i I ea a Le ee ere ere VANCOUVER = Nidsd1vD NV3S — OLOHd SNNGIYL B.C. Communist federal campaign manager Donalda Viaud looks over posters for election rally with federal leader Bill Kashtan as CP puts its election campaign into gear. Kashtan, who speaks at the Sheraton Plaza July 30, will make a swing through the province again Aug. 24 and 25. “COMMUNIST PARTY RALLIES WILLIAM KASHTAN Leader, Communist Party , of Canada IN VANCOUVER Monday, July 30th, 7:30 p.m. Sheraton Plaza 500 500 W. 12th Avenue IN COURTENAY Tuesday, July 31st, 7:30 p.m. Lower Native Sons Hall 360 Cliffe Avenue IN FRASER VALLEY Wednesday, August 1st, 7:30 p.m. Kwantlen College, Rooms 407A & B, 9260 140th Street, Surrey Published by the authority of the B.C. Provincial Committee, Communist Party of Canada, #102, 2747 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 25, 1984 100-year-old city In two years Vancouver will be 100 years old, but we still haven’t the right to run our own affairs. We’re still severely restricted in what we can do and can’t do by a charter passed by the provincial legislature, and that charter can only be amended by the provincial legislature. So really, we are under the control of the provincial govern- ment. We can’t even establish a ward sys- tem in the city (almost all other Canadian cities have them) because the Social Credit government doesn’t like a ward system, and even though two referendums favoring a ward system have been passed by Van- couver voters. Not only that. In recent years the rights we are supposed to have under our charter have been steadily eroded by the provincial government. Even the variable tax rate, passed by the legislature last year, can only be applied within certain restrictions estab- lished by the provincial government. It’s time, I think, to begin a campaign for the right of Vancouver citizens to run their own affairs, free of political interference and restrictions by this provincial government or any provincial government no matter what its political stripe. We should have the right to set our own rates of taxes and to institute a graduated property tax, one that is based on ability to pay and according to which the bulk of the taxes are paid by revenue-producing prop- erties. Homes should be taxed for the servi- ces directly supplied to them, (such as streets and sidewalks, police and fire protection and garbage collection), and not to raise funds for general revenue. School boards should also have the right to set tax rates for education, a right that has been taken away from them by the provincial government under the guise of restraint (Its real purpose eventually is to replace public education with private schools). In place of the steadily decreasing pro- vincial grants that we now get from Victo- ria, the city should get a share of the gasoline and income taxes collected in Van- | should have rights couver by the provincial government as be as a share of the profits from the ae liquor in the city. This should be by Se tory legislation that will grant a corte specific percentage to us, one that can ia tampered with by the government in pow in There is already a precedent for this a Alberta where the provincial sovenae for many years has been sharing gaso! taxes with the municipalities. We: The city, in co-operation with ct Greater Vancouver Regional Dae should have the: powers to plan its dev opment. Last year all planning powers vat taken away from regional districts S° t the provincial cabinet could inte directly to. give agricultural reserve 4” other lands to its developer friends. e The city or the Greater vance Regional District or both'should have 44 ren’ in the setting of assessments. Right ng these are made by a board appointed byt i provincial government; in practice tt board sets assessments for big commer it and industrial properties at far below ee market value with the result that they do ri pay their far share of taxes. The tax bure? is passed on to homeowners. i People in our society are consider adults when they reach the age of 18 and : then run their own lives. How long belo city reaches adulthood? Vancouver reache 18 eighty years ago and the proving fl government still thinks we're not ? enough to run our own affairs! , We should have the right to draw up OU own charter. Surely it isn’t too much to a that this right be given to us by the time ™' reach 100! Emergency plan urged A special emergency federal, provincial and Vancouver city plan is needed to create low-income subsidized housing and to maintain and upgrade existing housing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Van- couver-Centre Communist Party candidate Maurice Rush declared July 23. “Unless such a plan is quickly drawn up and backed by financial resources, thou- sands of people, many of them pensioners, face eviction, huge rent increases and the further deterioration of the area in which they have lived for years,” he said. Rush made the statement following the “politicians tour” of part of the Downtown Eastside by some 30 political, labor and community leaders and government offi- cials July 20. The tour, organized by the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, was intended to highlight the area’s housing crisis which has been created by Expo 86 and B.C. Place development which in turn has threatened the loss of some 2,000 housing units, the displacement of at least as many permanent residents, and the upheaval of a long- established community. Several high profile political and com- munity figures took part in the tour; includ- ing Expo chairman Jim Pattison, Liberal Party president Iona Campagnolo, Build- ing Trades Council president Roy Gautier and B.C. Federation of Labor president Art Kube — so many, in fact, that DERA had to divide participants up into groups to make the tour. No one came from the Socred govern- ment nor did Vancouver Centre Tory MP Pat Carney attend, however. “The fact that Carney and Socred MLAS ‘boycotted the event demonstrates the low concern they have for the plight of lee income people in the Downtown Eastsi€ who face a serious deterioration of the! living conditions in an area which is alre@ the most neglected and depressed in couver,” Rush said. 3 He emphasized that Expo 86 has a special responsiblity, “which it has so far reject?» to include in its development plans for @ conversion of some buildings after the fi 5 to permanent housing for low income pi, dents in the area. Rush also emphasized es emergency measures are required to offs? the re-development threat posed by Exp? and B.C. Place, including a rent freeze 1n Downtown Eastside for 1985-86; full tenancy rights for rooming-house occl” pants after two months residency; and p!™” tection from eviction, requiring landlords @ give just cause for eviction. a “TRIBUNE Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — PAT O’CONNOR Graphics — ANGELA KENYON Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings St. Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada — $14 one yr.; $8 six mos. Foreign — $20 one yr. Second class mail registration number 1560 ~ Eas