eee eee

(LETTERS

Cutbacks
threaten
right to

lawyer

Libby Davies, president,
Downtown Eastside
Residents’ Association,
writes: The Social Credit
government has made another
callous decision, this time to
slash the Legal Services Socie-
ty’s already inadequate budget
by $1.3 million. These cut-
backs will be a severe hardship
for more than 6,000 British
Columbians who have limited
financial resources and. who
depend on public legal
assistance because they cannot
afford. to retain private
lawyers.

Most residents of the
downtown eastside live on fix-
ed incomes, receiving barely
enough money for food and
shelter, let alone costly legal
fees. Among our residents are
retired workers, disabled per-
sons and single parents, most
of whom rely on the Legal Ser-
vices Society to provide them
with fair and adequate legal
representation.

The majority of legal pro-
blems downtown eastside
residents face involve housing,
welfare, family or~minor
criminal charges. The legal
representation on these mat-
ters will be severely restricted
or in some cases disallowed
due to tighter eligibility criteria
necessitated by the cutbacks.
For example, the Legal Ser-
vices Society has been ex-
tremely helpful in getting
residents recognized as tenants
under the Residential Tenancy
Act. (Presently, residents of
hotels and rooming houses
must downtown eastsiders be
basis to the Rentalsman for te-
nant status.)

The introduction of user
fees is of extreme concern to
DERA. Since Oct. 1, peo-
ple on social assistance have
been charged $10 for represen-
tation (all others are $30).

How much more abuse
must Downtown Eastsiders be
subjected to? Isn’t it enough
that rights such as health care,
dental care, the homemaker
service and education are be-
ing chopped? Isn’t it enough
that poor people must endure
(and help pay for) such Socred
legacies as B.C. Place and Ex-
po ’86, while essential social
services are reduced? Now
they must cope with cutbacks
which interfere with the fun-
damental right to fair access
and legal representation in our
legal system.

The Legal Service Society
has called a public meeting to
protest the cutbacks by the
province. The meeting is
scheduled for 1 p.m. Oct. 24 at
Templeton High School audi-
torium, at Templeton and Ad-
anac in Vancouver.

VANCOUVER

or cs

Theatrics and music at COPE rally

The Committee of Progressive
Electors kicked off its campaign
for the Vancouver civic elections
Sunday with a rally that lent at
theatrical air to the ‘‘people versus
mega-projects’’ theme COPE will
be emphasizing to voters.

ALRT, the B.C. Place stadium
and the housing shortage were
some of the other issues treated by
the Ash Street Players in a song and
sketch parody that won rounds of
applause and laughter from more
than 500 at the Queen Elizabeth
Playhouse.

The applause grew as the 23
COPE candidates for council,
parks and school board filed on
stage at the end of the perfor-
mance, capping a unique type of
political rally that collected more
than $6,000 in donations, to swell
the previous $23,000 already in the
labor backed civic party’s coffers.

Earlier, the candidates officially
placed themselves in the running at
a press conference and swearing-in
ceremony at their Commercial
Drive campaign headquarters.

“We feet it is appropriate that
we are the first to file our nomina-
tion, papers — this year, the
political initiative is with COPE,
and we intend to set the tone for the
campaign,’’.COPE president Jim
Quail told reporters.

“This election, what we are
looking at is a straight one-on-one
confrontation between COPE and
the labor unity slate, on one hand,
and the NPA (Non-Partisan
Association) on the other,’’ said
Quail, accusing the right-wing par-
ty of following the Social Credit
government on every major civic
issue.

“They have conspired with the
Socreds to deny Vancouver a ward
system. They have set their sights
against social programs, jobs and
services, yet mindlessly promote
the wasteful Socred mega-projects.
They have joined with TEAM (The
Electors Action Movement) to kill
COPE’s move to save affordable
housing from demolition,”’ Quail
charged.

TEAM is only running its two
incumbent candidates, and ‘‘has
virtually disintegrated as a political
force,’’ said the COPE president.

“We say that it is time to cast off
the TEAM-NPA coalition that has
effectively blocked all progress on
city council over the past two
years,’’ said Quail.

For COPE’s candidates —
aligned, with the backing of the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council, with Mayor Michael Har-
court and his three running-mates
for council — the fight will be bet-

Socred-type preacher Steve Hill, with (left to right,} Helen Douglas, Peter Greenwell and Tracy Lloyd!
background) attempts to invoke the “B.C. Spirit’ and gets more than he bargained for in a scene. frof

Civic Follies ‘82, presented by Vancouver's Ash Street Players in the Queen Elizabeth Playhouse /@
Sunday. The sketches and music highlighted a Committee of Progressive Electors rally which thé

candidates were introduced.

ween the promoters of Victoria’s
mega-projects and the progressives
who oppose the continued slashing
of social and educational services.

Aldermanic candidates have
pledged to press for more city con-
trol over the B.C. Place develop-
ment, arguing that the area on the
north shore of False Creek needs
more public, low-cost housing and
far less office space than is planned
by the Crown corporation’s ex-
ecutives.

On rapid transit, COPE
aldermen have consistently argued
against the imposition by Victoria
of the costly ALRT system, now
estimated to be three times as ex-
pensive as a conventional line, and
have sounded the alarm every time
the Socred government has passed
more of the costs on to the Greater
Vancouver Regional District.

They have also joined
businessmen and residents along
Commercial Drive who want the
system placed underground, rather
than see the demolition of several
homes and their replacement by a
noisy, elevated train.

For the parks slate, the issue is
one of ‘“‘parks for people,’’ as

outlined by candidate Joe Arnaud
at the press conference. A COPE
majority would hold the line on
user fees hikes, and channel more
funds into neighborhood parks
and away from costly tourist pro-
jects like VanDusen Gardens, he
said.

The COPE majority on school
board has instituted a variety of
special education programs, a race
relations program and a general
improvement of the school en-
vironment, according to chairman
Pauline Weinstein. These gains are
threatened by the current round of
Socred education cutbacks, she
said.

COPE school candidates, faced
with making “‘the best of bad
choices,’’ have promised to
preserve the standard of Van-
couver’s schools and the board’s
improvements in the face of school
cutbacks.

For many, Socred legislated cut-
backs are no laughing matter. Yet
through the time-honored method
of political satire, the Vancouver-
based Ash Street Players managed
to turn what hurts into comedy.

Socred minister Bill . Vander

b

Zalm wins a spelling contest on!
game show. When the host asks
government’s most notoriol
grammarian to spell “wall
system’’ the answer comes, afté
long deliberation: N-O W-A-Y.
The point about the elevated lin®
along Commercial Drive W#
graphically illustrated by a scene!
which an on-the-spot televiad
reporter is. drowned out by
noise of a passing overhead rai
Serious political points
made during the sketches as well
but it was during the hilariov
climax, when a “preacher” 4)
tempts to invoke ‘‘the B.C. Spirit’

_ and gets a recorded message i

senior alderman Harry Rankin #
stead, that the real candidates we
introduced on the stage. |

It was the actual voice of Rank!
that brought the COPE messa
home, when he told the crow!
‘the group you see here W
transform: Vancouver into a i!)
that belongs to the people of V4"
couver.”’

The COPE. alderman a
brought home the issue of pear
urging a ‘‘yes’’ vote in the upcol

ing disarmament referendum.

B.C. Place is undoubtedly the
most valuable single piece of pro-
perty in Vancouver. It’s certainly
the biggest too.

The city has to service this pro-
‘perty, to provide water, sewers,
police and fire protection,
lighting, street maintenance and
so on. But B.C. Place doesn’t
have to pay taxes. That’s because
it’s a crown corporation — own-
ed by the provincial government.
It pays a grant in lieu of taxes, and
the amount of this grant is only a
fraction of the amount it would
be paying if it were assessed like
any other property.

It pays no school taxes on
unleased land whatsoever. If it
were owned by a taxable owner

(such as the CPR which owned

this land before it was traded over
to the provincial government), it
woud be paying over $1 million a
year now in school taxes. The

Harry

Rankin

general and other taxes now paid
by B.C. Place (in the form of a
grant) on unleased land amount
to only $406,000 a year. If this
property were owned by a taxable
owner, the amount would be
$943,000.

B.C. Place comes up short on city tax

The city manager estimates
that Vancouver is losing
$1,543,000 a year on this property
because of the miserly, unfair and

inadequate grants paid by the
provincial goverment. My own
estimate is that it could be two or
three times this amount if this
property were assessed at its real
market value and not the low fic-
titious figure set by the assessment

authorities. The CPR never paid
its fair share of taxes when it own”
ed this property because the land
was always under-assessed. Now |,
the situation is even worse: ||
Homeowners in this city are be
ing cheated by the provinci

government. Because B.C. Placé
doesn’t pay its fair share |)
homeowners have to pay more. |)

B.C. Place is basically a com
mercial enterprise with the pro-
vincial government in the role
developer. It should be fully taX |
able. The government claims it
will be a money-maker (in fact
foolishly and falsely claims that it
is already making money). Why
then can’t it pay its fair share of
taxes like any other business? _)

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 22, 1982—Page 2