{ pre oa FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1968 REFUSE TO Tribune VOL. 29, NO. 37 PAY 10¢ TENANTS FIGHT RENT INCREASES Incensed by rising rents a movement is spreading among Vancouver tenants to refuse to pay rent increases and to band together to protect their interests against pace poverty? National programs te eliminate poverty and provide decent heusing and rising standard of living for youngsters such as above should be a major national goal said the Economic Council of Canada recently. It said one out of every five Canadians suffer from poverty. How does Prime Minister Trudeau relate the cancellation of the winter works Programs with the Economic Council’s urgent appeal for action to end gouging landlords. Indicative of the temper of tenants facing. large rent increases was the announcement by tenants of the Rosemont Apariment on East Fourteenth Ave., this week that they will ignore rent increases demanded by the landlord. They also declared their intention not to pay an increased cleaning fee. Tenants in the block recently formed a Tenants’ Association. Spurred by rising rents and the upcoming hearings of the City Council’s Rent Regulations Committee called for next week, tenants in many apartment blocks are forming associations to protect their interests. A leaflet being widely circulated in dozens of City labor demands Ottawa restore winter works aid High on the agenda of this week’s session of the Vancouver and District Labor Council was the letter of Local 1004, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), addressed to the union’s national president Stanley Little. The letter urged President Little to request the federal government to reinstitute its municipal winter works aid program, recently cancelled by Prime Minister Trudeau. While the VLC had previously approved a similar letter of protest to Prime Minister Trudeau against the discontinuation of the government’s municipal winter work program, it gave unanimous endorsation to the CUPE letter. Copies of the VLC letter had also been forwarded to __ leaders of the federal opposition: ° parties, the Canadian Labor Congress, and all mayors of cities within the jurisdiction of the VLC. Quoting the CUPE letter to the government its Newsbulletin emphasizes that instead of cutting back on wasteful defense expenditures and costly alliances such as NORAD and NATO, as has been repeatedly called for by organized labor, Mr. Trudeau pulls the rug out from under the already overtaxed municipal home owners and municipal workers. “In view of the foregoing, it seems obvious that ‘fiscal responsibility’ Trudeau style, is based not on what is best for the Canadian people, but on a strong desire to cut back on ‘expenditures of benefit ‘to the - working people, but which fail to show up on the profit side of big business ledgers.” In the VLC discussion on the government's retrograde action delegates pointed out that while Prime Minister Trudeau had claimed ‘‘only good’’ could result from his cancellation action, there had been no cancellation of vast government ‘subsidies to the CPR, oil, mining and other favored monopoly enterprises. In voicing their support of the CUPE letter delegates pointed out that the government cancellation of the federal winter works aid program would not only impose greater hardships on many already financially hardpressed municipalities, but will add considerably to an already high unemployment in B.C. and elsewhere. bee: apartments this week by the Vancouver Tenants’ Organization Committee announced the holding of a public meeting for tenants on Monday, September 23 at 8 p.m. in the King George Secondary School gymnasium, 1755 Barclay St. The tenants’ committee is calling for the establishment of tenant associations in every major apartment block in the city. Bruce Yorke, acting secretary of the committee, announced this week that three associations have already been formed and that several others are in the making. Special speaker at the rally will be Alderman Harry Rankin, on whose initiative Vancouver City Council set up the Rent Regulations Committee to hold public hearings on rent controls and problems facing tenants. ALDERMAN HARRY RANKIN, who has led the fight at City Hall on behalf of Vancouver's tenants, will be the featured speaker at a tenants’ rally in the King George Secondary School gymnasium, 1755 Barclay St., on Monday; - September 23 at 8 p.m. The meeting is expected to spur the organization of tenants and also to discuss the preparation of an extensive brief to be submitted to the City Hall hearing. The tenants’ brief will be presented at a night session of the committee being held at City Hall on Wednesday, September 25 at 7 p.m. Thousands of questionaires are being circulated among apartment dwellers by the committee seeking information for preparation of its brief. Anyone wishing a copy of the questionaire or seeking help in organizing a tenants’ association is asked to phone the committee’s secretary Bruce Yorke during the day at MU1-5831 or after six, at 733 — 4953. The move started in Vancouver for public controls over rents was picked up in Eastern Canada this week when Ottawa City Couneil decided to ask the Ontario provincial legislature for powers to impose rent controls Ottawa City Controller Ken Fogarty told the first sitting of Transport Minister Hellyer’s inquiry into housing that Ottawa ‘would settle for nothing less than — a tribunal able to make rent- setting decisions. Vancouver Labor Council delegates heard an appeal from tenant association acting secretary Bruce Yorke Tuesday night for support. VLC president Ed Sims called on delegates to . make note of the date of the tenants’ public meeting and City Hall hearing.