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VANCOUVER

Leaflet drop marks peace walk

Every household in Vancouver will
receive a leaflet promoting the upcoming
Walk for Peace and the goals of the peace
movement, thanks to a decision by Van-
couver city council Feb. 18.

The decision, which marks the second
time the city has agreed to inform Vancouv-
er’s close to 500,000 residents of the annual
peace event, followed a unanimous vote to
provide $20,000 worth of assistance for
policing and barricades needed for the
march.

Representatives of local peace organiza-
tions, who said the city has won worldwide
praise for its peace initiatives, said much
more must be done to educate the public
about the dangers of nuclear war. :

Gary Marchant of End the Arms Race,
the peace walk’s co-sponsor, said the issues
of the arms race should not be limited to the
understanding of “experts.” Anybody can

-understand the issues, he said, but much
more work needs to be done.

University of B.C. pharmacology profes-
sor Dr. Tom Perry said he has had to repeat
his often stated warning about the effects of
a nuclear strike on a city to new audiences.

“There’s still an enormous amount of
misinformation among the public and poli-
ticians,” agreed Ald. Libby Davies of the

Committee of Progressive Electors.

Other speakers, such as Physicians for
Social Resonsibility spokesman Dr. Allan
Connolly, said Vancouver is held in high
regard by Europeans for city council’s con-
tinued support of disarmament activities.

The 1986 Walk for Peace is particularly
significant since it caps a nine-day peace
festival. Including noted speakers at a spe-
cial symposium the festival, which will see
the peace walk begin at several different
locations and merge at the B.C. Place Sta-
dium, is part of the city’s centennial celebra-
tions.

Such efforts make Vancouver the peace
capital of North America, said COPE’s
Ald. Bruce Yorke, pointing out that the
June issue of National Geographic will fea-
ture the city’s peace activities.

Yorke said peace has become major issue
for municipal governments, noting that the
Japanese city of Hiroshima — the mayor
of which will attend the peace festival —
devotes 10 per cent of its budget to promot-
ing disarmament.

His words were underscored by council’s
unanimous vote, with aldermen Puil and
Bellamy absent, to support the financial aid
to the 1986 peace walk.

The vote was near-unanimous to pro-

A most interesting and constructive
redevelopment program is underway in
Mount Pleasant, initiated by city coun-
cil with the involvement and co-
operation of the residents of the area.
For me it has not only a political inter-
est (in the sense that as an alderman I
have a responsibility); I was brought up
in this area and it means a good deal to

me personally.

Mount Pleasant is the area bounded
by 16th Avenue on the south, 2nd
_Avenue on the north, Cambie Street on
the west and Clarke Drive on the east.
Over 21,000 people live there. It has
distinct commercial and industrial, as
well as residential, areas.

Mount Pleasant has a long history
and its character has changed greatly
over the years. Much of recent devel-
opment in the city has passed it by and
it is now more of a transient commun-
ity than before. Most of the traffic in the
area is commuter through-traffic.

Forty per cent of the residents of
Mount Pleasant were born outside of
Canada and forty per cent of these were
born in Asia. Forty per cent are 20-34
years of age and in the non-family cate-
gory. The majority of those working
are in the non-professional group and
the average income is 25 per cent less
than the rest of the city.

Problems that have developed over
the years include a lack of community
organization, a high crime rate, street
prostitution, a lack of parks, inade-
quate sidewalks, and inadequate main-
tenance of housing by landlords and
owners.

In 1981, city council approved a
planning program for Mount Pleasant
as an integrated part of the planning

for central-eastern Vancouver.
In 1982, a neighborhood planning
office was opened in Mount Pleasant
and the plan got underway.

- What is new, different, and signifi-
cant in this plan is that while direction
and financial assistance come from city
hall, the whole plan from beginning
to end is being discussed, taken apart
and reformed by the citizens of this
area. The process has included the ©
establishment of the Mount Pleasant

Citizens Planning Committee, public

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 26, 1986

Residents have a say
in Mt. Pleasant plan

meetings, newsletters, displays, questi-
onnaires and innumerable discussions
with groups and individuals.

This process has resulted in an excel-
lent community development plan
which includes action on the following
issues: _

@ Developing community organiza-
tions which will voice the needs of the
community;

@ Improving safety and reducing the
crime rate;

e@ Accommodating a variety of
housing types and enhancing the qual-
ity of residential areas, and retaining
and providing more affordable hous-
ing;

@ Retaining the heritage character of
Mount Pleasant;

e Instituting a traffic management
plan for the area, with increased transit
use,
@ Increasing the amount of park

Harry
Rankin

e Encouraging commercial devel-
opments that enhance the area;

@ Developing and regulating exist-
ing industrial areas to encourage long
term employment.

Of course, this whole neighborhood
planning process did not proceed with-
out hitches. First was required the polit-
ical will by city council to approach city
planning in this way. Then we had to
overcome a desire by some to back off
the process at city hall, even after the
decision had been made.

There is still the problem of funding
by the provincial and federal govern-
metns to maintain and build affordable
housing. But it can be said that the
process is now underway.

The experience of Mount Pleasant
proves, I think, that planning should
not only be done for people, but more
importantly, by people.

duce the leaflet, with only council right-
winger Ald. Marguerite Ford opposed.

Proposed contents of the leaflet, still in ~

the draft stage, includes the subjects of
nuclear winter, the psychological harm of
the arms race to children, the harmful effect
on the economy, new weapons build-up
and recent Soviet proposals for disarma-
ment. It is being prepared by council’s spe-
cial peace committee and the city’s medical
health officer.

COPE alderman Bruce Eriksen urged the
peace representatives to include reference to

the positive effect of disarmament actions:

“Tet people know all their efforts are not in
vain, that people are in fact listening.”
Yorke said recent developments show
“there are some hopeful beginnings in halt-
ing the arms race and promoting detente.”
Council helped finance, in conjunction
with End the Arms Race, the city-wide dis-
tribution of a leaflet urging participation in
the peace walk in 1983, but some aldermen

Council expands scopé
of fair wage program

Vancouver city council moved Feb. 18 to
lower the cutoff point on its fair wage pro-
gram, effectively ensuring that more jobs
performed for the city on a contractual basis
pay union rates.

In adopting resolutions from the coun-
cil’s finance and administration committee,
council voted 6-4 to order that any contrac-
tor awarded city work with a minimum of
$30,000 must pay employees the rates paid
to the city’s unionized staff.

The previous minimum value, set when
council established the city’s fair-wage pro-
gram last spring, was $200,000.

Ironically, the vote was taken at the same
council meeting in which right-wing alder-
man Gordon Campbell of the Civic Non-
Partisan Association served notice of

motion to contract-out more city jobs.

Council’s right-wing aldermen opposed
the motion to increase the scope of the fair-
wage program, supported by the Commit-
tee of Progressive Electors aldermen, two of
whom sit on the finance committee.

Trade union leaders, including B.C.
Building Trades council president Roy

Gautier, Carpenters Union business agent °

Marty Smith and International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers representative
Harry Broom, praised the fair wage pro-
ae estalbished by the city on May 28,

85.

The union spokesmen also urged the
finance committee to consider extending the
program to contracts costing less than
$30,000, but senior city staff said to do so
would require changes to Vancouver’s bid-
ding procedures.

Deputy city manager Ken Dobell said
contracts below the $30,000 point are car-

DR. TOM PERRY. ..must repeat
ings of nuclear war danger.

opposed such distribution this year.

Council subsequently voted 6-3, with
COPE aldermen and Ald. Bill Ye
Mayor Mike Harcourt in favor, to d
ute the leaflet by postal walk to ©
household in the city. 3

ried out by purchase order rather t
public tender, and that any change
likely have to mirror Toronto’
qualified bidder listing. Toronto’s fair-
policy formed the model for the Vancol
program. F

A report to the finance committee f
that 92 per cent of the city’s esti
annual contract work is above $30,0
costs.

Vancouver’s fair-wage program, ha
by a construction compensation adm
trator, orders successfully bidding con
tors to pay workers the base rai
_benefits negotiated by the city’s 0
workers union, the Canadian Union of
lic Employees. It was established, at’
urging of local unions and with the supP
of COPE aldermen and their unity
leagues on council, to stem the gro
incursion into contracted work of

union, low-wage paying construction
reaping profits at their employees’ exP

Council at its Feb. 18 meeting ad
the committee’s recommendations
include lowering the fair-wage pro;
limit to $30,000 (with city staff to 14
back on methods to apply the progra!
projects below that level) and perma
establishing the construction compe
administrator’s position.

COPE alderman Bruce Yorke °
Campbell’s motion, “shows him up
right-winger he is, rather than as the
ate he’s always pretended to be.”

Under council rules, Campbell’s m0"
was set to be debated Tuesday, but a m?
to defer debate to a future council m&
was anticipated.

Veteran alderman Harry Rankin will
almost certainly be taking a run at the
mayor’s chair in Vancouver’s elections
this fall.

Rankin, who has represented the
Committee of Progressive Electors for
most of his 20 years on city council, has
been unanimously endorsed by the
COPE executive.

That recommendation will be passed
to the membership for approval at the
COPE annual general meeting, set for 1
p.m., March 16 at the Britannia Com-
munity Centre.

_ Rankin, a Vancouver lawyer, was first
elected to council in 1966 with the efforts |
of the Committee to Elect Harry Rankin.

He has been re-elected with increas?
majorities ever since, representing COPE
following its formation under the a
ces of the Vancouver and District La
Council in 1968.

Topping the polls in recent ye
Rankin has been COPE’s “sent
alderman since 1980 when the GV
alliance captured three council seats,
majority on the school board and
parks board seats. In alliance with
political centre forces represented
Mayor Mike Haroucrt, who will
contest the 1986 elections, the “COF?
Unity” majority has six council seats, *
nine seats on school board and three ©
the seven-member parks board.

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