profitable. A better
path would be for the government to
nationalize such plants and put them
back to work, modernizing them, and
turning their operation to processing
new products. :

development. These will likely be laid
out in detail in the budget to come

down Mar. 14. Expect major tax han-
douts to the private sector, which

means another form of public sub-
sidy. Is it any wonder that James
-Matkin of the Economic Council of
B.C. hailed the throne speech as just
what is needed in B.C. today?
e A “program of partnership” for
municipalities for economic renewal.
What this means is that civic govern-

_ ments will be pressed to make conces-

sions to the private sector such as tax
cuts, exemption from costs for civic
services, special concessions on land
use, zoning, and so on. Civic govern-
‘ments are in deep crisis because of
three years of Socred cutbacks, but
now civic taxpayers are expected to
share the cost of providing new incen-
tives to big business as part of the new
“partnership” Bennett is seeking.
@ A plan by the new Labor Minis-
ter Terry Segarty to “consult with

ordinary British Columbians” on the
_ future of industrial relations. This is _
_ more of former labor minister Bob

Me

pensions and- welfare payments are

needed. Jobs and training for our |
youth, and jobs for women who
should receive equal pay for work of —
equal value. In other words, a pro-—
gram which will have as its main
thrust, to raise purchasing power and —

AS: stimulate economic activity. It must —
®@ Tax reforms to spur economic —

include nationalization of key opera-_
tions in the forest and mining industry
and turning those operations to —

-manufacturing and processing of

wood and mineral products. These —
and many more new initiatiaves are
needed which will put the people's —
needs before corporate profits.

If the NDP in the legislature is to
provide a real alternative to the
Socred right wing offensive it must
begin to fight for this kind of pro-—
gram. So far their performance has
disappointed many working people in

_ the labor movement and the NDP. A |
recent statement by Bob Skelly that

the honeymoon is ended and that the —
NDP will from now on confront the
Socreds in the legislature is to be wel-
comed. Only by coming out with a
strong anti-monopoly, people’s alter-
native policy will the NDP be able to —
challenge the Socreds in the current

_ legislative session and lay the basis for

the defeat of the Socreds when the _

next provincial election come around. —

The broadest unity of labor, NDP
and Communists is needed — such —
as was achieved in Vancouver civic —

‘election —which can halt the right —

offensive and win policies of real eco-

nomic renewal for B.C,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 13, 1985 e 3