Friday, Jan. 29, 1982

Vol. 44, No

30°

.4

PACIFIC

PeiBUNE

Trustees

air tax relief

Vancouver school trustees will meet with Vancouver city council Feb. 2to discuss the school board’s call for a $200 increase in the homeowner grant to be applied on- ly against school taxes. The in- crease would not apply in those

taxpayers in Vancouver and other districts where assessments based On last year’s inflated house prices have flooded courts of revision with appeals.

The school board’s stand parallels that of the B.C. Teachers Federation, whose president, Larry Kuehn, headed a delegation which met education minister Brian Smith in Victoria Jan. 26 to press its demand for short term relief through an increase in the homeowner grant specifically ap- plied against school taxes and longer term solution by revision of the government’s education finance formula which now transfers the school tax load from the province to municipalities.

The school tax crisis is com-_ pounded by the organized challenge to the Assessment Act in- itiated last year by some of the pro- vince’s biggest corporations, among them CP Air, B.C. Tel and Woodward’s Stores.

The dispute hinges around inter- pretation of fixed and portable machinery — the word used in the act is “‘placed’’ machinery, usually under-assessed in any case but tax- ed only for school purposes.

_ Companies successful in having disputed machinery such as com- puters removed from their assessments have reduced the tax base, which will force home owners to pick up the tab.

The dispute has been referred to

B.C. Supreme Court for decision this month,

See comment by Ald. Bruce Yorke on page 2

In North Vancouver district, where the Committee for Fair As- Sessments appealed Hooker Chem- \cal’s entire assessment last year, the New assessment role shows a re- vised figure of $62,123,900 for ma- chinery. This, however, was re- Ported without elaboration to be an €rror — the correct figure should have been $29,810,350, a 13.8 per- Cent increase over last year.

In Port Alberni, where longtime residents recall the protracted cam- pan against tax exemptions given tbh Millan-Bloedel when it es- ; shed its pulp mill there, school trustee Gary Swann is now appeal- Ang that company’s assessment. ity He B.C. Assessment Author-

Y, which initially disparaged the 100d of assessment appeals, this Week conceded that the complete tally of 85,000had set anew record.

No answers for IWA

jobless from Noranda

CUPW urges coalition

for economic reform = Page 6 —

Plight of 20,000 tenants seen ===. in fight over 122% rent hike

scene is repeated every Monday mor

Gathered around the fire barrel for warmth, young unemployed prepare to put in a seven-hour wait until the temporary workers’ employment office opens Monday morning. There were some 20 peo- ple here at midnight, but by 6 a.m. more than 200/people lined up for less than 20 jobs. And the

TRIBUNE PHOTO--SEAN

ning as the job openings dwindle.

The North Shore Tenants Association will be battling for tenants rights before the Ren- talsman this week in a case that has implications for more than 20,000 tenants across the province.

A hearing has been set for Friday at 1:30 when the Rentalsman will consider the validity of a rent in- crease imposed on a North Van- couver tenant, Irmgard Woitas.

Woitas, in her 70s, was given notice earlier this month of a rent increase of 122 percent, jacking her monthly rent up from $182 to $404.

See REPEAL page 2

Mac-Blo threatens pulp jobs

MacMillan-Bloedel was ex- pected to go before the Labor Rela-

tions Board Thursday to seek a.

cease-and-desist order against the Canadian Paperworkers Union whose members have refused to handle a shipment of non-union pulp which arrived at the Alberni Pulp and Paper mill Tuesday.

M-B’s senior vice-president for

Alberni, Bob Findlay, had earlier issued a veiled threat that if CPU refused to handle the pulp, union members in the Valley would be “faced with the closure of all Alberni converting and plywood mills.”’

The LRB application marked the company’s latest move towards confrontation on the issue, which centres on acontract signed by M-B with a non-union company, Quesnel River Pulp, to supply up to 30,000 tonnes per year of ther- momechanical pulp over a thre- year period.

The CPU has demanded that the M-B agree to buy only union pulp after the contract expires and has declared that its members will not handle pulp from Quesnel River until assurances are given that only union pulp will be purchased in future.

The five CPU members who refused to handle the. pulp ship- ment Tuesday were reassigned by the company to other work pre- sumably pending outcome of the

hearing. ‘See PPWC page 8

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