Shady companies

Those profit-hungry private gar-
bage collection corporations are at
it again. Rebuffed last year, they
are again pressuring city council to
turn over half its garbage collection
business to them.

Their front man is a Mr. L.
Remple, president of Haul-Away
Disposal Ltd.'Of course he didn’t
tell city council that he wants the
business to that he can make
money. He talked about free enter-
prise, competition, his desire to
save the taxpayers money and all

that B.S. He didn’t tell council that

Harry
Rankin

his firm is a subsidiary of Laidlaw
Transportation, one of the two
largest garbage firms in Canada
and that Laidlaw and the other big
one, Browning Ferris Industries,
were charged under the Federal '
Combines Investigation Act with
price fixing in Winnipeg in 1980.

Nor did he tell us that a big sector
of the private garbage collection
business in the U.S. and Canada is
under the control of a huge multi-
national that is reported to have
very close connections with the
Mafia.

We have good reason to be
suspicious of these private garbage
collection firms.

Their method of takeover has
usually been as follows: First they
come forward as champions of free
enterprise, competition, opponents
of ‘“‘wasteful’”’ public ownership,
and profess that their only concern
is to save taxpayers money. Then
they offer to collect garbage at rates
less than the current costs of the city
in question. If they secure the con-
tract they get the city to sell them all
its garbage collection equipment at
fire-sale prices.

Once the city has signed a con-
tract with them, once it has sold its
equipment, they’ve got it at their
mercy. Then they begin to apply
the screws, jacking up prices and
reducing services. And they don’t
mind throwing around a little
money to get their way.

The net result of all this is rich
contracts for the private collectors _

and higher prices.and poorer ser-

vice for citizens, Their so-called
competition ends up as a privately
owned monopoly where they do as
pay extra for everything except one
or two small bags of garbage a
week wrapped according to com-
pany specifications.

To get back to V; , one
of the organizations fronting for
the Haul-Away-Laidlaw crowd
was a new group called HALT. It
modestly claims it is ‘“‘concerned
about the erosion of the basic prin-
ciples of a free and competitive
society.’’ But it doesn’t attack the

ies in the forest industry,
the oil industry, the chain stores
and so on. It centres its attack on all
forms of. public ownership and
public control. It wants these turn-
ed over to big business monopolies.
You don’t need to guess twice
about whois behind HALT or who
finances it.

HALT presented a brief to city
council favoring private garbage

want our garbage

as full of holes as a sieve. Its author,
who claims an MA in economics,
obviously is just the propagandist
for the private garbage collectors.
In Calgary HALT is even ad-
vocating that the whole public

education system be abolished and _ .

replaced by private schools. You
can see from this how far right wing
itis. It’s a blood brother to the reac-
tionary Fraser Insitute in Van-
couver.

Another brief in support of the
Haul-Away-Laidlaw crowd was
that of some B.C.I.T. students. I

couldn’t help wondering: how
come a publicly funded educa-
tional institution such as this
assigns projects attacking public
ownership? Who is behind it? Who
directed them to prepare this brief?
The brief itself is a collection of
propaganda myths in favour of the
private collection of garbage mas-
querading as a ‘‘feasibility study.”

The hard facts are that no
private garbage collection business
can provide the same service at the
same cost as do our own city
employees for the simple reason
that private outfits have to show a
profit whereas the city can do it at
cost.

It isin the interests of all citizens,
home owners and renters alike, to
keep garbage collection under city
control.

It’s significant, but not surpris-
ing, that the private garbage
business has alderman Warnett
Kennedy supporting them.

Vancouver is still one of the
cleanest cities in Canada. Let’s
keep it that way by keeping garbage
collection under our own control.

“VANCOUVER

‘I should be able to live.
- without fear in my home’

Following are excerpts of an
address by Colleen Ouwehand,
chairperson of the Save Our
Homes Organization (SOHO),
to Vancouver city council Aug.
11 which illustrate how tenants
are being victimized by cor-
porate manipulation of the
housing market. -

SOHO represents tenants in
five Vancouver rental housing
complexes which are currently
slated for demolition to make
way for luxury redevelopment:
Beecher House, 1860 Robson;
Capistrano Apts., 1924 Comox;
Dolphin Court, 2350 W. 39
Ave.; Melton Court, 2320 Cor-
nwall; Richborough Apts., 1840
Robson. ee

SOHO was one of seven

‘delegations which appealed to

council to act on the housing
crisis. Following the delega-
tions, council voted five to four
to approve a motion by COPE
ald. Bruce Yorke to bring ina
form of demolition - control.
Yorke’s motion must be passed
again at a public hearing yet to
be scheduled before becoming
law.

Housing must remain a per-
son’s right in our society, and
should not be allowed to
become a privilege for a wealthy
few, which is what will occur in
Vancouver if present trends
continue. Nor is it right that we
who have lived all our lives in
Vancouver, and contribute and
work in this city, should now be
evicted and forced to move
from our homes and our city
because of a housing crisis we
did not create. It is time that
you, our elected representatives,
acted upon our requests and
needs.

Take for example myself and
the house I live in. It was built in

1906 for an eminent citizen, Mr._

Beecher, one of the lumber

barons of the Hastings saw mill.
He was involved in civic politics
and helped to found the city of
Vancouver, he helped’ found
Christ Church Cathedral, and
he helped found the Vancouver
Symphony. He was a pillar of
society and an honorable
forefather of our city. He built
his house as a family residence
using select lumber and the
strongest foundations made
from granite stone. It was built
to impress and to last. It is so
large that today it contains 14
different suites. It should be
proudly recognized as an his-
torical monument to the color-
ful past of our city.

Instead, since last October it

has gone through the hands of

six owners, each time the land

flipping over for a greater price. °

The starting price was $500,000,
and Aug. 1 it was sold again
together with the 28 apt.
building next door for over $3
million.

This happened just when we
were considering how to raise
enough money to buy the
building as a housing co-
operative! <

This is an example of the lack —

of control over residential
development. Flipping is a
disgrace which leads to high in-
flationary prices in land values
and makes it difficult to keep
rental accommodation at
reasonable rent levels.
Emotionally, it is very unset-
tling when the home you live in
changes owners and you find
yourself without a resident
caretaker and no maintenance
of any kind. The only cleaning
in the building we had with the
first three sets of owners (all
represented by the same agent)
was what we did ourselves. It
seems a common practice of
companies who want to see a
property demolished to let it run

down in the hope that the people
living there will leave and that it
will be easier to secure a demoli-
tion permit.

March 1, our place and the
building next door were sold
again, to Campeau Corp.,
represented by Macaulay
Nicolls, Maitiand. We then
received a ‘letter, headed
‘‘without prejudice’, which in-
formed us of their intent to
demolish the buildings and ask-
ing us to move out by Oct. 1.
This letter was not a valid evic-
tion notice, yet it served its pur-
pose. Approximately one half
of the suites next door went va-
cant,
building. And now Campeau }
has sold to yet another company
which leads one to wonder if
they every really intended to
re-develop this site.

Do you know what it feels
like to live in a building under
these conditions, under veiled
threats of eviction — to be told
how fires occur in buildings due
for demolition and that it would
be dangerous for us to stay.

Maintenance standards were
unacceptable and after three
weeks of broken laundry
facilities I finally got desperate
and complained to Macaulay,
Nicolls, Maitland. We got our
laundry fixed, but I also receiv-
ed numerous messages from
other tenants that the manager
had said he was going to ‘‘fix’’
us. You find that you don’t

Sleep so well some nights, evenif |

you don’t have a family to think
about, which we do.
I believe that the house which
we live in should be saved and
that as long as I live there, and

‘until such time as a valid ter-

mination of residence occurs,
that I and all others in my situa-
tion should be able to live’ in
safety and without fear in my

_home.

s= is the moral bankruptcy of the U.S. administration and the
Pentagon in forcing a gigantic arms buildup on an unwilling world

that they are forced to drag out old warhorses to make a case for them
— in the hope that the hero’s venerability will help bury the facts.

So it was this week when Edward Teller, the 73-year-old physicist
who helped develop the U.S. hydrogen bomb, appeared in Sicily to
speak at a symposium on atomic warfare. According to a report in the
Vancouver Province, he warned the U.S. and NATO to “‘strengthen
themselves . . . to win peace’. And then came this astounding
statistic: “‘The Soviets . ....possess.a bomb. shelter. system that

the’survival of 95 percent of their population.

‘With the possibility of saving the great majority of their population
and destroying about 60 percent of that of its adversary this could be a
temptation to start war,” he claimed.

Now, «as we mentioned, Teller is presumed to be a venerable old
hawk, the father of the H-bomb and all that. And the Pentagon must
have hoped that his presence alone would carry the day since his asser-
tions are absurd. :

In fact, they are refuted utterly by a report prepared almost a year.

ago by a U.S. government interagency group made up of represen-
tatives of the Department of Defence, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the

State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Arms

Control Agency and the National Security Council. The report was
prepared to counter the idea, then being advanced by some sections of
the military and arms manufacturers, that the U.S. was militarily in-
ferior. Here’s what the report said about the Soviet Union’s civil
defence capabilities: =
“CIA estimates that the Soviets would suffer over 100 million pro-
mpt casualties — about half of those fatalities — in an all-out nuclear
exchange for which they had little or no time to put civil defence

measures into effect. With full implementation of their civil defence —
program, Soviet casualties would be reduced to around 50 million, _

with fatalities numbering the tens of millions. These figures, however,
do not reflect the long-term effects of rdiation resulting from a massive
nuclear attack. Nor do they take account of casualties from the
widespread famine and disease which would likely occur in the after-

‘math of nuclear war.”
A further CIA evaluation of Soviet civil defence concluded: ‘‘They

cannot have confidence . . . in the degree of protection their civil

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

defence would afford them, given the many uncertainties attendant to

a nuclear exchange. We do not believe that the Soviets’ present civil
defences would embolden them to deliberately expose the USSR to a

higher risk of nuclear war.”

As for Teller’s other incredible claim — that the ‘‘Soviets have 80
percent of all the atomic bombs in the world’? — that same U.S. in-
teragency study provides succinct rebuttal: ~

‘‘While the United States has fewer types of missiles deployed and
fewer launchers, it leads the Soviets in numbers of strategic nuclear
weapons by 9,2000 to 6,000, perhaps the most significant indicator of

strategic strength.’’

x * x . :

A s the organization itself points out, 70 years is a long time in the
short recorded history of this country. And so it is with some pride

in tradition that the Finish Organization of Canada marks the 70th an-

niversary of its founding this September.

Although they do not constitute a large community in the Canadian
population makeup today, Finish-Canadians were a significant force
in the early lumber, fishing and mining industries. More important,
they were the mainstay of trade union and democratic organizations, a
tradition which the FOC continues today.

In this province, the Finnish Organization’s Local 55 intends to
mark the anniversary with a gala picnic Sunday, Sept. 6, at the Sampo
Hall in Websters Corners, beginning at 12 noon.

* * *

i ee who regularly follow Jack Phillips’ Labor Comment in
this paper might also be interested in catching an interview with
Phillips, to be aired on Vancouver Co-operative Radio, Aug. 26. In the
interview he relates experiences as the labor secretary for the Com-
munist Party in British Columbia and the approach of the Communist

Party to the trade union movement.

It will appear on the Union Made show, from 8 to 9 p.m. and is con-
ducted by Geoff Meggs, a volunteer broadcaster for Co-op Radio and

the editor of The Fisherman. Co-op Radio is 102.7 on the FM dial.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUG. 21, 1981—Page 2

as did three in our |