#2 & Fe 3 | SF 2 2 BRITISH COLUMBIA MacDonald to contest The Communist Party put its first candi- date in the field for the provincial election ’ Saturday with the nomination of Deborah MaDonald in the two-member riding of Nanaimo. MacDonald, an activist at the Nanaimo Unemployed Workers Centre for three years and Nanaimo president of the Con- gress of Canadian Women, was the choice of about 60 CP members at the annual ‘meeting of the party’s Island region at the Bowen Park Community Hall. MacDonald told the meeting that she had resigned her pdsition at the Unem- ployed Centre to take the nomination, “a difficult decision because the fight for full employment has been my daily work for three and a half years. “TI chose to take this nomination because I realized that our struggles are political,” she said. “I have seen the flourishing of food banks and soup kitchens, and more and " more cuts in social services and attacks on "labor's rights. With unemployment and poverty, suicide, rape and crime have also increased. - “I chose to fight politically because the struggles people face today need both mass extra-parliamentary action, and a parlia- mentary alternative based-on policies for - real change.” The meeting also heard CP provincial leader Maurice Rush respond to the throne speech brought down days earlier by the Socred government. Noting the Socreds’ penchant for slo- gans, Rush drew attention to the new slogan “for a new B.C. economy” coined in the Nanaimo seat for CP throne speech. “The Socreds mean by a ‘new economy’ that the traditional resource industries are no longer the vehicle for eco- nomic recovery and full employment,” he said. ‘“‘A ‘new economy’ to the Socreds means an economy based on free trade and continental energy policy, tourism and small scale high tech research. “Their new economy means _ handing over B.C. hook, line and sinker to US. financial interests,” he said. Rush charged that the Socreds have or are about to spend $12 to $14 billion on resource sellout megaprojects, highways and Expo. “There is more than enough money available for an economic program *to create a real new B.C. economy, trans- formed from an exporter of raw and semi processed materials, to a modern industrial economy producing finished products crafted out of our natural resources,” he said, The only way to implement an independ- ent Canadian industrial strategy for B.C. is through nationalization of the resource industries and the diversification of produc- tion under public ownership, he stressed. The CP plans to nominate in two other ridings and has scheduled nominating meet- ings in New Westminster for March 27 at the Royal Towers Hotel and for April 3 in Vancouver East at the Hastings Commun- ity Centre. Campaign manager Fred Wilson told the meeting that the CP’s campaign kicks off with a two-week pre-election campaign in all three ridings April 1-15. Members of the Kamloops Unemployed Action Committee picket Socred fund-raiser outside Kamloops Exhibition Grounds March 1 5, in demonstration for jobs in the hard-hit Interior city. The action, accompanied by a depression- style soup kitchen at the local unemployment centre, called for provincial policies to create jobs in an area that experiences a 30-per cent unemployment rate. Claude Richmond, tourism minister and local MLA who was featured at the Socreds’ $50-per plate dinner, echoed the government's contempt for the unemployed when he commented: ‘‘These people should use their hands to help themselves, instead of having their hand out with their palm up.” PHOTO — BILL CAMPBELL Boards press gov't on schools funding The Vancouver school board unanim- ously adopted a budget March 13 that exceeded provincial funding guidelines by more than $13 million and joined virtually the rest of the province in sending the strongest possible message to the provincial government. At that point, some 37 boards had tabled budgets showing amounts of up’to $8.3 million over the ministry of education’s “fiscal framework.” But by March 14, officials in the educa- tion community were reporting that at least 74 of B.C.’s 75 school districts were demanding more than is allowed under Vic- toria’s continuing and unpopular restraint program for public education. Just what the provincial Social Credit government plans to do in response is anyone’s guess. But legislation forcing boards to raise the shortfalls by what increased taxation on homeowners is imminent. ; Last year the Vancouver and Cowichan school trustees were fired for being the hold- outs in an initially much larger resistance by districts to government cutbacks budgets. This year the fight has been led by conserva- tive leaning boards such as Prince George, Quesnel and West Vancouver. There are undoubtedly several reasons for the province-wide rebellion, not the least of which would be trustees having to face the fourth straight year of declining services under provincial restraint, and the resulting anger of parents. Additionally, B.C. School Trustees Association president Eric Buck- ley has increasingly voiced opposition to the school cuts. Last week Buckley criticized the govern- ment’s so-called fund for Excellence in Edu- cation, saying the $110-million fund represents “a fiction that there is extra money” for B.C. schools. Buckley said the excellence fund com- prised money already taken from districts under restraint. At its budget meeting last Thursday the Vancouver board capped a series of public forums on the budget by passing what they called a “modest recovery” operating budget of $179.5 million. When income from various board properties and other services is subtracted, the figure is $173.5 million. ° It exceeds by slightly more than $13 mil- lion the provincial government guidelines of $160 million. Board finance chairman Chris Allnutt said the budget reflected the demands con- tained in more than 70 submissions trustees received during the recent series of open meetings. Trustee Charles Ungerleider, who like the rest of the nine-member board is from the labor-backed Committee of Progressive — Electors, said the philosophy behind the budget was to restore services “to those who need it } most.” That point was underscored by trus- tee Phil Rankin, who said he “didn’t want — the point to be lost PAULINE that this a partial WEINSTEIN recovery budget.” Rankin said his own sons in the Van- couver system still face class sizes higher than the recommended provincial average and are not affected by the improvements in the budget. “What Vancouver needs is a full recovery budget. . .. But the premier has made it clear he plans to pillory this board again,” he said. As a result of the budget, Vancouver’s residential taxpayers will have to pay about $90 extra on their school tax bill for the 1986-87 fiscal year. But that tax hike could be reduced by well more than one-half if the province passed legislation enabling dis- tricts to tax commercial and industrial properties, the COPE trustees pointed out. In her opening remarks, board chair Pauline Weinstein hit Premier Bill Bennett for his remarks a féw days earlier that the Vancouver board had been elected “on a partisan political basis” and could not work with the government. “Unlike Mr. Bennett, I’d like to open again the opportunity to negotiate and address the inequities that face our children in this system,” she said. Wes Knapp of the B.C. Teachers Federa- tion said Friday it appears school districts will ask for well over $110 million in excess of provincial funding to redress the financial shortfall in their budgets. “As far as we can determine, all districts are exceeding or will exceed the govern- ment’s fiscal framework. That has to be taken pretty seriously,” he said. goat's More than 100 anti-apartheid activists Staged two demonstrations — on Friday and again on Sunday — outside the con- vention of the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) to protest the appear- ance of the South African ambassador at a convention panel. Representatives of the Southern Africa Action Coalition and the SACTU Solidar- ity Committee, who organized the demon- stration, had sought for weeks to have CIJ convention organizers withdraw the invi- tation to the representative of the apar- theid regime. But even though his appearance prompted several other partic- ipants to drop out, they went ahead, claim- BEREZBo8 ing that the issue was one of free speech. Envoy’s visit protested Because of the controversy, the South African embassy decided to send ambas- sador Glenn Babb instead of the third secretary originally scheduled to attend. The CIJ invitation had also been chal- lenged during a rally earlier in the week called by the SACTU Soliarity Committee as part of the week of action against apar- theid. “This isn’t a question of free speech,” B.C. Federation of Labor secretary- treasurer Cliff Andstein told the rally. “The ambassador can come to Robson Square any time and make a speech — no one will shoot him. “But we don’t give the regime a plat- form to legitimize itself,” he said. PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN RIBUN