NA 01 ANS OU AL British Columbia lll 4 Victory cited as city backs controls on rents Tenants and anti-poverty organiza- tions mounted a successful campaign that pressed Vancouver city council into voting for the reinstatement of provincial rent controls. Council voted unanimously Jan. 17 to lobby the province through Mayor Gordon Campbell to re-establish the Rentalsman’s Office and rent reviews with the power to roll back rent hikes. David Lane of the Tenants Rights Coalition said he was disappointed that council’s right-wingers did not back the call for a city rent review board, but called the vote for provin- cial rent controls a victory. Lane said tenants in some 20 Van- couver apartment buildings have been calling the coalition’s Tenants Rights Action Centre after receiving notices of rent hikes of between 20-54 per cent. Tenants in several of those build- ings have formed tenant committees, and three of these were at last Tues- day’s council meeting. With them were End Legislated Poverty. the Downtown Eastside Res- idents Association, the Vancouver and District Public Housing Tenants Association, and TRAC. Tenants included residents at 1770 Barclay St., 1609 Harwood and 2085 W. 5th Ave. Landlords took the issue seriously. There to counter tenant claims were the Rental Housing Council of B.C., the Building Owners and Managers Association, the Greater Vancouver Homebuilders Association and the Association of Professional Residen- tial Property Managers. The debate centred around “unfet- tered free enterprise versus regulation to stop (rent) gouging,” Lane said. Owners forwarded the old argu- ment that rent controls would stifle initiatives to build new housing.” But under questioning from Ald. Harry Rankin of the Committee of Progressive Electors, some landlord spokespersons had to admit they were in the business of constructing expen- sive houses — not rental premises — while acknowledging that some build- ings they constructed contained illegal suites, currently the target of a city council crackdown. Council, run by the right-wing Non-Partisan Association, predicta- bly rejected a COPE motion to ask the province for permission to change the city charter to allow the estab- lishment of a Vancouver rent review board, in an 8-3 vote. But a surprise motion from NPA Ald. George Puil that council man- date the mayor to seek the re- establishment of provincial rent controls passed unanimously. Lane said later he was “disap- pointed that council refused to take a leadership role and deal directly with the problem” by seeking a city-run rent review board. “But we’re glad they’re willing to lobby the provincial government, because it means the issue will receive some profile,” he said. A toast to Dr. Emil Bjarnason, founder and head of the Trade Union Research Bureau for 43 years, marked the conclusion of a packed dinner in his honour at Vancouver's Maritime Labour Centre on Jan. 14. Bjarnason, who retired recently, was credited by the several trade unionists in attendance — and by others who sent greetings — for being the inspiration behind many of B.C. labour’s achievements in collective agreements, and health, welfare and pension plans. See People and Issues, page 4. 2 ¢ Pacific Tribune, January 23, 1989 Hotels don’t need city handout Vancouver lawyer and civic activist Harry Rankin launched his weekly commentary when first elected to Vancouver city council in 1968. That same year community activists, on the initiative of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, formed the Committee of Progressive Electors. For 20 years Rankin’s column appeared in the Pacific Tribune and other papers, with frequently feisty comment on civic matters, and sometimes on issues of national and international importance, helping to increase support for civic reform among the labour and community movements. The column ceased two years ago following Rankin’s unsuccess- ful bid for the mayoralty in the November, 1986 election. Rankin returned to council as alderman following the election last November which saw COPE double its plurality with three aldermen — Rankin, Libby Davies and Bruce Eriksen — trustee Pauline Weinstein on school board (along with Civic NDP member Anne Beer), and commissioner Pat Wilson returned to the parks board. With those victories, Rankin’s column again resumes weekly publication. Ata meeting of Vancouver city council’s finance committee (which includes all coun- cil members) on Jan. 12, members voted to give Tourism Vancouver a grant of $690,000. Tourism Vancouver is an organi- zation representing those who profit from the tourist industry. Among the main bene- ficiaries are the big hotels owned by Cana- dian and foreign corporate interests such as the Hyatt Regency and the Bayshore Inn. Voting in favour of the grant were all eight Non-Partisan Association members including Mayor Gordon Campbell. . Vot- ing against were the three Committee of Progressive Electors aldermen: Libby Davies, Bruce Eriksen and Harry Rankin. NPA support for this grant is not surpris- ing. It is in line with its plans to build an executive city for the wealthy. Why did COPE aldermen oppose this grant? Certainly not because we are opposed to the tourism industry. We just felt that the tourism industry can and should pay its own way. We had good reasons for taking this stand. The tourist industry is already heav- ily subsidized. The provincial government levies a two per cent hotel tax on hotel rooms. which will raise an estimated $3,500,000 this year. All of this is handed over to Tourism Vancouver. In addition it receives grants totalling $980,000 from other levels of government — $460,000 from the province and $400,000 from Ottawa, and $125,000 from the Greater Vancouver Regional District. The tourist industry isn’t pleading pov- erty. It has presented no evidence that it is in dire straits and needs bailing out by government. My own impression is that the tourist business has been doing very well, especially since Expo 86 when it made a real killing. Room charges of about $200 a night are not unusual during the height of the tourist season. They are charging all that the traffic will bear. At the same time, many on staff are paid at rates close to the minimum wage of $4.50 an hour. The industry is really taking advantage of and exploiting immi- grant workers. In my opinion it is fundamentally wrong to use the money derived from taxes on homes (which are non-revenue producing) to give subsidies to big privately-owned businesses which are producing very high revenues for their owners — who in many cases don’t even reside in Canada. This $690,000 city grant could and should be put to much better use to improve services such as garbage collection, and to keep our roads, sewers and sidewalks in good condition. Tourism Vancouver plans to spend $6,570,000 in 1989 on advertising. The industry itself is putting up only $1,395,000. The rest comes from the two per cent hotel tax and government grants. Other busi- nesses in the city are paying for their own advertising. Why can’t the tourist industry do the same instead of coming to city coun- cil for a handout? As far as I can see it doesn’t really need this extra $960,000. It’s just gravy for an industry that can and should be paying its own way. City council has no moral right to divert tax money to help private businesses that are already doing very well. Down to the wire It wouldn’t be stretching a point to say our nerves are stretched like piano wire. With only nine days to go before the subscription drive ends, we’re far short of target. Readers have brought in 114 new subs so far, and 390 renewals. The problem is, we’ve been aiming for 300 new and 525 renewed sub- scriptions to B.C.’s only labour weekly. We likely won’t reach that goal. But we think that it isn’t too late to make some impressive gains. We're asking all press clubs to take a look at their quotas. And then to take a long, hard look at how members have been performing. If they do that, there may be a sig- nificant improvement in bringing the Tribune to new readers. And we wouldn’t feel so strung out. 300 subs needed