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an
Freeze put on

VICTORIA — The unanimous
decision by Victoria city council
to impose a ene-year freeze on all
demolition permits for apartment
buildings, made waves not only
across the province, but the rest of
the country. -

Alderman Robin Blencoe, a
major force behind council’s
Monday decision, told the Trib-
une Tuesday that letters and tele-
grams had been pouring into his
Office from tenant organizations,
community groups and, individ-
uals, expressing delight with
council’s move.

For Blencoe, however, the
temporary bylaw freezing demo-
lition permits for apartment
buildings with five suites or more
— made meaningful by the rider
that the bylaw is retroactive —
“deals with the symptoms of Vic-
toria’s acute housing crisis.

“‘Now we have to get on and
deal with the problem by building
eg housing,’’ he declar-

The special council meeting on
Monday was convened after
more than 100 placard-bearing
tenants, many of them seniors,
showed up to an earlier council

demolition of their homes.
‘‘They would have been forced
to move if the (demolition) per-
mits had gone through. None of
them could have afforded to buy
the luxury condominiums replac-
ing their buildings,”’ he said.
Faced with a 0.1 vacancy rate,
similar to most municipalities in
the Lower Mainland, they were
thrown into a situation of “‘in-
credible distress,”’ and decided to
get together and take action.
Perhaps what will turn out to
be ‘‘an even greater bombshell”’
| than the spate of demolition per-
mits sought by developers eager
to cash in on the housing shortage
— which council put a stop to

VICTORIA — The B.C..
Utilities Commission’s approval,
behind closed doors, of B.C.
Hydro increases in power rates
for residential and commercial
uses, will raise about the same
amount of money that Hydro has
lost so far in a five-year

U.S. utility, Washington Water
Power Company.

The Canadian Coalition for
Nuclear Responsibility charges
that Hydro’s approval to raise
their rates, in effect, continues the
tradition of B.C. residential users
nes power exports to the

When the cabinet boosted
taxes on water used for generating
electricity — slammed by NDP
MLA Bob Skelly (Alberni) as:
“revenue grab’? by the govern-
Ment — Hydro made a hasty ap-
Plication to the B.C. Utilities
Commission for a cost-
Passthrough to its customers.

Granted last week, Hydro bills
will go up for residential and
commercial users in March
Without a notice of increase and
Without a public hearing.

Hydro’s bulk customers, such
\as pulp mills and large corpora-

Meeting protesting the imminent .

Sweetheart deal struck with the —

| ; |
t Vancouver Island Notes

demolitions

Monday — are an undetermined
number of outstanding long-term
leases held on apartments cur-
rently rented out by developers.

- Council passed a second mo-
tion Monday declaring they
would no longer consider issuing
any new 99-year leases, but it is
the number of leases that have al-
ready been issued which has Blen-
coe worried.

Developers acquired these
leases from municipalities after
the practice of converting rental
apartments into condominiums
was largely stopped by an amend-
ment to the Landlord and Tenant
Act giving municipal councils
control over approving such con-
versions.

Essentially, these leases are an-
other loophole that allow devel-
opers the option to sell their rental
suites on a 99-year basis — a con-
dominium conversion by any
other name.

Tell-tale signs of a developer

Alberni aldermen rap
Socred finance policy

PORT ALBERNI — Alder-
men George McKnight and Wal-
ter Behn put some pointed ques-
tions about taxation policies and
municipalities’ constitutional
rights to the provincial cabinet

which toured here Jan. 21.

The ‘‘constant shifting of the
tax load from the corporate sector
to individual Canadians”’ and the
disregard shown for municipali-
ties’ attempts to find a place in
any new constitution, were sing]-
ed out by McKnight and Behn ina
joint brief, endorsed by the Port
Alberni city council and the Port
Alberni and District Labor Coun-
cil, of which Behn is president.

| Hydro rate increases
subsidize U.S. exports

tions, on the other hand, receive
both 365 days notice before any
new rates are applied and a hear-
ing slated March 18, specifically
for bulk users. Companies that
generate their own hydro power,
like Alcan and Cominco will
be intervening.
The CCNR is concerned about
the implication the rate increases

have Hydro’s export policies. .

Last January, the National
Energy Board said that Hydro’s
rates per kilowatt hour to: the
Washington Power Corporation,

‘which accounts for half of

Hydro’s export sales, was
“marginally low.”

In fact, the rates to that cor-
poration are so low — 1.5 cents.
per kwh as compared to the 5to6
cents per kwh paid by other
Washington and Oregon utilities
— the CCNR has calculated that
Hydro loses about $20 million on
the deal.

The $22.33 million Hydro will
pass onto its users in the wake of
the water tax hike by cabinet, is
almost exactly the amount it loses
with Washington Power Com-
pany.

deciding to go the lease route in-
clude doing extensive renovation
to a building and not passing on
the expense to tenants by way of
increased rents.

Blencoe knows of three apart-
ment buildings where tenants
have found out that the owner,
John Congdon, is planning to sell
their suites as long-term leases.

Along with other city council
members, Blencoe is fighting the
conversion of the three apartment
blocks before the Rentalsman’s
office. They feel that if they win
with these apartments, it will set a
precedent for other conversion
plans by developers.

He said that council had al-
ready zoned land in the down-
town Victoria core for housing
and that with help from the other
levels of government, that land
could be purchased by non-profit
and co-operative groups at low or
no interest, for the construction
of affordable housing.

Entitled Taxation Policy and
Constitutional Questions, the
brief said that municipal govern-
ments across the country were
taking the political flak for the
senior levels of governments
which have been affecting a
‘‘drastic shift in the tax load from
the corporations to the individ-
ual.

“Municipalities, where the
bulk of Canadians live, are in a fi-
nancial bind, in that the need and
demand for services constantly
grows, while the real property
tax, which is unrelated to the
needs of the people, remains the
main source of revenue.

“This limits the ability of the
municipalities to provide these es-
sential services and burdens the
homeowner with ever-growing
property taxes.”

The trend in shifting the tax
burden onto the ‘little guy’ is sup-
ported by the government’s own
figures, the brief stated.

In 1974, individuals paid
$410.6 million or 76 percent of the
total B.C. income tax revenue; in
1979, that percentage rose to 80.2
percent or $1.220.1 billion paid
by individuals.

On the other hand, income
taxes from cororations in the pro-
vince, went down from 24 percent
of the income tax total in 1974 to
19.8 percent in 1979.

“Clearly the provincial and
federal governments, both of
whom claim to be defending the
rights of Canadians agree on one
principle — to shift the tax load
away from corporations and onto
the individual citizens.”

McKnight and Behn also slam-
med the Ottawa-bashing cam-
paign by the Socreds as a smoke-
screen to hide their tight fisted
and unrealistic policy toward the
municipalities.

“While they carry on a cam-
paign as if it were the federal gov-
ernment which is the cause of all
our difficulties,’’ the provincial
government contributed only 9.2
percent or $122 million to the
total budget of municipalities of

$1.344.8 billion. ey

the issues to arbitration.

Tom McGrath (r, foreground), president of Local 400 of the Ca-
nadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Work-
ers stands with other CBRT members and crew members of
two British ships, the Southland Star and the Cape Grenville,
which remain tied up in Vancouver as the British National Un-
ion of Seamen continues its strike. Several local unions in-
cluding the CBRT have assisted the British seamen. Seen here
are | to r, Cyril McCormack (CBRT), Harry Hodder, Geoff
Briscoe, lan Campbell, Phillips Sims, McGrath, Gerry McCul-
lough (CBRT). There was some hope of a break in the dispute
this week as the British shipping companies agreed to submit

TRIBUNE PHOTO —SEAN GRIFFIN

Block NE coal deal,
Rush urges CP rally

Communist Party provincial
leader Maurice Rush appealed to a
crowd of about 200 in Vancouver
Feb. 4to do “‘everything possible to
expose the sellout of northeast coal
and to stop the deal.”

Rush said there is no justifica-
tion for the deal to be signed with-
out reference to the B.C. legislat-
ure, and the government should be
forced to refer the whole matter to
an early session.

The Communist Party rally at
the Holiday Inn in Vancouver also
heard CP national leader William
Kashtan attack both the Trudeau
constitutional package and the po-
sitions of the provinces which, he
said, are giving indirect support to

- the western separatist movement as

a lever against Ottawa.

Of the western premiers, B.C.’s.
Bill Bennett ‘‘is outstanding in set-
ting an example of how a province
can be given away,’’ Rush declar-
ed.

Some estimates of the public
subsidy involved in the coal sellout
to the coal companies and the Jap-
anese range as high as $1 billion,
but even that is likely far below the
real costs, he predicted.

. The coal deal marks ‘‘a whole
new stage in the sellout of our re-

sources,’’ he said. “Our mountains
will be ripped apart by open pit
mines, our valleys flooded as giant
reservoirs for the export of hydro
power to the U.S., our forests deci-
mated by the uncontrolled plunder
of that resource — all to serve the
interests of the U.S. multinational
corporations which control our
economy.’” -

The coal deal cannot be justified
regardless of the price paid, which
the government admits will come
nowhere near meeting the public
investment, the CP leader added.

“There is no concept of develop-
ment here. No plan for building a
manufacturing or industrial base in
the north. All that is involved is the
export of resources. And when it is
gone we will be left with a hole in
the ground and a decimated prov-
ince.”’.

Rush was also sharply critical of
NDP opposition leader Dave Bar-
rett for “‘spending his time touring
B.C. talking to Boards of Trade
and Junior Chambers of Com-
merce’ rather than rallying public
opposition to the deal.

The CP will use all methods at its
disposal to expose the sellout and
prevent the deal from being finaliz-
ed, he said.

Berkeley mayor here

Delegates from labor organiza-
tions, churches, solidarity groups,
and peace groups throughout B.C.
will meet in Vancouver Feb. 21-22
at a conference on peace action.

The conference is organized by
the B.C. Peace Council and will
feature two days of workshops and
plenary sessions at the Plaza 500
Hotel, 12 Ave. and Cambie St., in
Vancouver and a major rally 2
p.m. on Feb. 22 at the Kitsilano
High School auditorium.

Featured at the rally will be Van-
couver alderman Harry Rankin
and Berkeley, California mayor
Gus Newport. Newport is an ex-
ecutive member of the U.S. Peace
Council and a delegate to the
World Peace Council in Helsinki.

Workshop sessions will divide
into four panels: new threats of the
arms race; the impact of the arms
race on Canadian living standards;
disarmament and the developing

countries; organizing for neace ac-
tion in the trade univiis, ci.urches,
campuses, professions and general
community.

_ Resource people for the
workshops will include economist
Dr. Emil Bjarnason; Dr. James
Foulks, member of the Interna-
tional Liaison Committee on
Disarmament; Rev. John
Hillborn, United Church minister
recently returned from El
Salvador; and Lorne Robson,
secretary-treasurer of the B.C.
Provincial Council of Carpenters.

The conference will elect a new
provincial leadership for the B.C.
Peace Council and adopt a pro-
gram of action for the peace move-
ment.

Delegates from organizations
can register at the Plaza 500 by 9
a.m. Feb. 21. Individuals are also
welcome to attend the conference
and participate in the discussion.

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 13, 1981—Page 3