VANCOUVER

‘Housing, not suite crackdown, needed’

Members of Vancouver’s Indo-Can-
adian community vowed Sunday to fight
back against Vancouver city council’s
decision to crack down on illegal suites.

“Our community is united in its oppo-
sition to these moves being made by our
present city council. We will not tolerate
our families being torn apart, and we are
not alone in this fight,” Gurnam Singh
Sangera, a representative of the East
Indian Workers’ Association told an
audience of some 200 at the Killarney
Community Centre.

The meeting was called to build an
opposition to recent decisions taken by
Vancouver city council on secondary or
“illegal” suites in neighborhoods zoned
for single-family residence. The Non-
Partisan Association (NPA) majority
decided to amend bylaws to prevent the
construction of second kitchens in “RS-
1” zones, to close secondary suites when

neighbors complained, and to remove
for new buildings the “hardship” clause
that allowed secondary suites in some
instances.

Former alderman Harry Rankin con-
demned the NPA policy as “simplistic”
and having “racist connotations.” He
suggested that a more realistic approach
to the problem of illegal suites would
involve a “neighborhood by neighbor-
hood analysis completed by the planning
department and people in the various
neighborhoods so that we would have a
firm foundation on which to pass some
sensible bylaws.

“But any solution must be clear of
racial overtones,” he said, citing the
threat to the extended family tradition of
many ethnic communities with the reso-
lution against second kitchens adopted
by city council.

“We can’t expect people to come to

this country and change traditions estab-
lished over generations,” Rankin, a 20-
year city council veteran for the
Committee of Progressive Electors, said.

That sentiment was echoed by all of
the speakers from the Indo-Canadian
community, who also stressed common
cause with others in the city forced to live
in illegal suites because of low income.

“There is a lack of affordable housing
in the city. How can we be expected to
pay up to $700 a month for a decent
house to live in when our average
monthly income is $1,200?” Sangera
asked.

“There are 20,000 illegal suites in this
city and many of the up to 50,000 people
that live in these suites do so because
there is no affordable alternative,” said
David Lane, co-ordinator of the Tenants
Rights Action Centre. “These people
can’t get city hall’s help if their suites are

communities, seniors, tenants, unem-
ployed, housing groups and others to

a health or fire hazard. What we need is a
major housing initiative in this city.”
Lane called for unity of all ethnic

demand an immediate moratorium on
closure of any illegal suites in the city and
a city policy of providing affordable
housing.

The meeting unanimously adopted a
resolution from Amarjit Soofi, editor of
the Punjabi language newspaper Lokta,
for steps to be taken to “build a coalition
to reverse city council’s policy on illegal
suites and in the demand that no one be
removed from a present illegal suite.”

The East Indian Workers Association
has already consulted with other ethnic
communities and organizations con-
cerned with the issue and-a public meet-
ing has been set for April 12 at John

Oliver High School auditorium.

Sheena Lambert of End the Arms Race with 1987 Walk for Peace poster.

Balloons soaring aloft from the steps
of Vancouver city hall and Dr. Benjamin
Spock have at least one thing in com-
mon: they’re both part of the events lead-
ing up to the sixth annual Walk for
Peace.

The activities include:

@ On April 20, a renowned pediatri-
cian and disarmament activist Dr. Ben-
jamin Spock, speaking on “growing up
in the nuclear age,” sponsored by End
the Arms Race (for information, phone
736-2366);

®@ On April 23, at 11 a.m., the release
of balloons containing peace messages
by Vancouver school students from city
hall steps;

@ On April 24, at 8 p.m., Youth For
Peace Action features Students Against
Global Extermination, performances by
the Vancouver Youth Theatre, and the

Events push ’87

rock group, Bolero Lava, at the Edge,
1125 Howe St. (phone Graham Cook,
266-1653).

And, of course, April 25 features the
Walk for Peace, beginning at noon when
marchers leave Kitsilano Beach park for
the five-kilometre walk through the
downtown core to a rally at Sunset
Beach park. The rally will feature a spe-
cial children’s tent, with clowns, paper
crane making and several other activities.

In Victoria, the annual Walk for Peace
leaves Centennial Square at 12 noon on
April 25. Marchers will move down
Douglas Street to a rally at the legisla-
ture. A featured speaker is Mary Wynn
Ashford, a delegate to the massive peace
forum held recently in Moscow. This
year the walk focuses on the Compre-
hensive Test Ban, and how “you too can
make a difference.”

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 18, 1987

Public participation,
as the NPA sees it

Listening to the public and allowing the
community to be heard, even when you do
not agree with what is being said, is funda-
mental to civic democracy. Establishing a
process for public input and abiding by that
process without arbitrarily changing the
rules to suit a political opinion is obviously
also basic to civic democracy.

The Non-Partisan Association likes to
apply this right on a rather selective basis.
During the last election they were all for
public input. Now that the real business has
begun, they have a different approach.

Last week the NPA denied the public the
right to be heard on whether or not we
should allow the continued operation of
bed and breakfast accommodation in our
city. Bed and breakfast operations were
allowed on a trial basis during Expo and
proved quite successful. A public hearing to
consider zoning to continue bed and break-
fast operations, and to receive public input
about under what conditions they could be
allowed, was proposed.

Of course the public may have opposed
the continuation of this service altogether.

However, the NPA quite arbitrarily decided
there would be no public hearing and no
democratic process.

The NPA claims that bed and breakfast
opreations are an incursion into neighbor-
hoods. This hasn’t been the case over the
months that they have operated. There is
good reason to conclude that the real moti-
vation for the NPA is their support for the
big hotels which see bed-and-breakfast as
competition.

A second case of public process, NPA
style, concerns traffic in Grandview-
Woodlands and the community’s wish fora
traffic barrier at 6th Avenue and Clark
Drive. The barrier was installed during
Expo to protect the neighborhood from
high volumes of commuter traffic, as pro-
posed in the comprehensive Grandview
Woodland Traffic Management Plan. This
plan was initiated by the Grandview Wood-
lands Area Council in consultation with the
engineering department of the city, and it
was approved by city council in 1986.

When the barriers were installed it was
agreed that after six months the local resi-

Libby Davies
Bruce Eriksen

dents would be polled to determine if these
should remain. When the recommendation

for the poll was put to the transportation
committee at city hall, however, two people
(the owner of a small business and an owner

of a vacant lot) opposed the barriers, where-
upon some NPA’ers rushed to recommend
that the barrier be removed and to heck

with the poll.

It is to the credit of the Grandview-.

Woodlands community that it told council
loud and clear that the process would not be
subverted. The NPA had to back-peddle
and reluctantly agreed to proceed with the
neighborhood poll.

Yet another example of the NPA’s disre-
gard for fair public representation involve
the allocation of community and cultural
grants. A long-held practice at city hall is the

right of any group to appeal to city council if

they are denied a grant or given less than
requested in the initial vote at city council.
The NPA has now changed that appeal
process and groups applying for commun-
ity or cultural grants have been informed
that they may only appeal council’s deci-

sions for emergency reasons involving staff
layoffs or threatened closure of the organi-
zation.

This new procedure denied the right to be
properly heard for many organizations
which have no idea whether they need to
organize their arguments and supporters in
support of the grant until after council has
denied the request. The NPA’s new process,
by defintition, excludes from the appeal
process any request pertaining to a new
service however worthwhile or needed.

There is some good news from city hall.
Council unanimously agreed March 10 to
co-sponsor the 1987 Walk for Peace — t0
be held on April 25 — and to contribute a?
estimated $10,000 for police and engineet-
ing costs associated with the walk. The suc
cess of the Walk for Peace, and the
determination of Vancouver citizens t0
keep Vancouver in the forefront of the
world wide peace movement, is something
that not even this city council could ignoré-

Libby Davies and Bruce Eriksen are Vat-
couver alderman representing the Committeé
of Progressive Electors.

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