a

B.C. Rental Housing Council —
smokescreen for big Business

lords” is composed of the following:

~The Pacific Apartment Management Association [PAMA];
The Greater Vancouver Apartment Owners Association; Greater
Victoria Apartment Owners Association; New Westminster
Apartment Association; Coquitlam Apartment Owners
Association; B.C. Motel, Resort and Trailer Park Association.

But the real power is PAMA. Its members are like a Who’s Who
of Big Finance. The capital controlled by the firms making it up is
measured in the billions of dollars. The firms are:

Marathon Realty [The CPR, the country’s biggest monopoly];
Montreal Trust Company; Royal Trust Company; Canada Per-
manent Ltd.; Block Brothers; Stan-Ken Investments [Ben Wosk];

_ A, E. LePage [biggest realty firm in the country]; Macaulay
Nicolls Maitland; Equitable Real Estate Investment Corp Ltd.;
Chartered Investments Ltd.; Azjac Development Corp. Ltd.; Amon
Investments; Vancouver Management Ltd.; MacKenzie
Management Ltd.; John Bull Rentals.

class belts are to be tightened!

Gerry is a protege and the choice of the arch-criminal

The B.C. Rental Housing Council which ‘unites’ the ‘‘land- -

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Neighborhood planning was
heatedly debated at City Council’s
meeting on October 22. What to do
about Kitsilano, precipitated the
debate.

Some time ago City Council
established a local planning board
in Kitsilano headed by planner Jan
Janczewski. It’s preparing plans to
deal with the urgent housing crisis
in the area. Some 900 older type
housing units with rents ranging
from $125 to $175 a month, are
about to be sacrificed to the

RANKIN ae COUNCIL ACTION
900 tenants face eviction |
to make way for developers

developers’ bulldozers. They’re to

Growing civic unity marks

upcoming election Nov. 16

Nominations closed last Monday Mary Joseph for school board.
for the November 16 civic elections “ Considerable interest
which will take place in 136 cities,
districts, towns and villages
throughout B.C., with the ex-
ception of Vancouver which votes
on November 20.

Nominations saw a record board candidate.
themselves for election to councils
and school boards, with many
labor and progressive candidates
running in a large number of
municipalities, many of them with
trade union backing. This year’s
civic election is also marked by
increased unity of ratepayer,
labor and progressive civic forces.

Much interest is centering on the
Port Alberni election, where under
the leadership of Ald. George
McKnight (who does not come up
for reelection until next year) a
sharp fight has been going on to
end MacMillan-Bloedel influence
on city council, and to get at the
problem of the excessive tax load
on homes compared to industry.

The Port Alberni election is
marked by a _ united front
arrangement involving the local
labor council, NDP and Com-
munist Party, along with other
progressive people to win a
majority on council. Called the
“Citizens First Committee’’,

Hocking.

support is lined up behind election

Dorothy Lyn:
of incumbent alderman Mark eas be

is also
centred on the “election in Rich-
mond where the newly-formed
Richmond Electors Action League
(REAL) has fielded two alder-
manic candidates and one school
Aldermanic
number of candidates offering. candidates are Margaret Dewees,
president of the Richmond Tenants
Council, and William Procopation,
organizer for the United Fisher-
men and Allied Workers Union.
School board candidate is Lorraine

There has been a move toward

veteran North Wilf Lenno

unity in Richmond, where the NDP
is also running two candidates for
alderman. The NDP decided this
week to endorse the REAL can-
didates for the two aldermanic
seats they are not contesting.

In North Vancouver District, the
closing of nominations saw the
election by acclamation of veteran
‘School trustee Dorothy Lynas,
which ensures a ninth term for her
on the school board.

Running as an independent
candidate with local union, tenant
and ratepayer support in North
See CIVIC, pg. 11

be demolished to make way for
expensive condominium units in
which suites will cost from $50,000
to $100,000 each"and with monthly
payments to purchasers of at least
$400 a month.

This destruction of relatively
cheap housing is strongly opposed
by the West Broadway Citizens’
Committee, a lively citizens’
ginger group in the area, which is
also pressing for the construction
of low rental housing units. The
local planning board is taking a
similar stand.

When the issue first came before
Council, the city’s chief planner,
Ray Spaxman, had urged Council
to downzone the area. This would
save the cheaper housing and
prevent the condominium projects
from going ahead.

I made a motion in Council to this

effect, that Kitsilano be downzoned.

to RT 2. Then the fur began to fly as

‘TEAM’s key spokesmen-rushed to

the defence of the developers.

Alderman Volrich and Mayor
Phillips, strongly opposed the
motion. Volrich called it ‘‘irre-
sponsible’ while Phillips termed it
“wrong and stupid’’. It went, down
to defeat by a 4-3 vote. (Three
Council members were absent;
had they been present the vote
against my motion would have
been even higher.)

Of course neither Phillips nor

Volrich thought it irresponsible, _

x, trade unionist and Eunice Parker, popular Port

Vv. e A a S *
Iverzich, Mrs. Terry Swan and , a : nee ee ee _ community worker, is running for Coquitlam school trustee, is
Doug Stewart for council, and Mrs. aeclannetian Y council in Surrey. running for re-election.
: .  flation and the price Squeeze in this country? Much the
same way as the political Gerrys of the U.S. The
destruction of 28 million dozen eggs to keep up the con-

~ McEWEN

he “‘summit” conference on inflation called by ‘“‘super-

conscience’”’ U.S. president Gerry Ford has come and
gone, leaving nothing in its wake except a new crop of not-
so-brave words. Translated into simple English these The
words mean that the rich will continue to get richer, and ho
the poor will continue to carry the load.

It couldn’t be expected to be otherwise, since the
delegate body of Gerry’s conference consisted in the main
of the U.S. monopoly grabbers whose prices racket have
brought that country — and this — to the brink of a
depression that threatens to be much worse than that of
the Hungry ’30s.

Already we can read of the U.S. Congressional
legislative hopper being full of restrictive bills to hogtie
labor and the working people; reactionary proposals for,
new wage freezes, the banning of strikes, right-to-work
bills and so on. Sanctimoniously and: with characteristic
“super-conscience’”’ Gerry calls on all Americans to
tighten their belts to put the kibosh on inflation, but it.is
already plain as the nose on your face whose and what

Again, it couldn’t be expected to be otherwise since

Nixon, just as the robber baron Rockefeller is Gerry’s
choice for VP.

_ And how do our Liberal and Tory “‘Gerrys”’ fight in-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1,1974—Page 2

sumer survive on 98
hamburger. Our illustri
Marc Lalonde, has lit
monopoly chain stores

Stove”. “An excess heat,”
the microbes.”

sumer price — at the taxpayers’ expense — was one way
they “fought” inflation. Another way is to have the con-
cents-a-pound, bacteria-infected
ous federal minister of “health”’,
tle or nothing to say about the
producing and selling this putrid
meat, except to tell the harassed consumer to “‘turn up the

quoth the minister, “will kill

minister’s dubious advice to the Canadian
usewife and his unconcern about diseased hamburger
as an aid to greater profits, reminds us of an article in the
famed Liberator magazine of the Hungry ’30s.

This article was entitled
illustrated the poverty-stric
thousands of Mexican peons a
compelled to try and survive
(second-hand beans).

The process was sim
“health”

“Frijoles Segunda” and
ken plight of. countless
nd their families who were
on their “‘frijoles segunda”

SS ple and much along the lines of the
aes er Soe: Just gather whatever human
€nt was available, wash out the be

passed through the human bod eens
panning gold) and presto,
meagre ‘“‘meal’’! And the “health”
didn’t utter a peep anent this dis
Canadian farmers were burning No
wheat that they couldn’t sell for 25 cents
away to those who wer
“frijoles segunda’’,

Of course, in those fa
knowledge of life as

y unmasticated, (much like
you had the makings of another
Gerrys of the day
grace, even when
. 1 Hard Canadian
a bushel, nor give
© compelled to try and survive on

t away days we hadn’t attained the
We have today, but in this “fight”

heckler.

Molly.”

against inflation, an alleged greater sophisticati vil
taught our elected ministers anything on how to je
the monopoly producers of high-priced contam ef:
food, be it rotten eggs or microbe-infested hambuil

The central theme of Gerry Ford’s anti-inflation |
which spilled over into Canada was neither new,
effective. It was a ‘“‘call” to the monopoly Rock
and the lowest paid Henry Dubb to “‘tighten ees in
(placing both on an equal footing with words) bu
tion, threatening onerous restrictions, freezes,
so on for the latter, but carte blanche for the for
their extortion of vast profits and wealth. The sanc
“free enterprise’? versus the ‘“‘unsanctity” 0
movement attempting to keep its wages somewh
to inflationary living costs. ny @

. And jyst because AFL-CIO boss George Mea ‘
other well-heeled bureaucrats of his internation@ ha!
affiliates were and are loud in applauding Gera
battle ‘“‘against” inflation, the belt-tightening fare
breed another great illusion — and herald
disastrous depression, which in its destruction of
ethical and human values, will make the great dep
of the Hungry ’30s look like a Sunday school picnic:

And from our own ministerial comments °
hamburger, jobs, housing and other urgent needs,
have our full quota of “‘Gerries’’. :

“What’s your name madame?” asked a one-timé Geet
of Vancouver, the late Gerry “Riot Act’ ta 1a
becoming somewhat peeved at the insistence

“Molly,” politely replied the heckler.
“Ah,” reminisced His Worship, ‘‘I have a coW

“That’s nothing,” retorted the heckler, “I have 2¥
home called Gerry.”

wrong or stupid that 900 tena fe
should be kicked out of their SU” f
and forced to seek cheap BS
commodation in some ruil He
section of the city. And rememy™
that the vacancy rate in Vancouv
at present is only 3 suites per 10",
The West Broadway CitiZ
Committee was so incensed att
action. of Council that then ®
there it withdrew from the aa ;
planning board. I can’t say J ble
it. City planners and pla al
boards can bring in all: thet
intentioned and good plans fout
want for housing in any area tand
city, but if any of those plans s
in the way of what the develop®,
want, then there isn’t a chan vet
hell that this City Council will :
pass them. To think otherwisé ®
be naive indeed. the
Council speaks for
developers from the CPR
down to those who want to them
bust in Kitsilano. If any of ie
want to demolish old and ©".
housing to make room for
ensive condominiums,
Council will see to it that they &
the green light. 4
There is just no way in vile
developers or any other i vil
private enterprisers will ever
housing to meet the nee fixe
working people or those on if
low incomes. They’re only al
terested in building high PP
housing because that’s where |
big profits are. The only way
will ever be done is for governm :
to go into the housing busine to
.We have everything n fi
undertake a large-scale Té
housing program where ren
be geared to income. We bei
highly skilled labor force, a
lumber surplus, the city itsel! ©
over 1,000 acres of land and we”
get the money from S®
governments.
There are two ways to ove
this obstacle. i 0
One is to elect a City Coune af?
November 20 whose members
pledged to undertake a lars 5
rental housing program. na
The other is to mount suc ind
intensive demand for a pi
program that no matter wha cit
composition of the next 40
Council is, it will feel oblig®
undertake such a program.

—

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