Saturday, December 14, 1994 Bs 1 PAGE InvOnN S OurViEWS AdrianRAESIDE Johnny Q. hit again uch, that hurts. John Q. Public has taken another financial shot to the groin. If it isn’t the GST or the PST, it’s ICBC. A lot of letters, we know, but the cruel reality is British Columbians continue to pay and pay. And just when we think we’ve got enough to take the family out to the movies, we get hit again. In the same week that we find out ICBC rates could go up as much as 24 per cent, it’s revealed that British Columbians will collectively cough up $1.8 million in severance pay to 67 outgoing government employees. As children, we are constantly reminded that “money doesn’t grow on trees.” Why, then do governments lead us to believe it does through their constant rape of the public purse. The NDP mustn’t be blamed for all the severance packages, it had some help. Socreds are responsible for 48 of the 67 lost jobs, which it rescinded through an order-in-council prior to inheriting Third Party status. While the new government appears willing and ready to go on a bureaucratic diet, the $1.8 million hurts all the same. It hurts that much more when you discover that the average payout to these unemployed political hacks is $268,656.71. And who pays for this ridiculously high buyout? One look in a mirror will answer that. Smile. | Y¥aZe ag If you've given even a cur- sory glance at the local news lately, you'll have noticed that Castlegar city council has been busy making out its Christmas wish list. And a hefty list it is. Some of the items on it in- clude: e Paving $1.286 million. * Downtown Revitaliza- tion: $1.9 million. * New RCMP. building: price tag unknown. Five years referendum: Comments from the me Crossroads elves. Will it be local retailers? Homeowners? As it turns out, it will be neither (though retailers in- volved in downtown revital- ization will pay the other $1.9 million cost of that pro- gram). No, Santa in this case will be played by Celgar Pulp Co. It’s one of the many benefits the city will realize from the pulp mill expansion. When most of us thought ago it was estimated at about $1 million. Today, it would easily surpass that. © Senior citizen centre: price tag unknown but guess at hundreds of thousands. © Twin Rivers Park: Price tag unknown. But again, figure at least several hundred thou- sand dollars, maybe millions depending on cor- porate support. Of course, everyone wants to know who is going to pay for these “gifts”? It may be Christ- mas, but you can bet it won't be Santa and his about the advantages of the mill expansion, we naturally looked tothe bec- tic construction period and the work that would create, both on the job site and in secondary in- dustries. Many said that in the long term Celgar’s ex- pansion wouldn't be that big a boon to be dou- bled, it will create only 30 additional perma- nent full-time jobs. Well, it hasn't quite worked out that way. please see Norman page 7 StreetTALK Denette Thomson Castlegar “It’s horrible. It’s far too high now.” Julie Martin-Stephens Castlegar “It’s terribly outrageous. It’s too high as it is.” Question: What do you think about the pending ICBC increase? Castlegar “Terrible. We can’t even afford six months now.” Cyni Glover Castlegar “It ridiculous, much too high.” Dona Franks Thrums “It’s far too high already. People can’t afford it anymore.” 14, 1991 Other VIEWS Please address all letters to: Letters to the or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9am. and5 p.m. The writer's name and city or town of residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Poetry will NOT Letters tcoWHE EDITOR Council must be scrutinized The City of Castlegar is trying to put the squeeze on property owners to wring-out an additional $1.28 million dollars to pave and rehabilitate some streets in the city. Collecting additional tax dollars over and above budget by holding a referendum is hardly a sign of a strong, determined city government in times of economic restraint hard times for many property owners. But rather it reflects the inability of our elected officials to include this, and recently announced plans for a new RCMP detach- ment office, to be included in the annual mu- nicipal budget. I do not object to the paving and rehabili- tation program of designated streets in Castlegar, or the construction of a badly needed police facility, which is part of the law on this method of raising public monies, and so they should in the loudest and most em- phatic way. I find it offensive, to the point of repulsion, to test the taxpayer's will by using this tool of referenda. Obviously, the money market is not at- tractive enough for the City of Castlegar to float, or sell, debentures to meet these addi- tional financial requirements. With respect to the paving and rehabilita- tion program. There is no doubt in my mind that there are urgent requirements in this area, and I agree with councillor Lawrence Chernoff that the longer it is left undone, the costlier the project. Little or no paving will be done before city council strikes its 1992 bud- get, so why not include this in the city’s bud- get estimates? On the other hand, initial tax increases to include $1.28 million may be too much for 2 Castlegar by monies raised by way of a refer- endum. ‘The paving and rehabilitation referendum will be the third occasion in just over three years this method has been used in Castle- gar. The much needed Aquatic Centre was made possible th h a referend buta School District No. 9 request for money over and above the provincial grant was rejected by municipal taxpayers. The province did not have the extra money for School District No. In this democracy we do have a choice to vote as we please, but I do urge you to vote. If you do not like the way city council does business with the taxpayers, you can vote them out of office when municipal elections are next held in British Columbia. Oh yes, in case anyone should ask, our enforcement contract with the city. What I do object to is the method by which council now has opted to pay for capital projects, over and above the annual budget. Property owners and municipal taxpayers have the moral right to question city council taxpayers to stomach? Next year, it will be a referendum on the the did MLA for Rossland-Trail, Ed Conroy, said he was not in favor of referenda when he sought y Castlegar RCMP detachment facility, and who knows, the following year it could be construction of a multi-million dollar here in in $y. Paul Walker Castlegar Addington speaking out of frustration If you haven't got anything bet- ter to do, you might keep an eye on the first major test of the new gov- ernment’s self-proclaimed moral convictions. The questions is: Will Ray Addington be fired? The answer depends on whether past pledges by the NDP of dedication to free speech and all that wonderful democratic stuff were heartfelt or political rhetoric. Addington is the chairman of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, or at least he was at the time I wrote this piece. himself Report from Victoria =| in A Addi h ht that the job might be in jeopardy after he publicly spoke out against the need to raise ICBC premiums by a whopping 24 per cent next year. The 24-per-cent hike was held out as a probability by Labor Min- ister Moe Sihota who is responsi- ble for the Crown corporation. Si- hota said an independent auditor had told the government that the corporation needs this big rate in- crease for 1992 to bolster ICBC's dwindling surplus fund. According to Sihota’s scenario, the 24-per-cent hike would be fol- lowed by nine-per-cent increases Norman continued from page 6 The reason is simple. With the expansion and modernization, Celgar’s tax assessment has also jumped. To be more precise, when the project is complete, its assess- ment value will nearly triple — from $35 million to $100 million. And that translates into more money in city tax coffers. Just how much more hasn’t been finalized. But the city has taken the position that since Celgar’s production will double when the mill is complete, its taxes should double. That way the taxes as a share of the cost per each of the following four years. qa: ’s plan, nike cdille for a 19 per cent increase in 1992, followed by increases of 14, nine, nine and nine through 1996. Leaving aside the cost after the five-year period, however, the problem with Sihota’s 24-per-cent hike is that it hits motorists at a time when economic conditions aren’t all that encouraging to be- gin with. Spreading the total in- crease more evenly seems a better solution. Both Sihota’s and Addington’s proposals would bring the corpo- ration’s surplus to about $300 mil- lion by 1996, barring, of course, tonne will remain the same. If the city gets its way — and it appears it will — Celgar will be paying an extra $1.2 million every year in municipal taxes. That would be about double what it pays now. So what does all this have to do with the city’s wish list? Plenty. The city figures the paving ref- erendum will cost about $160,000 a year to pay off (over 20 years), and the revitalization plan anoth- er $130,000 annually. That adds up to only $290,000 a year. Even supposing there is no in- d increases in claims. So apart from offering different ways to get there, both would be achiev- ing the same goal. But his differ- ent approach to keeping the corpo- ration solvent isn’t what may get Addington into trouble with the government. It was his comments in response to Sihota’s claims that ICBC wasn’t properly run that may cost him his job. . “To say there is something fis- cally wrong with ICBC is ridicu- lous,” he said. And then he let fly with what he thinks of politicians who try to use the Crown corpora- tion for a political football. “J have no time for any politi- cian. They're all rascals and char- latans. None of them really know a damn thing about insurance,” Addington said. Wow, thems fighting words, and I’m sure Sihota swallowed hard a couple of times after reading them, but then again, didn’t the NDP ap- plaud loudly whenever a senior public servant spoke against some of the previous government's foibles? Didn't the NDP promise whis- tle-blower legislation, the kind de- signed to protect public servants creased taxes from any other sources, the city will still have more than $9800,000 a year just from Celgar. Starting to get the picture? Of course, the city won't see all of that $1.2 million in additional revenue until 1995. It will get about $350,0000 more in 1993 and a larger chunk in 1994. What does council plan to do with its windfall? Over the short term, it plans to slowly reduce residential taxes. (Mayor Audrey Moore and oth- ers on council have been telling from losing their jobs as a result of publicly speaking out? Addington may have spoken a bit out of turn, but I can also un- derstand his frustration with politicians. They have used ICBC as a political football. The Socreds kept the increase to an artificially low 4.5 per cent this year because anything more would have been unpalatable to voters in an election year. And now he suspects, and prob- ably rightly so, that the NDP wants to hit motorists hard the first year, so future increases can be lower and will, therefore, be more acceptable to voters as the government approaches the end of its term. Now it’s up to Sihota. Will he fire Addington or accept his re- marks as those of a frustrated CEO whose better judgment has been ignored more than once. “It is a free country,” Sihota said a day after Addington vented his spleen. So it is, Minister, and I hope you will stick to that principle and not fire Addington for remarks you would have welcomed just a few months ago. people their residential taxes will be down when they look at their tax notices next June, but it seems people are finding it difficult to be- lieve). In the long term, the city wants to prepare a strategic financial plan mapping out what services the city needs through the next five or six years, bring them all up to snuff and then look at some se- rious tax reductions for homeown- ers. It all sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? But hey, it’s Christmas.