BRITISH COLUMBIA | Petitions blitz set The Congress of Canadian Women, B.C. chapter has set Nov. 2 for a peti- tioning blitz as the campaign against the Mulroney government’s plans to de-index family allowances gathers new momentum. Petitioners are being asked to phone Libby Griffin at 254-9337 for locations and copies of the petition. The petition is the same as that launched earlier this year by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. The proposed amendments to the - Family Allowance Act, which would remove the first three per cent of cost- of-living from family allowances, have passed second reading and are currenly before a committee of the house where they have already been the target of heavy opposition. More than 200 demonstrators, organized by the NAC and represent- ing women’s groups throughout Ontario and Quebec marched.on Par- liament Hill Oct. 23 to protest the changes, introduced as part of the Tory budget, and to demand that government do as it did with pension de-indexing and rescind the decision. Petition days have also been set in other provinces in an effort to add quickly to the thousands of names of people who have already signed. ‘End restraint — candidates An Alberni school trustee noted for her defence of school board autonomy and advocacy of enhanced Native education has been barred from seeking re-election. Darlene Watts had her nomination pap- ers rejected by municipal authorities on the grounds that her name did not appear on the municipal voters list. Fellow trustee Gary Swnan has termed the incident “‘a case of blatant institutionalized racism.” Watts’ rejection, which is being appealed in court, underlines the political contest across the province as labor-backed and progresive candidates head to the polls in civic and school board elections on Nov. 16. Swann, himself seeking re-election on a platform of continued resistence to provin- cial government cutbacks, said Watts failed to get on the voters list because she was not. enumerated. A city dweller for several years, Watts recently moved back to the local reservation. Swann said the reservation is almost “routinely” ignored during enumerations. Calling the situation “disgraceful,” he won- dered how a voter with Watts’ profile could have escaped enumerators’ notice. An Alberni farmer, Swann faes opposi- . tion from a right-wing candidate in his bid for re-election. He has represented the rural seat on the Alberni board for six years, each time running with the backing of the Alberni Labor Council. He cites two key issues in his race for the seat: fighting for school board autonomy from the province, including reinstatement of the right to tax industries, and the board’s ability to involve the community and school employees in the board’s decisions. “We've got a collective agreement with our teachers, while in several other districts they’re working to rule,” Swann pointed out. But Swann also noted the number of classes in his district considered oversized has tripled, and hit the provincial govern- ment’s attempts “to make private education more attractive than the public system.” Running for Alberni city council this year are labor council president Henry Neder- gard and former chair of the Organization of Unemployed Workers, Dave Crosby. Crosby points to the “haphazard” devel- opment of the city which has seen the estab- lishment of a large shopping mall and a costly tourist-oriented harbor project, with no concrete plan to back it up. He calls for a conference of community groups and city representatives to draw up an economic development plan for Alberni that would create sorely needed jobs and enhance city services. Crosby himself suggests the development of “value-added” manufacturing processes for the area’s natural resources — forestry and fishing. And he demands no further tax hikes for homeowners and a shift away from the current council’s policy of increas- ing tax breaks for the large corporations in the region. Down Island, community worker Peter Ramsey is running for Victoria council under the newly-formed Victoria Organiza- tion of Involved and Concerned Electors (VOICE). VOICE is a coalition of trade unionists, community groups and unemployed workers. Ramsey, who works for the Federated Anti-Poverty Groups, calls for the devel- opment of neighborhood youth clinics, an elected parks board and the banning of dangerous cargoes and nuclear-weapons carrying vessels from Victoria’s harbor. He also pledges his efforts to establish a “fair wage policy” for city contracts. Also running for Victoria council is labor council secretary Andre Pel and several local New Democrats. Ald. Gretchen Brewin, considered a left-leaning council member, faces two right-wing opponents in her bid for the mayor’s chair. Carpenters Union organizer Fred Kuhn _ is running for Campbell River city council with the backing of the Campbell River- Courtenay and District Labor Council. The council has also endorsed Cathy Shaw in her try for a school board seat. Last July, after -secret negotiations between the federal and provincial _ governments, an agreement was reached _ to transfer what is known as social hous- _ ing programs from the federal.to the pro- vincial governments. Involved in this type _ of housing are non-profit projects such as those developed by churchs and unions to _ provide affordable housing, public non- _ profit projects developed by municipali- ties, non-profit co-operatives run by the residents and housing for Native people. The real purpose of this move is to privatize all existing social housing, includ- ing co-operative housing, and turn all future public housing projects over to pri- vate developers. This is clearly shown by the plans of the Social Credit government which include: @ Ending subsidies to existing co-ops and pressuring the 35,000 people who now live in co-ops to buy them; @ Paying shelter allowance payments directly to landlords and developers instead of tenants; @ Giving funds for housing construc- tion which have been limited — as they should — to non-profit groups, to private companies; @ Handing the financing of social hous- ing by government (presently handled by Central Housing and Mortgage Corpora- tion) over to private financial agencies; @ Drastically reducing social housing construction. The net result of all these steps would be the end of social housing in B.C. We would have no more co-ops and no more affordable housing. _ - Fighting privatized housing — Many briefs have been submitted by citizen organizations to Vancouver city council strongly opposing this transfer and its objectives. The brief presented by John Beeching of the Senior’s Caucus was particularly revealing. It demonstrated with figures ~ what happened in 1979 when the federal government transferred responsibility for senior’s housing to the provincial govern- ment. “In 1978, the year before the transfer took place, (the brief points out) 1,680 units were built. By 1985 less than 400 Harry Rankin units of senior’s housing were being built each year. ..The government has replaced a decent supply-side senior’s housing pro- gram with an inadequate, under-financed shelter allowance program.” The B.C. Federation of Labor in its brief pointed out that “there has been no consultation by the provincial government with any major sectors of the public, spe- cifically user groups, tenants’ organiza- tions and non-profit housing producers.” The federation also noted that “private investors, developers and builders have demonstrated their inability or unwilling- ness to build low-cost housing without . sion, not decreased. For the provincial bigger and bigger tax incentives and government subsidies. This, combined with the drying up of government funds ‘and the termination of assistance pro- grams for social housing at the federal and provincial level, has created a housing cri- sis for thousands of medium and low- income families...The primary. res- ponsibility for social housing rests with the federal government because all Canadians should have equal access to housing and their needs should be addressed in a sim- ilar manner, regardless of where they live in Canada.” _ The need for affordable social housing in Vancouver has increased with the reces- government to now emasculate it and turn it Into its opposite — namely a form of provincial subsidy for landlords and developers — is nothing short of a crime against the people of this province. This is why all groups with a social conscience should demand that the pro- vincial government encourage co-opera- tives, not privatize them; that rental allowances be given to those who need them, not to landlords; that rent-geared- to-income level should remain at 16.7 to 25 per cent set by CMHC, and not raised to 30 to 35 per cent as proposed by the provincial government. Finally, we should renew a long- standing demand that the government undertake a large scale program of affor- dable housing which would have the added benefits of providing markets for B.C. lumber and creating thousands of » new jobs. : _ 2 © PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 30, 1985 GARY SWANN. . .seeking re-election as Alberni trustee. HOMER STEVENS...contesting Delta mayoralty. In Prince Rupert, fisherman and union organizer Ken Bedard is contesting an aldermanic seat. The organizer for the Uni- ted Fishermen and Allied Workers Union said maintaining city services is a top prior- ity. Bedard said the current right-wing domi- nated council tried to cutback on firefigh- ters recently, and currently are “dragging out” negotiations for a new collective agreement with the Firefighters Union. “Council needs a labor voice, and I’m running to see if we can get it,” Bedard said: He also supports the re-election bid of Ald. Dave Cook. Fellow trade unionist Larry McKay is running for school board. Fighting for the return of local taxing powers and other autonomous rights for the school board is a key platform plank for candidate Doris Fuller on. the Sunshine Coast. Noting that the provincial government “has more money for computers than for teachers,” Fuller said the continued erosion of education through cutbacks must be opposed. Fuller is a former president of the Sun- shine Coast Teachers’ Association and was active in the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. In Delta, UFAWU trustee Homer Stev- ens is trying for the mayor’s chair. “The mayor (Ernie Burnett) and his people have been working for the same pol- icies for years, supporting the developers in this community,” he charged. Stevens is a member of the reform group, Citizens Association of Delta (CitaDel), but does not represent the group in his candi- dacy. : Delta faces erosion of its traditional eco- nomic bases, farming and fishing, through policies designed turn the South Fraser municipality into a bedroom community for Vancouver. He points to the council decision to use the former Spettifore lands for condominium development and its fail- ure to maintain the South Delta channel for fishing boats. He’s also campaigning against the coun-— cil decision to accept a provincial govern- ment directive turning Tilbury Island into 4 special economic zone, and calls for imme- diate action to halt the transshipment of _ dangerous cargoes through the community.