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City seeks national peace referendums

Wednesday, June 6, 1984
|

~ Newsstand Price 40° Vol. 47, No. 22

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— page 2

shorter hours
target at CLC

Stories page 6, 7, 12

CROWD PACKS
_ LABOR FEST

The Bhangra dance troupe received a
Prolonged, standing ovation for their
Performance at the 8th annual Burke
Ountain Labor Festival at the Sampo
Hall at Westers Corners (Maple Ridge)
Sunday. The troupe, from the Punjab
Cultural Association of Vancouver,
Ee Were one of several first-time entertain-
‘STS'at this year's festival, a popular and
®njoyable fund-raiser for the Tribune.
ile rain posed a potential threat to the
SUCCEess of the affair, it proved to be so.
Much water off the backs of the esti-
Mated 200 people who attended. Even
though the rain forced the festival
doors, enthusiasm ran high as evi-
denced by the vigorous applause given
€ntertainers, which also included the
duet of Cindy and Lawri, labor song-
Writer/singer Peter Dent, popular trio
reesome Reel and George Hewison,

the labor leader who co-founded the
®vent and who was MC this year (other
§ntertainers pictured on page 11). Festi-
Nal goers also made a considerable dent
the supply of now-famous barbecued
Salmon provided by fisherman Bert
'9den and friends, and other delectable

Offerings from Alice Person’s kitchen
«Crew, ;

Expo 86, the Social Credit government’s
gaproject designed to celebrate plenty in
“me of want, revealed the status of its
TPorate citizenship May 29 when it
nounced its commitment to affordable
OUsing in the adjacent Vancouver environs.
at commitment turned out to be zero.
After months of meetings and public
that the fair was deeply concerned about the
€cts it would have on the surrounding
2€ighborhood, it pulled the rug out from
der a proposal to provide low-rent
&commodation for Downtown Eastside
"sidents displaced by the fair.
foe scheme, proposed jointly by the city,
he Downtown Eastside Residents Associa-

a = First United Church and the Chinese

Nevolent Association, would have invol-
Yed little financial drain on Expo. But the
Notivation for Expo’s rejection was clear in
Statement: profits.
Those groups and city staff estimate that

Urances by Expo chairman Jim Pattison -

~

at least 2,500 Downtown Eastsiders will be
displaced by the developments around the
Expo site, as private entrepreneurs scramble
to skim off some of the big dollars the
world’s fair is expected to attract. That will
happen in two ways. irk
One is through the massive construction

_on sites immediately adjacent to the Expo

grounds. One has already been announced:
the East False Creek development project,
involving a hotel, office and middle-to-

upper-income housing next to the new

ALRT station at Main and Terminal
streets.

In the other development, of which there
are already some signs, owners of Down-
town Eastside hotels are casting covetous
eyes towards the profits they expect to reap

by upgrading their buildings in time for the
tourist crush in 1986. To do that, they'll
have to toss out their long-time residents —
either by direct eviction, made even easier
than before by the new Residential Tenancy
Act, or by raising rents up to the levels to be
charged some of the anticipated 15 million
visitors seeking accommodation near the
fair.

The drive to profit from the exposition
puts enormous pressures on the Downtown
Eastside, the home of retired loggers,
miners and fishermen and one of the most
stable neighborhoods in the Lower Main-
land.

The rejected proposal called for the crea-
tion of some 500 units, utilizing warehouses
and office buildings in and around China-

| Expo 86, developers threaten social housing

town, Yaletown, Gastown and the Oppen-
heimer Park areas. The plan was designed
to fit in with Mayor Mike Harcourt’s
scheme which envisages projects in-several
other nearby Vancouver neighborhoods,
for a total of 2,500 units.

The organizations proposed that Expo,
at a cost of $6.9 million, provide partial
funding for the 500 units. Under the plan,
these would be rented at going hotel rates to
Expo exhibitors for one year, and, when
vacated at the end of the exposition, turned
over to the organizations to rent to city’s
poor at subsidized rates.

““Expo’s input would have been minis-
cule,” said DERA organizer Jim Green ata
press conference the day following Expo’s
announced rejection-of the plan.

Green said the accrued rent from exhibi-
tors would have reduced the overall cost to
Expo and have allowed the organizations to

See SOCREDS page 3