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Crisis in construction

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VANCOUVER, like every other
city throughout ‘the country,
has experienced a sharp fall-
Ing off in building construction.
At the same time, the housing
Crisis remains largely unsolved,
the demand and the need for
omes continues, and there is
Widespread unemployment
among building workers. A con-
tradiction, you say? Of course
it is. The question to be an-
SWered is*what is bringing it
about and what can be done to

. Tesolve it.

As our country intensifies
the production of armaments
‘nd still more armaments, it is
*€coming increasingly clear

that ‘Canadians cannot eat guns

Nor live in tanks. Just as with
fach succeeding year citizens
@re being forced to buy less
food, so we are compelled ‘to
do with relatively fewer houses,
Schools, ‘hospitals, ete. This’
arises from the government’s
deliberate policy of diverting
More capital, manpower and
Materials into the war economy

Y reducing the real income
Of millions of consumers, there-
by cutting down ‘the effective

€mand for food, clothes, shel-
ter and other commodities and
Services which have become
necessities of life.

The ‘following report from

© Vancouver Sun of April 28,
1951, is typicak Under the
Captions, “Schools Hit Hard by
Construction Slash” and “More
Swing Shifts to Follow $5 Mil-
ton ‘Cut in B.C. Grant,” the re-
Port continues:

“British Columbia school
boards find themselves in a war
*mergency this month.

‘The provincial government,
Which pays half the cost of new
School construction, ‘has inform-

them that expansion plans
Must ‘be limited to the ‘barest
€ssentials’ . . .

“The provincial department of
ducation says the move to cut
Construction is taken at the re-
Quest lof the [federal govern:

ment in an effort to conserve
materials, money and labor for
defence production.”

Thus it is no surprise that in
October, 1951, despite a record-
breaking year in the award of
contracts, there was recorded a
disastrous slump in the dollar
value of construction’ as com-
pared to October, 1950 — 44.6
percent. House building be-
tween October, 1950, and Octo-
ber, 1951, fell off in every part
of Canada, dropping by over
twenty-five million dollars, ac-
cording to The Building Re-
porter, November, 1951. This
trend continues despite a situ-
ation in which more than half
a million families are esti-
mated by Dr. O. J. Firestone,
economic adviser ‘to the fed-
eral department of trade and
commerce, 'to be without sep-
arate homes, an increase’ of
40 percent over 1945. He cal-
culates that ‘to catch up with
the backlog and take care of
current needs, it would be nec-
essary ‘“when defense needs
permit” to build at a rate of
115,000 to 130,000 units per
year. These figures compare
with a maximum rate in the
immediate post-war years of
90,000 ‘to 100,000 units per
year, much greater than the
constantly declining figures for
the last several years.

e

In British Columbia, hous-
ing starts fell from 11,633 in
1948 to 7,536 in 1950. Vancou-
ver Housing: Association in its
pulletin for October, 1951,
estimated on ‘the ‘basis of the
first eight months of the year
that the number of starts ‘for
1951 would be well under
6,000. This amounts to a de-
cline of about’ 50 percent in
four years, during which ‘there
has been a big increase in the
population.

Dollar value of construction
in. the city of ‘Vancouver
dropped from $34,999,669 in
1950. to $23,942,309 in 1951,

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By SID ZLOTNIK

or about 31 percent. However,
since the dollar bought less
in 1951 than in 1950, the ac-
tual decline is greater than
indicated. The .number of
building permits for new con-
struction fell by 22 percent
from 4,636 to 3,427. The most
disturbing comparison is that
between the number of per-
mits for new houses which
fell from 1,781 to 1,092, or
about 39 percent:

When the housing’ situation
is considered against the back-
ground of a shortage of some
35,000 ‘to 40,000 units, and an
influx during the first six
months of 1951 of more than
5,000 DP’s and other immigrants
into B.C., together with a net
gain of 763 Canadian families
from other parts of the country,
many of whom are residing in
Vancouver, the extent of the
crisis facing us can be seen.
And to this must be added re-
trenchment in building of
schools, ‘hospitals and other
public buildings, a policy pur-
sued at all levels of govern-
ment which strikes directly at
public education and health.

The state of the construction
industry is one of the barom-
eters by which ‘the soundness
of a country’s economy can be
measured. The effect of the
drastic and ever worsening de-
cline in this industry is already
‘apparent in the considerable un-
employment within the build-,
ing trades, particularly among
carpenters.

The Dominion Bureau of Sta-
tastics reports that the unem-
ployment index in construction
has fallen from 412.2 in Sep-
tember, 1950, to 355.1 in Sep-
tember, 1951, which does not
‘take into account ‘the sharp
slump after October of last
year. But indirectly the con-
struction industry affects many
industries.

The reduced demand for lum-
ber and wood products has

. and overcrowding,

caused a serious shutdown of
mills, resulting in widespread
unemployment among lumber
workers in the city. Long-term
prosperity in lumber depends
to a large extent upon devel-
opment of the domestic market
which expands or contracts
in accordance with ‘the demands
of the construction industry.

@

The question arises, is this
going to continue or can it ‘be
changed? Must we accept slums
inadequate
schools and hospital facilities,

or is it possible to launch a

great program of domestic con-
struction that can help change
the picture?

The answer is plain. if the
labor movement spearheads a
powerful movement -for action,
the necessary change can be
effected.

Let’s examine the evidence.
The federal government had an
enormous surplus of $600,000,-
000 for the first six months of
1951 instead of the $20,000,008
budgeted for. Had the organ-
ized labor movement been mob-
ilized it could have exerted the
pressure required to have this
sum allocated to housing and
other essential construction. In-
stead, it was applied to debt re-
tirement (undoubtedly the bank-
ers are not shy men when it
comes to lobbying).

This shows that the money
can be found to initiate large-
scale construction projects.
‘Pressure should be applied at all
three levels of government for
a federal government subsi-
dized low-rental municipal
housing project.

Vancouver Housing Associa-
tion’s ‘bulletin for October, 1951,
reports, “In a statement for the
press on September 19, Mayor
Hume declared ‘that construc-
‘tion of low-cost housing and
low-rental units in Vancouver
must go ahead despite today’s
high building costs, and ex-

pressed his willingness to spear-
head at the municipal level, a
drive on the provincial and Do-
minion governments for a new
‘approach to the housing prob-
lem.” Mayor Hume should be
reminded of ‘his words and en-
listed into the campaign for
action.

The desperate need for in-
creased school buildings should
be met by compelling the pro-
vincial government to restore
the $5 million slash in its allo-
cation, and to revise upward
its estimates in the coming
year. ;

A number of new hospital
buildings are long overdue. The
provincial government in its
booklet “A Hospital Plan for
British Columbia,” admits the
crying need in these words on
page 13:

“. . . Many of the hospitals
are of non-fireproof or obso-
lete construction, or are de-
ficient in facilities necessary
to proper care and operating
economics. Therefore, one
of the major problems will be
the replacement of beds in
facilities which are not suit-
able for continued use for
more than a few years at
best.”

If we add to this the perma-
nent structures required to take
care of the present critical
shortage of hospital beds and
future needs, the extent of the
expansion can be easily seen.

Initiation of these projects
would involve the expenditure
of many millions of dollars for
constructive ends corresponding
to the people’s real interests.
It would ‘result in more em-
ployment, better accommoda-
tion, better ‘health, less loss
from fire, less juvenile delin-
quency. It cannot be imble-
mented without the labor move-
ment’s participation in a dy-
namic way. Why not take up
the challenge? *

PACIFIC. TRIBUNE — JANUARY 17, 1952 — PAGE 9

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