Letters

_ Indusiry still getting a cheap | Women's — ride with municipal taxation |

It’s interesting (and long overdue) that concern is now being expressed about the level of municipal taxes paid by the posh Vancouver Golf Club. A tax bill of $38,000 for 150 acres of prime land in the heart of the District of Coquitlam, complete with clubhouse, restaurant, meeting rooms and lounges, is undoubtedly a great bargain.

What’s even more interesting is that the press has raised this issue to such prom- inence and ignored other glaring inequities that I have raised at Coquitlam council.

I presented evidence, known to all coun- cil members who have done a little digging jnto past history, about the dramatic de- creases in assessments that industry has en- joyed that our feeble attempts at tax rate increases will hardly begin to address.

The fact is our most major industry, Flet- cher Challenge (nee Fraser Mills), was as- sessed at $35,330,100 in 1983. When you include the machinery and equipment value, the total was $85,940,550 (taxed for ed- ucation only). The tax on machinery and equipment was completely removed from the tax roll by provincial legislation (a $50 million value made untaxable.)

The municipal portion of assessed value is now $24,552,320 — a reduction of $10,777,780 and if taxed at today’s rate a loss of $262,038 in taxes for Coquitlam,.So although we did raise their tax rate 17 per cent, they’re still way ahead of the game. If they succeed in this year’s appeal, we will lose another $30,022 in taxes. And please spare me the provision of employment argu- ment, because everyone knows that there are hundreds fewer workers due to mechaniza-

FLETCHER-CHALLENGE COMP: give multinationals a break. LEX ... assessment appeals, Socred tax policies

tion of production i i isn’t an taxed. Sik dries renad : Then one can also mention some of those in the Utility Class—such as the CPR which will receive a tax deduction of $192,000 if it succeeds in its appeal for “commissioner’s rate”. There are numerous other examples.

This is not to be picking on business or industry but in the interest of fairness we should be looking at all classes paying their fair share and this is not the case now. The residential taxpayer bears an unfair burden.

Eunice Parker, Alderman, Coquitlam

On Senate reform and Socred airplanes

In the past few days, there have been two news items that really raise questions about our form of government.

1. The Senate (a patronage, favour repay- ing, appointed body, accountable to nobody) decided to vote themselves a $153 tax-free allowance per day when they do the work that they are already paid for. This is on top of their annual salary of $62,000 plus $9,800 tax free. If I understand the whole thing correctly, a Senator could be sitting at home,

Tribune helpful during changes

The Tribune has been a great source of comfort as well as informa- tion for me during the bewildering developments in socialist Europe. Thank you for honest articles.

Enclosed is $100 for the press drive. I send it in memory of my father, Paul Viktor Vesterback, who probably collected enough money for the Tribune to keep himself!

Greta Nelson Burnaby |

collecting over $71,000 per year and then, once in a while, he could go to Ottawa and do some work, which he is supposed to do anyway, and collect another $153 per day tax free. I wish I would get such a bonus when I go to work. The Senate and I must ate a in different worlds. Senate reform eh!

2. The second news item is an insult to the intelligence of the provincial taxpayers. The Socred government doesn’t want to re- lease the plane records because, so they say, the political climate is too volatile. Who are those people accountable to anyway? I would sure like to know who is using the

government planes, and where and when and why. The same Socreds have been using the sentence “Freedom to move” on their road projects signs. There is another sen- tence called “Freedom of information.” The Socreds should learn what the latter means. I do hope that the person(s) who have the power to do something about those plane records, get off their butts and do something. Analyzing the two news stories above, I can see that the pigs are at the trough and slopping their food (taxpayers ’money) pret- ty well. Fernand Samson, Kamloops

Don’t write off East bloc yet

I am writing in part to augment the last letter by my old friend Dr. Emil Bjarnason and partly to make some points of my own.

In short, I would conclude that dem- ocracy and capitalism are mutually exclu- sive — a Contradiction in terms (if worded the right way). But as to the latter part of the letter: Since the June 4 issue came out the elections in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia have shown their returns. The Czechs, while admitting that the Communist Party came in a respectable second, are still refusing to include the party in the coalition govern-

ment. I wish them disaster! (not for the workers or even the whole people, but gov- ernmentally, of course). And lo and behold, the Bulgarians are remaining socialist (al- beit, with slow reform).

My point is this: socialism is not quite dead in the old Comecon block yet, and therefore there is some room for optimism. And optimism is essential! Gorbachev was interviewed in Time magazine last week and in bold type he declared: “I am an optimist.”

Alex Taylor, Vancouver

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account If Bill C-43 enacted

Kim Campbell has incessantly, and in glowing terms, described the new abortion law, Bill C-43, as acom- promise for which all women seeking abortions should be grateful. Hermes- sage was clearly lost on the young Toronto woman who recently bled to death from a self-induced abortion. It was lost also on the 16-year-old in Kitchener whose abortion attempt led her to a hospital emergency room.

Should C-43 become law, such tra- gedies will occur repeatedly.

The pro-choice movement in B.C. understands full well the implications of this legislation. We have for years

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been harassed by an anti-choice gov- |

ernment and rabid anti-choice groups.

Vander Zalm’s Socreds even tried to |

stop funding legal abortions. A num- ber of hospital boards have been taken over by anti-choice individuals who have closed their abortion services. Our Vancouver clinic, the Every- woman’s Health Centre, was recently vandalized. Patients and staff are daily

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tormented by picketers, over 100 per |

month.

All this while abortion is legal.

Under the terms of C-43, self-in- duced abortion is a crime punishable by a two-year prison sentence. Had it been in force the 16-year-old could be charged and convicted. So could the Toronto woman, had her death not spared the courts the trouble.

C-43 signals loudly and clearly to Canadian women that their lives and welfare are of no account. Kim Camp- bell’s compromise left no room for such considerations.

Lucette Hansen, B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clinics, Vancouver

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