British Columbia

_ Mayor can attack COPE, but NPA

housing policies still bankrupt

Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell is
smarting from the widespread and growing
public criticism of his Non Partisan Associ-
ation policies on the housing crisis. His reac-
tion to the criticism is to attack the
Committee of Progressive Electors. I can
understand this problem and the contradic-
tion he faces. He’s in the pockets of the
developers and the big landlords, yet he
must try to appear to be sympathetic to
tenants.

The issues on which he chose to attack
COPE included our so-called illegal suites,
rent controls and demolitions.

“Do you believe that all tenants deserve
protection under the Residential Tenancy
Act,” he rhetorically asked in an article in
the Marpole Review of Jan. 24. Then he
answered the question himself by saying
that the NPA does but COPE doesn’t. He
followed that with the ridiculous statement
that COPE voted to reject tenant protec-
tion.

The tenancy act that he refers to’ was
originally introduced by the NDP govern-
ment in the 1970s to protect tenants. Once
Social Credit got back in, the act was emas-
culated. Today it offers limited protection.

Of course COPE believes tenants deserve
protection under this act. And if our worthy
mayor would take the trouble to check the
act, he would discover that it covers all
tenants, whether in legal or “illegal” suites.

Next he asks, “Do you believe that all
housing should meet minimum health and
safety standards?” Again he answers the
question by saying the NPA does but COPE
doesn’t.

Of course COPE believes all housing
‘should meet minimum standards. The
‘mayor has a conveniently short memory.
The fact is that council had a committee to
deal with such questions and I chaired this
committee for at least four years, along with
Ald. Bruce Eriksen. When any complaint
came before us on any suite, we made sure
that adequate fire and health protection was
being provided. We also tried to have such
protection provided at minimum costs to
keep rents economical.

The third question he posed was, “Do
you believe that all citizens should pay their
fair share of taxes for city services?” Again
he replies to his own question by saying that
the NPA, does but COPE doesn’t. Surely
Mayor Campbell has been on council long
enough to know that taxes are not based on
the number of people living in a house but
on the market value of houses at any partic-
ular time.

Next Mayor Campbell accuses COPE of
advocating rent control and no demolitions.
On this he’s absolutely right. Some form of
rent control is needed to prevent unjustified
rent increases.

Then he trots out the long discredited
argument advanced by the right-wing think
tank, the Fraser Institute, that rent controls
would “injure the most vulnerable, i.e. our
seniors, single parents, the disabled and
those on fixed incomes.” Yes, I can just
image how painful it would be if rent
increases for these people were limited to
the rate of inflation (5.5 per cent) instead of
30 to 60 per cent.

Mayor Campbell’s idea of rent control is
that “landlords should be allowed to set
their own increases according to their own
criteria” and the only restriction should be
that “rent increases should not be more
than 1/4 times the market average.” Today
many landlords are charging all the market
will bear. Under his proposals, that situa-
tion would not substantially change.

Campbell also makes the claim that
“there isn’t an economist in this country
who would support rent controls.” That is
simply untrue. There are economists, and

2 e Pacific Tribune, February 5, 1990

good ones too, right here in Vancouver who
fully support rent controls. If Campbell had
said that there isn’t an economist working
for developers or the establishment who
supports rent controls, he would have been
closer to the truth.

Those who oppose rent controls keep
saying that controls would discourage the
building of new housing. Statistics do not
bear this out. We had rent controls in B.C.
up to 1983 and more housing units were
built then than ever before.

Campbell also strongly opposes any by-
laws that would halt the demolition of affor-
dable housing. A ban on demolitions, he
claims, would cause the property to be “run
down and take the neighbourhood down
with it.”

The demolitions taking place are not on
apartments that are no longer habitable.
They are on apartments that are both affor-
dable and in good condition.

A delegation from tenant groups which

appeared before cit council recently gave
us an example of what happens. A Kerris-
dale apartment building that contains 26
very affordable suites is scheduled for

demolition. It will be replaced by condos -

selling for between $250,000 and $300,000
each.

Mayor Campbell is worried only about
property and the apartment owners. But
what about the people being evicted? In the
last three years, 5,210 residential units were
demolished. Of these, 3,660 were apart-
ments. Does the eviction of these people not
matter? Is it only property that has rights?
Have people no rights?

The mayor concludes by stating that his
solution to the housing crisis is his scheme
to have VLC Properties Ltd. build housing.
What he failed to mention is that rents on
VLC projects will be market rents — that
is, all the market can bear, and not afforda-
ble rents. :

We do need some form of rent controls.
We need demolition bylaws to prevent the
destruction of perfectly good affordable
housing. The mayor and his NPA oppose
all of these.

When voters go to the polls next
November, they will remember this. That’s
what is bothering the mayor.

The Province carried a cartoon on Jan.
25 showing Campbell on a leash held by a
big fat developer.

Need more be said?

Surrey and White Rock residents are
banding together in an environmental
coalition and they plan to make the
municipalities’ environment a key issue
in the fall civic elections.

The Surrey-White Rock Environmen-
tal Coalition will also be contacting other
groups, including those south of the
border, to address a variety of issues
ranging from disappearing woodlands to
oil tankers, coalition chair Steve Gidora
says.

The group plans a conference for this
spring, leading to a more major gather-
ing in the fall as candidates gear up for
elections in the two Lower Mainland
municipalities.

Gidora, a teacher and Surrey munici-
pal activist, says the region has several
environmental concerns, including rapid-
ly disappearing natural lands and farm-
lands, pesticide use, and’ industrial
pollution of waterways.

The region is rapidly losing its rural
character to an onslaught of develop-
ment, without careful planning for
infrastructure, he relates.

“Development has to go hand in hand
with services: Do we have the proper
transit systems, or waste management?”

In addition to Surrey and White Rock
issues, there are concerns in the United
States, and the group will likely be con-
tacting similar organizations in Blaine,
Wash., regarding the Cherry Point refin-
ery and the question of supertankers ply-
ing the narrow Strait of Juan de Fuca.

will be struck at the spring conference,
which will probably take place in May,
Gidora reports.

The initial organizing effort was
launched at a meeting of 18 individuals
who elected a five-person steering com-

Surrey-White Rock group
tackies environmentissues

A full program of policy and action .

. environment

STEVE GIDORA
group plans for civic elections.

mittee which sent invitations to more
than 50 local organizations.

The committee notified trade unions,
issue-specific environmental groups and
citizens’ organizations for a meeting in
Surrey on Jan. 10, which drew some 50
participants.

Groups represented included — the
Green Timbers Heritage Society, Cana- -
dian Farmworkers Union, Sierra ‘Club;
Surrey New Democrats, Carpenters
Union, White Rock Peace Education
Group, Surrey Teachers Association and
the Canadian Union of Public Employ-
ees.

The coalition’s officers include Gidora
(536-4045), Steve Chitty (531-5162),
Sharon Horn (536-2324) and Gurwinder
Uppal (581-7811).

MAYOR GORDON CAMPBELL
heads “‘developers’ ’’ council.

-Planner’s
report
belies NPA
development

policies

By FRED WILSON

One year after city council in Vancouver
fired city. planner Ray Spaxman to etablish
a pro-development edge to the city’s plan-
ning processes, the Non-Partisan Associa-
tion dominated council has been told by its
new head planner that planning in the city is
in crisis.

Tom Fletcher, hired last September to

replace Spaxman, has had his head down ~

for the first six months. But last week he
gave a private briefing to council in which
he reported that the city is without any
planning priorities, without an overall plan
to deal with unprecedented development,
and without the staff to adequately respond
to the planning tasks facing Vancouver.
Fletcher’s speaker’s notes to council

summed up the problem in a section called -

“No Planning Going On.” The six sub-
heads tell the story: 1. No long term plan-
ning. 2. No policy planning; 3. No vision; 4.
No overall strategic plans; 5. No regional
planning; 6. No capital planning on an area
basis.

(r other parts of Fletcher’s report he
stated that the city has no overall housing
Strategy in a planning context, that the role
of neighbourhoods in overall city develop-
ment is not identified, and that the city has
no integrated transportation strategy linked
to land use.

A statistical report on demolition of resi-
dential housing confirmed that demolitions
in 1989 reached an all time high with 2,092
residential units lost to the wrecker’s ball in
the year. That is a 34 per cent increase over
the previous high of 1987, and a 90.5 per
cent increase over the previous 10 year aver-
AGEs.
Fletcher told council that the city plan-
ning department needs 64 planning and
support staff to prepare overall planning
strategies as well as keep up with major
plojects in the city.

The report was intended to be an innocu-

’ ous six-month review from the new director

of planning, but it is a searing indictment of
NPA policy at a time when the city is
undergoing enormous development. That is
likely why the report was not circulated to
the media as most departmental reports are.

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