“All they think about is money.’

Mac-Blo tax

decision

blow to municipalities

PORT ALBERNI — 1972 saw
MacMillan Bloedel appeal their
assessments in the city of Port
Alberni on two counts: one, on
the grounds their property tax
assessment, (they claimed,) on
industrial property was
assessed at 50 percent, while
residential assessments were
at 36 percent of value. The fact
that company land where the
pulp mill site is assessed at 10
cents a square foot while a
barber shop uptown bears an as-
sessment of $2.00 a square foot is
evidently overlooked.

This part of the assessment
appeal has not been decided at
the time of writing but if the com-
pany is successful it would cost
the taxpayers in the city about 9
mills increase in their taxes to
make up the difference, school

- and general fate taxes
combined.

The company also appealed
the business tax assessment
which is based on estimated

*“yéntal value.”* The grounds for
the company’s appeal are that
, taxation. should be deducted
<frem the estimations before
/ rental value is determined; that
~Yental value for purposes of
~ assessing ‘‘business tax” should
~ be the “net” rental value after
- deducting municipal taxes
~ from the gross rental value. This
‘sis What the B.C. Supreme Court
“ decided was fair and proper.
“Phe city is still able to appeal
‘the decisions to the Supreme
Court of Canada with no guar-
antee of success and with the
--Tisk of losing several more thou-
* Sands of dollars in legal fees.
“*<s"What is completely forgotten
* “int the discussions and left com-
llenanmmeeneeecnee

pletely out of the legal consid-.
erations is the fact that the “busi-
ness tax,’’ as it is spelled out in
the Municipal Act is a great big
farce.

The provincial government
has acted in this case as in many
others to protect the mono-
polies by exempting industrial
machinery from municipal taxa-
tion except for school and hos-
pital purposes. Then they have
authorized the ‘‘business tax’’
which must be levied also on the
commercial sector if it is to be
applied at all. Thus the tactic of
the government is to use the
commercial sector as a shield
behind which industrial mono-
polies can hide to escape
millions of dollars in taxation
which should be going into muni-
cipal coffers to ease the growing
tax burden on the home owners.

If the appeals are both
successful, the city of Port
Alberni stands to lose the equiva-
lent of about 11 mills (almost
$350,000) on the general tax roll
this year, which will have to be
made up in_ general rate
increase.

Other cities which have indus-
trial complexes within their
dSoundaries would also be af-
fected next year.

With a provincial election in
the offing it is a good time to put
the pressure on the candidates
and demand that in place of this
phoriy “‘business tax’’ the provin-
cial government should restore
the right of the cities and muni-
cipalities in B.C. to the same
sort of taxation upon industrial
machinery as is done for schools
and hospitals.

B.C. Fed urged to call ;
all-in union conference

Vancouver and District Labor
Council delegates Tuesday night
urged the B.C. Federation of
Labor to call a delegated con-
ference of all unions to deal with
the government’s Bill 33 threat
against the six unions which
have joined in a building trades
“pact.”

In its resolution the VLC reit-
erated its condemnation of the
Mediation Commission as an

BUILDING UNIONS

Cont'd from pg. 1
sions which have been fought for

-and established for years are

gutted by the award, and the
door is opened wide for black-
listing. In one of the provisions
affecting the plumbers the
award deletes the requirement
that the employers must get
union permission before
overtime is worked. Many other
long-standing gains are wiped
out.

Shaking the big stick again,
Minister of Labor Chabot
warned the construction unions
on Tuesday that they had four or
five days to decide what they
will accept of the Mediation
Commission’s report, other-
wise the entire decision will
become binding, he said.

In keeping with the big busi-
ness outlook of Chabot and the
Socred government, Chabot
announced on the same day that
he issued his threat to the con-
struction unions that he had ap-
pointed James R. Edgett, who
was labor consultant for the
B.C. Manufacturers Associa-

tion, as assistant deputy
minister of labor.
He also announced the

appointment of R.K. Gervin,
labor relations ‘expert’ for the
construction companies to a
number of government boards
including the Labor Relations
Board.

Meanwhile, charges laid
against a growing number of
unions for allegedly not order-
ing their members back to work
and failing to carry out a govern-
ment order, are laid over to
some time in August.

FRED QUILT

Cont'd. from pg. 1

view between Indian young
people at the Kamloops demon-
stration and a Tribune repre-
sentative. In the meantime the
inquest is expected to take from
a week to 10 days to conclude.

~~ Youth take action for jobs

‘~The Union of Unemployed
: Youth this week set plans to
demonstrate in front of the
Unemployment Insurance

. Office on Robson Street on July
24 to demand action to meet the
crisis of unemployment among
youth in B.C.

Chairman of the union Ed
Wilson made reference to the
fact that latest government
figures show there were 34,000
youth under 25 years of age look-
ing for jobs last month in B.C.
He said “government policy has

failed utterly to meet the prob-
lem, and in fact has worsened it,
and while make-shift programs
like Opportunities for Youth are
lauded by the media, they serve
only to pacify select stratas of
middle and upper class univer-
sity students.”’

The Union plans to march
through downtown and
assemble at 11 a.m. in front of
the UIC offices at 1145 Robson,
where they will demand to have
a brief of their views accepted

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1972—PAGE 8

by a high ranking government
official.

Organized just a month ago,
the Union has struck a good re-
sponse among young unem-
ployed, as well as from the trade
union movement which they
regard as their greatest ally in
the fight for jobs.

Already moral and financial
support has been received from
the United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union, and the
Vancouver local of CUPE as
well as CUPE-B.C. Division.

agent of the employers. It
pointed out there was no consid-
eration given to the position of
the six unions, and called for a
full labor rally to consider
further steps to be taken by
organized labor to meet the
latest threat of compulsion
against them.

‘The crunch is here right
now,”’ said Paddy Neale, secre-
tary of the VLC. He said present
hiring hall practices were the
only protection senior
employees have, and the recom-
mendations of the Mediation
Commission would ‘tear the
guts out of union agreements.’

Chris Locke of the IBEW, one
of the unions affected, said his
local had passed a motion to
ignore the Mediation Com-
mission findings because it took
away 90 percent of their agree
ment.

“Tf Chabot thinks our mem-
bers will accept this sort of

- U.S. ACTION HIT

The World Peacé Council,
headquartered in Helsinki and
representing peace organi-
zations in over 100 countries, last
week issued a statement on U.S.
meteorological warfare in
Vietnam.

The statement said all people
who value human life abhor the
fact that the mass bombing of
dikes has created floods and has
extended the monsoon duration.
The world peace body charged
that Nixon has been proved to lie
when said the reports of dike
bombing were not accurate. Eye-
witness reports from people such
as the Swedish Ambassador to
Vietnam; French and other lead-
ing press reporters and photo-
graphers proved he lied. Nor is
the dike bombing ‘‘pilot errors.”’

The WPC charged that Nixon
has also used acidic rain to make
radar, trucks and tanks inoper-
able. The use of meteorological
warefare threatens not only the
Indochinese, but also the entire
world, according to a Harvard
professor of biology. It has the
potential for causing larger-
scale and quite possibly uncon-
trollable and unpredictable
destruction in areas subject to
flooding.

thing, he should come to ou!
union meetings,” he concluded.

Jack Phillips, CUPE, labelled
the Mediation Commission a?
obscene tool of the Social Credit
government and big business
the province. He said, ‘“‘We were
not angry enough about the
police raids on union offices. A”!
every democratic citizen shqul

be angry. What is involved in this

question is more than the rights 7

of trade unionists, but demo
cracy, itself.

_ “The labor movement cannot

and will not live with comput:
sory arbitration. If it mea”

defying the law, so be it, but We —

will support the Six Pact unions
all the way.”’

A: delegate said the Six Pact
unity was a wonderful achiev
ment, for they had been tradh
tionally independent and tradi

tionally split. Tom Constable,

IBEW, added Bills 3 and 37 to Ee
retrograde legislation on so
Credit government books whi¢
had to be fought, along with B!

33.

The B.C. Fed gave notice
delegates that Schlage Lock a
of Canada, one of the larger loc®
making firms in the country;
had refused to bargain in 8
faith and its products were 80 4
HOT. Max Donuts has Oe
placed on the unfair list by a
Labor Council. It too has refus®”
to bargain fairly with its ads
ployees. The HOT clause a
been lifted against Lene
Electric, where settlement b
been made.

The delegates support a a
dian Congress of Labor prole
to the French government te
their nuclear tests in the P nip
fic. They urged the peace’ ry
Greenpeace be given €¥
support by the Canadian
ment.

Labor wants a federal comm
sion to _ investigate
Unemployment Insurance ~.
paisa vith a view to clearitt
up the foul’ups and delays nd
payments. Paddy Neale
George Kowbell gave inser
where men had to apply for 5 iB
fare because of the delay?”
unemployment payments fout
sometimes of three a?
months duration. —

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