The lack of daycare facilities
in Vancouver for children of
working parents has become
acute. This is clearly the message
in the comprehensive survey on
the subject presented by the city
manager to council’s standing
committee on community ser-
vices, of which I am chairman.

The age groups most poorly
served are those from birth to 18
months. But there is also a
waiting list of over 1,000
children three years to school
age. The biggest single problem
is the lack of affordable space.

At present we have three
main types of daycare in the ci-
ty.

Harry

Rankin

(1) Family daycare, which
currently provides spaces for
300 children. These are operated
by women in their own homes,
with five pre-school children the
maximum in each home. This is
the only type that provides space
for children under 18 months of
age.

however. The turnover rate of
operators is high. Childcare ar-
rangements collapse if the care
giver becomes ill. Standards and
controls to ensure quality care
are difficult to enforce.

(2) Out of school care. Van-
couver has 36 of these serving
900 children. These operate only
a few hours during the school
year. They usually require space
in schools. More are needed and
the present school board, which
has a COPE majority, is trying
to meet this need. As the city
manager reported: ‘‘The pre-
sent school board has been more
supportive of out-of-school
programs than have previous
boards.”’

It has it shortcomings,

‘Woetul' shortage
of daycare spaces

(3) Group daycare. We have
63 such centres in the city with
spaces for 1,538 children. They

_serve minaly children three

years to school. age. As I already

mentioned the waiting list is ,

over 1,000 so the need for more
such centres is great.

The prime responsibility for

policies and programs dealing
with childcare has been assumed
by the provincial government. It
also has some funds available
for start-up costs and initial
equipment as well as a small
budget for capital funds.

3,098 daycare spaces for a ci-
ty of the size of Vancouver is
woefully inadequate. What can

be done about it? I would sug-
gest the following, as a
minimum:

@ The provincial govern-
ment (ministry of human
resources) must simply make
more money available’ for
daycare centres in Vancouver.

Surely this is no less important’

than a new stadium, B.C. Place
or Expo 86!

@ The city must insist that
developers make affordable
space available for childcare in
all and any housing projects.

@ Provision should also be
made for part-time daycare as
well as for 24-hour daycare for
shift workers.

Employers must assume
some responsibility for pro-
viding daycare for the children
of their employees.

@ The city should make a
canvas of all city-owned
buildings to determine if space is
available for daycare centres,
and if spaceis available it should
provide it at affordable rents to
non-profit childcare groups.

GREATER VANCOUVER

COPE, labor council press
for Vancouver unity slate

If all goes well, Vancouver
voters will have a progressive,
labor-endorsed slate of mayoral
and aldermanic candidates to vote
for in the 1982 civic election, thanks

_ to the initiative of the Committee

of Progressive Electors.

The progressive civic organiza-
tion has agreed to drop one more
candidate from its aldermanic slate
to accommodate the three running-
mates of incumbent mayor
Michael Harcourt, whom he in-
troduced in a long-awaited an-
nouncement Monday.

That iniative — announced by
alderman Bruce Eriksen and Bruce
Yorke following Harcourt’s press
conference — paves the way for a
formal alliance with financial and
political endorsation from the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council.

“We will definitely recommend
to our membership that we drop
one candidate from our list,”’
Yorke told reporters gathered in
the aldermen’s offices. ‘‘It looks
very good for working people with
this slate,’’ said Eriksen.

The combination of COPE’s
seven aldermanic candidates and
Harcourt’s three will produce the
‘‘unity slate’ which the VDLC had
insisted on for its endorsement. On
the basis of that, a slate card will be
produced by the labor council.
Similar cards will be produced for
COPE’s full slates of school and
parks board candidates.

By FRED WILSON

If there was any doubt of the
paranoia of Vancouver’s establish-
ment over the prospect of further
gains by the left in November’s city
election, it was dispelled last Thurs-
day at the coronation ceremony for
the Non-Partisan Association’s
not-so-regal civic candidates.

The right wing-is paranoid, and
desperate to restore itself to the
throne of power from which it was
edged by the voters two years ago.
Warnett Kennedy had his arith-
metic wrong, but he captured the
serious tone of the NPA campaign
when he warned the west side no-
blesse gathered at the Bayshore
Inn, ‘‘There is only one seat be-

ment.

become ill at this time.’’
*

* *

storm Aleta.

W hen the Hospital Employees Union announced
plans to launch its ‘‘Don’t Get Sick in B.C.”’
campaign — in response to the hospital cuts — the
provincial government responded with the predict-
able righteous indignation. But ironically, the advice
the HEU is giving is being echoed all over the prov-
ince, by nurses, hospital administrators — and, as it
turns out, by one department of the federal govern-

We note that the federal government of employ-
ment and immigration, in its May economic review
for British Columbia, comments: ‘‘The big news in
the health sector is the dramatically reduced budgets
being provided by the provincial government to the
hospitals. As a result of the very severe budget cut-
backs, a reduction in service seems inevitable and
layoffs of staff have already been announced by
many of the different hospitals. .

“The number of acute care beds is being reduced
in most hospitals so readers are strongly urged not to!

e have a note from Harvey MacKinnon and
Katherine Pearson of Oxfam-Canada alerting
us to the emergency campaign launched by the aid
agency for Nicaragua which has been the victim of
the worst flooding in 50 years in the wake of tropical

million.

zation.

.

: home.

PEOPLE AND ISSUES
(Gaia roe ae rio eer ee eerie

More than 100 people have been killed and tens of
thousands left homeless following the storm and,
according to Pearson, the destruction has been enor-
mous with damage estimates now exceeding $200

The flooding is a disaster for the Sandinista gov-
ernment of Nicaragua which. has been striving to re-
build the country after the devastation left by the So-
moza dictatorship and in the face of U.S. destabili-

Oxfam has launched an appeal in this province to
raise $40,000. Details‘can be obtained from Oxfam,
2524 Cypress St., Vancouver, B.C. V6J 3N2.

e’re happy to report that Barbara Stewart, who °
for many years has been a familiar sight to ship-
yard workers, selling Tribunes outside Burrard Yar-
rows in North Vancouver, is back home again after a
lengthy stay in hospital.
Readers may recall from an earlier item in these
pages that Barbara was put in intensive care in Lions
Gate Hospital last October after collapsing in her

* * *

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 4, 1982—Page 2

Such was the case’.when the
VDLC endorsed Harcourt and the
COPE slates in the 1980 election.
But this year’s effort will involve
much greater commitment from
the labor council, the result of
several meetings over the past
months to hammer out an agree-
ment among the VDLC, COPE

and Harcourt’s NDP-backed

forces.

“The VDLC welcomes that
show of unity on the part of
COPE,”’ said council president
Frank Kennedy when told of
Eriksen’s and Yorke’s comments.

COPE’s initial overture towards
that coalition came at its nomina-
tion meeting in March, when the
membership approved a list of

eight aldermanic candidates. That:

left two spots open for Harcourt’s
anticipated running mates.

Those candidates turned out to
be Carole Walker, William Yee
and Erich Ewert, introduced to the
press in the Plaza 500 hotel Mon-
day. Walker is the best-known of
the three, with years of involve-
ment on behalf of the interests of
residents of her West End com-
munity. ‘

Yee, a lawyer, is well known in
Vancouver’s Chinatown where he
has headed a number of organiza-
tions, such as the Chinese
Benevolent Association.

Ewert, Harcourt’s labor can- .

didate, is the financial secretary of
the International Woodworkers

tween us and disaster . . . we'll be
down the drain until 1986. . . we’ll
have no control over the city.’’ (Ac-
tually there are two seats needed to
accomplish the unthinkable, a
COPE-Harcourt majority.)

Nathan Divinsky, the bumbling
alderman with the booming voice,
made it clear that at stake in this
election is no less than ‘‘freedom
and free enterprise.”’

In his windup speech the NPA’s
most credible spokesman, George
Puil, might have been expected to
shed light on the more complex is-
sues of civic government. But in-
stead he dug up a two-year-old
Vancouver Sun article which re-
ported the attendance of Bruce
Yorke and Harry Rankin at a
Communist Party convention,
then he read from a small story in
Pravda from just after the last elec-

_ tion which apparently termed the

results ‘good news,’ and finally he
cited Harcourt’s election machine
run by the likes of Syd Thompson
and Ron Wickstrom. In his simple
analysis it was all part of one huge
conspiracy.

Desperation is the root of the
NPA’s paranoia. They have seen
COPE?’s vote grow in each election
since 1970 and unable to stop the
trend, they are calling for a crusade
to defend western civilization. The
red baiting tactic backfired in 1980,
resulting in. broad criticism of the
NPA, and it isn’t likely to prop up

their sagging i is time ei
sagging image this time either. ~ since the last election.

_ That is especially so after the ob-
vious failure of the NPA to pro-
duce a strong slate of candidates
equal to the perceived threat from
the left. In fact, so unsure of itself is
the NPA that the logical leader and
mayoralty candidate, Puil,
couldn’t be persuaded to risk his

_ Phillip Owen, the Shaughnessy 8 .

Local 1-127, and a past presidet!
and current vice-president of th
Kerrisdale Community Centft
Association. : |
“These candidates, like mys¢ |
are very concerned about the basi |
issues affecting working people, |
said Harcourt. These he listed 8
jobs, civic democracy with a walt
system, transit, affordable housif®
and tax reform.
But the mayor shied away from
admitting to any association wit)
COPE’s field of candidates and de
nied his involvement in the a
slate, despite a barrage of questiol
from reports on the subject. |
Harcourt admitted ‘‘there are,
number of-issues on which tht’
COPE members of council and
myself agree,’ but he refused 10.
endorse COPE candidates.

He continued the arms-lengt!
approach. throughout. the ¢ol
ference, refusing comment 0!
whether he would seeit as a positiv®
step.if COPE withdrew one of its
candidates to complete the unity
process. But he said he “‘didn’t a"
ticipate’ any further running
mates. oe: 4
That, coupled with the positive
response of COPE’s electé®
representatives and VDLC’s Ket
nedy shows there will be unity 0
the part of labor and progressive
forces in the face of a concerte?
right-wing attack this year on the
gains made in the last civic election.

seat. Instead, Jonathan Bakeh
known mostly for his term on th?
school board and for his assock
tion with developers who run afo |
of city bylaws, was drafted 2°
half-heartedly endorsed. A

The most credible of the NP?
aldermanic candidates, aside fro”

“the incumbents who havenow 0%

joined formally by Don Bellamy,"

kid who ran unsuccessfully in !
and now heads the Downtow? |
Business Association. Fred Cava
naugh, the anti-barricades man fu
of anti-communist rhetoric, ¥.
find his support confined to Ip
Shaughnessy-Kerrisdale base. P a |
Glass has now joined the NPA#”
ter a stint with TEAM and as any
dependent, but she finished po" ‘
for parks board last election. Bh
rest are virtual unknowns:
McRae, Rod Raglin and Do
Watson.

The school slate is also weak:

Without Baker they have just ay |
incumbents, and the parks slat
the so-called ““NPA flagship

didates are unimpressive. vet
The establishment should 0° 5

|

... While NPA reveals bankruptcy

y

mini’

9? pas |
_ lost oneincumbent and its new |

be underestimated, however, ‘he

there were signs to indicate tha
NPA will run a hard-hitting ‘
paign. They have a full time can
paign manager, Peter Hebb, a
NPA president Brian McGavit
ported that the board of direct

has had meetings every three W'

But this nominating meeting 4
veals a NPA organization in ¢™ alse
the group more than anyone ©,
associated with party politics, “he
are suffering the fortunes of
Socreds because of it, and who
divided and empty of new 1°
and leaders. ; ay

|