ASSESSMENT SCANDAL

CPR must be made to pay

| fair share on property —

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

The CPR is still above and
beyond the laws that govern us
ordinary mortals. Or perhaps I
should say that there’s one law for
the CPR and one for the rest of us.
This was clearly revealed when the
assessment Board of Revision
handed down its decision on a
recent appeal by Marathon Realty,
the real estate arm of the CPR.

The property involved was 94
acres of land owned by Marathon
Realty on the north shore of False
Creek, between Cambie and
Granville Bridges.

Last year City Council voted to
rezone this land, at the request of
the CPR, from industrial to
comprehensive. This was to enable
the CPR to undertake a huge
apartment and commercial

The Committee of Progressive
Electors (COPE) this’ week an-
nounced the calling of a one-day
workshop of concerned
organizations in Vancouver aimed
at taking action to prevent a big
tax increase this year.

The workshop will take place on
Saturday, April 26 at 10 a.m. in the
Grandview Community Centre,
3350 Victoria Dr. The call urges
organizations to attend and help
formulate a common program of
action designed to influence
decisions at ‘the provincial, federal
and city level affecting taxes.

Normally the municipal budget
is determined in the middle of
April and the general purpose tax
rate struck by the end of that
month. The school budget and its
corresponding mil! rate is deter-
mined independently, but at ap-
proximately the same time.

This year a number of unknown
factors remain, nevertheless there

is widespread speculation that tax

hikes around 20 per cent could
result, even if the unknown factors
are resolved favorably.

Two factors remain unknown at
this time as far as the general

purpose: tax rate is concerned — -

the extent of additional provincial
government aid through possible
sharing of increases in the price of
exported natural gas, and a
possible tightening up of municipal
spending estimates.

The school tax situation is only
slightly changed from. previous
years. The provincial government
has not honored its pledge to
remove this tax from _ the
homeowner. Instead it has
produced a complicated formula
called the School Tax Removal Act
which will relieve this tax to a
minor extent for some taxpayers,
depending on the total amount of
the school tax. It will mean more
taxes for others.

COPE calls city parley
to fight tax increase

In an attempt to cope with the
serious threat of a tax boost, Ald.

Harry Rankin introduced a motion -

at Vancouver city council March 25
which carried unanimously. It
calls on the provincial government
to quickly guarantee the. $4.5
million this year to Vancouver, no
matter what the outcome of the
First Minister’s Conference in
Ottawa during April.

The resolution says that having
received this guarantee from the
province, city council will strongly
support the position of the B.C.
government in asking Ottawa to
authorize an increase in the price
of natural gas, (one third of which
is to be shared with the
municipalities), preferably to $2.00
per thousand cubic feet.

Under Rankin’s plan, adopted by
council, the city will receive $9
million, thus eliminating the
necessity of a tax boost to
homeowners and tenants.

project, with buildings up to. 33
storeys in height, that would turn
this area into another West End
apartment junge. I voted against

‘the rezoning.

When land is rezoned, it must, of
course, be reassessed. The
assessment laws clearly state that
it must be assessed on the basis of
its “‘highest and best use.’’. This
means that this CPR land can no
longer be assessed on the basis of
being a rail yard, as it was when it

was zoned industrial, but on the -

basis» of comprehensive which
means apartment and commercial
use. -

The assessors had placed the
value of the CPR’s 94 acres at just
under $34,000,000. This works out to
about $60,000 which is ridiculously
low. Then they knocked off over
$17,000,000 on the grounds that this
is what the CPR would spend, (not
what it has spent), when it
developed the land, leaving a
balance of $15,600,000.

But the greedy and arrogant
CPR wouldn’t even agree to these
concessions, all of which were
completely unjustified. After all, it
has been on public welfare ever
since it was formed almost a
hundred years ago; it has always
fed at the trough of the public

treasury and it has no intention of

‘starting to pay taxes now. So its
lawyers ‘appealed even this low
assessment.

The assessment Board of
Review, after listening to the

Hurry for special
Tribune edition

You have until Friday, April 18 to
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in the special May Day and 40th
Anniversary issue of the Tribune.

The special 20-page edition will
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a bundle for distribution to your
friends, neighbors and fellow
workers. This edition should get
into the hands of thousands of new
readers.

CPR’s lawyers,
assessment laws under which it is
supposed to operate, and ruled that
the assessment must be based not

on comprehensive, as it is zoned ~
now, but on whatit was before, that

is, industrial.

This will Save the CPR hundreds
of thousands of dollars, perhaps
millions, that the rest of us will now
have to fork up by paying higher
taxes on our homes.

What is the market value of the
CPR’s 94 acres on the north shore
of False Creek, now that it has
been zoned comprehensive?

I’m no authority.on real estate

values but I’m damn sure the CPR
wouldn’t sell any of this land for

less than $200,000 a lot. It’s choice
downtown land, on the False Creek
waterfront. This would bring its
value, (at six lots to the acre), to
almost $113,000,000. Personally I

think $200,000,000 would be closer. ~

But the assessment Court of
Revision has assessed these 94
acres at less than $4,400,000!

On the south shore of False
Creek city owned land is being
assessed at approximately $18,000
a lot, (which is also an under
assessment), but the CPR is being
assessed at under $8,000 a lot!

No wonder a common saying
across the country is: ‘‘Who’s
running the country, the govern-
ment or the CPR? The answer still
is, the CPR.

I_ think some major house-
cleaning is necessary in the
bureaucracy of the assessment
authorities. Homeowners are still
not being given a fair shake. Big
commercial. and_ industrial
properties are assessed at far
below their market value, with the

result that the homeowners have to |

take up the slack and pay up
money that should be paid by big
property owners.

And this incident concerning the

--CPR certainly shows that we need

a Court of Revision that applies the
Jaw equally to all citizens and does
not exempt corporate giants like
the CPR from paying their fair
share of city taxes.

ignored the :

PED, aa PORN gril aS de

TOM —
McEWEN

he most alarming feature of this price gouging period in’

which we live and have to fork out exorbitant prices for
everything we eat, wear, need or use, is that the monopoly
ripoff barons get away with it. In fact they not only get
away with it, but receive every aid and encouragement
from governments of the day to keep on with the robbery.

With their two cents or more increase for a gallon of gas
or furnace oil beginning the first of this month, with more
to follow, the oil tycoons will have a harder time than ever
“explaining”’ their new millions of profits. Now of course
they have anew excuse, ‘‘exploration’’ for more oil — and
profits!

The story of the egg prices hike, with millions of dozens
deliberately put in storage to rot, we are all well
acquainted with. Now we havea little on the story of milk.
While mother messes around mixing a few handfuls of
“‘powdered’’ whitewash, at 60 cents or more a carton, to
kid baby into thinking he is getting’ a tummy full of
“milk,”’ tons of fresh milk are going down some drain to
keep milk prices up. One key witness says he ‘“‘forgot the
exact amount “splashed down his special drain’’ but there
were tons of it, the same stuff as the housewife buys at
better than 40 cents a quart.

Furthermore — and this would seem to be the chief
tragedy of the period — a well trained and conforming
press and media contrives to win over enough of. the

robbed to boost the robbers. Some of them even manage to
“deplore” and castigate labor for refusing to be taken to
the cleaners in silence.

To steadily combat all this and more, this month the
Pacific Tribune celebrates its 40th anniversary, and is
marking the event by a $40,000 financial campaign, to
make sure that come what may, the working people will

.be assured of one mass voice against monopoly robbers,

the bosses and their governments; against all who con-
nive and conspire to profiteer on the working class.

This increase in target setting is not done because of
increased publishing costs, although that too had been
happening drastically over the years, but because of the
titanic battles ahead by the common people of town and
countryside, to put a definite end to this monopoly
profiteering and robbery of the peoples’ heritage, plus
goes food, clothing and shelter.

Pail may talk “‘morals’’ to an erring citizen but to a
faceless heartless monopoly conglomeration, or a
government which supports it in its high-handed robbery,
it is a waste of valuable time and effort. Better to clean it
up and out before it puts the price of existence out of
reach!

The coming struggle of the Pacific Tribune as it enters
its 41st year and the need of this financial target, is
precisely that: to serve as a mobilizer, educator and guide
in the prices-mounting days ahead, when the great
depression of the Hungry 30’s will look like a Ladies Aid
afternoon tea by comparison!

This column is definitely in that target objective, with
no end of handicaps, and an unquenchable hope that we

can do better than ever before, just because the times and.
conditions demand that we do better than ever before.

And don’t let any fool notion get in the way of doing
“better’’ than ever before; such as the idea that a
potential profit weapon of inflation may stop of itself, or
the monopoly robber will tire of his robbery, or perhaps

‘the Trudeaus-Stanfields-ete. and etc. will have a ‘change

of heart’ and go back to ‘reasonable’ living standards. Not
on your life! The customary upward ripoff has to them
and all like them become a way of life, which they won’t
abandon of their own free will. A crime of such scope and
magnitude has to be ended by the people themselves, if it
is to be ended at all.

This is the fight a little paper like the Pacific Tribune —

faces. With your support, better than ever before, it can
and will be faced and won. Today a world socialist up-
surge proclaims it, and at home here in the province of
B.C. we are still in a position to confirm it.

The Pacific Tribune needs your help NOW. You will
need its help in the battles ahead against the profiteering
raiders. Make sure it is there when you need it, by
donations to this column, or direct to the paper.

\

=, ,Pacitic Iribune

West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune-

Editor - MAURICE RUSH

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1975—Page 2

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