“No More Hiroshimas”’
United Church as he spoke at the Peace Action League memorial in Gastown Saturday, Aug. 6 to mark the
32nd anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. More than 500 cards to prime minister Pierre
Trudeau were signed urging support for a global ban on nuclear arms and for Canada to protest the Trident

nuclear sub base at Bangor, Washington.

reads the banner behind Rev. Kenneth Wotherspoon of Vancouver's Memorial

Sean Griffin photo

Gov't plan fails to meet
housing needs of elderly

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

The Shelter Aid for Elderly
(SAFER) program recently an-
nounced by the __ provincial
government with much fanfare
and publicity does not in any way
meet the needs of poor people for
decent accommodation at rents
they can afford.

Its purpose, according to
government propaganda, is to
“ensure that senior citizens do not
have to spend an unreasonable
portion of their income on rent.” In
practice it will be a subsidy more
for landlords than for renters.

Here is how it is supposed to
work:

Only those areeligible who are in
need, who are 65 years of age,
renters, receiving old age pensions
and have a two year residence in
B.C.

It is for those who pay more than
30 percent of their income in rent.
If they do, the government will pay
75 percent of the excess over the 30
percent subject to a maximum of
$75 for single persons and $50 for
couples. However $13.33 will be
deducted from this amount every
month because the government
already has a $100 Renters Tax
Credit for those who pay income

A single person with an income

- of $285 monthly who pays $125 rent

end up with a shelter aid of $9.17.

A couple with an income of $390
which pays $100 in rent ends up
with shelter aid of $9.17 monthly.

The real purpose of the bill, and
this the government does not
reveal, is to provide a limited
amount of cash in the form of
shelter aid as a substitute for a low
rental housing program for elderly
citizens. It is the government’s
way of telling the people that it
simply isn’t going to build any
more low rental housing, and for
our senior citizens this means that
if they are now stuck in poor ac-

‘commodation for which they are

paying high rents, they have no
prospect of getting anything
better.

Everyone knows, and _ the
government knows this too, that as
soon as this shelter aid goes into
effect, landlords will raise their
rents by the amount of the shelter
aid and so it will end up in their
pockets and will change nothing at
all for senior citizens.

Many elderly people have been
compelled to live in slummy,
grimy rooms: and apartments
where rents are low so that they
will have enough money left over to

Dera propo

sal backed

by 47 municipalities

The common program to im-
prove GAIN rates advanced by the
Downtown Eastside Resident’s
Association has won backing from
47 B.C. municipalities.

The six point program is
highlighted by the demand to raise
rates for handicapped and seniors
to a basic $284 per month, for
singles to $230 per month and for
couples to $340 per month.

Vancouver city council, the
Vancouver Resources Board and a
host of Vancouver organizations
have thrown their support to the
proposals. Last month DERA was
successful in getting GVRD
backing, and then they went after
170 other B.C. municipalities.

Municipalities all over the
province are supporting
program, DERA’s Bruce Eriksen
told the Tribune this week. Among
those who have officially backed

the-

the proposals are: Regional
District of Alberni-Clayoquat,
Regional District of Columbia
Shuswap, Alert Bay, New West-
minster, Kaslo, Cache Creek,
Kimberley, Cumberland, Cour-
tenay, Peachland, Fernie and Elk-
ford.

Five other municipalities, in-
cluding Burnaby and West Van-
couver, have written indicating
that they are still considering the
proposals.

Vander Zalm rejected the
program out of hand when it was
presented to him by recipient
groups at Vancouver city hall in
June. Two days later he moved to
silence opposition to his policies by
introducing Bill 65 to abolish the
Vancouver Resources Board, a
leading supporter of the proposals
to increase GAIN rates.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 19, 1977—Page 2

pay for groceries and clothes. If
they now pay less than one third of
their income in rent, the SAFER
program will do nothing for them.
They are doomed to continue living
in poor accommodation for the rest
of their lives.

The way the government han-
dled the publicity concerning the
SAFER program is indicative of its
philosophy.

First of all it placed big ads in all
the papers. Government ads
announcing its own programs are
not only good propaganda for the
political party in office paid for by
the taxpayers — they are also a
form of political patronage, with

pro-government papers getting the _

lion’s share). The ads show
beautiful high rises, town houses
and mansions. This is protrayed as
the kind of housing that senior
citizens are living in today!
Secondly, the government
brochures explaining its SAFER
program are being handled by the
banks, trust companies and Credit
Unions as if these are the places
frequented by senior citizens!

A good many senior citizens have

no bank accounts or credit union
accounts and never enter the doors
of- trust companies. Yet this is
where they are supposed to go to
pick up information brochures.
But that still isn’t the end of it.
The application for shelter aid
(SAFER) is not any less com-
plicated than filling out an income
tax form. And some of the in-
formation it requires (like that of
getting a social insurance number)
often takes two months or more to
get. All of this red tape just makes
it that much harder to get any
shelter grants.

It’s clear that the main purpose
of this legislation is not to give any
meaningful aid to those senior
citizens who need it most to get
decent housing. It’s purpose is to
take the heat off the government to
provide low rental housing. But
Since this legislation solves
nothing, the pressure for low rental
housing will have to be stepped up.

Private enterprise will not and
cannot provide low rental housing.
This is a government responsibility
that it must fulfill. It is a fun-
damental human right of all
Canadians to decent housing in
their old age at prices they can
afford. That’s the least that should
be done for them after a life time of
labor to build up this country.

Despite gov't predictions

jobless
rate up in July

Prices,

The federal government’s
economic policies came under fire
last week as Statistics Canada
announced that both unem-
ployment and food prices took a
sharp jump during the month of
July.

Despite earlier predictions from
Ottawa that July would see a
slowing down of escalating food
prices, July registered a startling
2.1 percent rise in the cost of food.
It was the eighth consecutive
month that the rate had increased.

The rapid rise in food prices has
pushed the consumer price index to
8.4 percent for the last 12-month
period. The federal government
and finance minister Donald
MacDonald had predicted a six
percent jump in the inflation rate
and the AIB based its six percent
wage guideline on the prediction of
a six percent rise in inflation in
1977. That rate is now exceeded by.
more than 25 percent, and is still
going up.

Rising food prices hit. hardest at
working people and those on low
incomes who are forced to spend
an increasingly larger share of
their income on food items. Thus
the weight of the 8.4 percent rise in;
inflation is heavily balanced
against Canadians on the lower
level of the economic ladder.

There is no indication of a let-up
in rising living costs. On Sep-
tember 11 a further boost in oil
prices, ordered by the federal
government, is to go into effect
which will give a further impetus
to rising costs. It will add 3.5 cents
a gallon to the price of gasoline and
3.1 cents a gallon to the cost of
home heating oil. ==

The Ottawa announcement of
rising prices came just a few days
before the Canadian Labor
Congress was to meet in Ottawa
with representatives of affiliated
unions to discuss the AIB program
and the federal government’s
conditions for ending wage con-
trols. Labor minister John Turner
told interviewers in Vancouver last
week that unless labor agrees to
thefederal government’s terms for
ending controls — which include a
provision for labor accepting
“restraints’’ the federal
government may continue with
wage controls.

Trade union leaders in B.C.,
including Len Guy, secretary-
treasurer of the B.C. Federation of
Labor, have warned that labor is
falling far behind this year as a
result of the six percent guildelines
allowed by the AIB and the sharp
rise in inflation. Others have ex-
pressed concern that if Ottawa
continues with the program and
implements the plans of the AIB
for a four percent wage guildeline
starting in October of this year,
that the results will be catastrophic
for working people, :

Only three days before Stastics

25-44-year age: bracket many ‘of
‘whom are their families’ majot
’ breadwinners;, Among: the *youth,

without jobs... The number: of jobs

Tribune ...

RIBUNE

Canada dropped its bombshell of 4
2.1 percent rise in food prices thé
federal government announced
that unemployment in Canada has
risen to a post-Depression high in
July of 8.1 percent of the total labor
force. That means that Ottawa now
admits to 878,000 jobless, an in
crease of 64,000 from a month
earlier. :

TheB.C. jobless rate is above the)
national average, with 8.5. percenl)
of the work force without-jobs, 4
jump from 8.3 percent in June.
There are now 104,000 persons out
of work in B.C. Half of these,
53,000, are in metropolitan Var
couver.

Hardest hit among the B.C.
jobless are young people betweef
15-19 years of age and those in. the

one in five — or 20 percent — ‘are

for the older age group dropped
shar ply with 11,000 fewer jobs opel
to them, according to figures
released in B.C. by federal
government: offices. ~~

Peace petition
nears 100,000

The B.C. Peace Council an-
nounced this week that over 98,000
names had been collected in the
province on the Stockholm Peace
Appeal to End the Arms Race. This
is in addition to endorsement from
unions and other organizations in
B.C. totalling many tens of
thousands.

Plans are now underway by the
Council to step up petitioning
around the upcoming Pacific
National Exhibition in Vancouver
and at fairs throughout the
province. An officer of the Council
told the Tribune this week that they
hope to pass the 100,000-mark at
the PNE.

Volunteer petitioners are
needed and can help by contacting
the B.C. Peace Council, Rm. 712
207 W. Hastings St., Vancouver,
876-0041.

Last week’s

For the many people who looked
in their mailboxes last week only to
find no copy of the Tribune, we’re
sorry to say that we were unable to
publish.

We had intended to miss one
issue — July 29 — for the reasons
outlined earlier, but because of the
air strike which precluded delivery
of our national pages, that interval
was extended by a week.

With this issue, however, wé
return to our regular publishing
schedule.

Editor - MAURICE RUSH
Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — FRED WILSON
Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

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