British Columbia short days to do it. same period in 1988. offered. Fairly serious ones. We're heading for the final hurdle in our race to beat the calendar and come in $82,000 richer in this year’s financial drive. But we’ve got only six Last week we said the abyss beckoned. It still does, but since then we’ve been able to catch a glimpse of the other side. When we last talked, we were a full $35,000 short of target. To place it in perspective, we noted that the figure was $10,000 short of that achieved in the We're happy to report that the gap has narrowed somewhat. At press time, the Tribune drive was $23,500 short of the $82,000 goal. So while things are starting to look up, we’re still in that race against time. And we’re still determined to win out over those forces that would like to see B.C.’s weekly of labour, community and peace events vanish. When the attorney general’s department banned our yearly contest two years ago, we urged our readers and supporters to turn that setback into’ victory. And they did, raising and surpassing the $82,000 target last year — even without having the chance to win the prizes that the contest Supporters have been doing that even with increasingly strained budgets, and demands for their dollars from other, worthy organizations. We've couched our appeal to readers’ generosity in these terms: in this time of Tory budgets and the Americanization of Canada, when the daily media seem to be heading more and more into status-quo reporting, there is more of a need than ever for a paper like the Tribune. But we've had to point out that without your support, we face cutbacks. You’ve shown that you’ve heard the message. Please continue to hear it. We really need that $82,000. See you at the Victory Banquet on June 24. And remember, we want that annual event to live up to its name — as it has for the past five decades. But we still need $23,500 for victory The gap is narrowing, thanks to you GREATER VANCOUVER Quota Achieved Aubrey Burton 700 675 Bill Bennett 500 290 Burnaby 6,000 3,673 Coquitlam 2,500 2,685 Effie Jones 1,500 3,549 Kingsway 5,000 5,410 New West. 2,000 22: Nigel Morgan 600 600 North Van. 2,500 2,170 Richmond 1,500 1,580 Seamen 350 135 Van. East 7,000 4,156 West Side 4,800 2,190 FRASER VALLEY Delta 600 324 Fraser Valley 900 1,160 Maple Ridge 2,200 941 Surrey 2,200 1,410 White Rock 1,000 1,055 OKANAGAN Kamloops 1,000 1733 Penticton 600 1,374 Vernon 1,600 980 N. COAST/INTERIOR Correspondence 1,500 1,815 Creston 200 270 Fernie 250 410 L. Similkameen 500 500 Powell River 500 470 Prince George 200 304 Prince Rupert 300 --- Sunshine Coast. 600 575 Trail 700 350 VANCOUVER ISLAND Campbell River 2,000 1,955 Comox Valley 1,400 591 Nanaimo 2,800 3,560 Port Alberni 1,400 27122: Victoria 3,200 6,303 Miscellaneous 2,500 1,545 TOTAL: 65,700 58,580 PNE businesses should pay market rents | What’s going to happen-to the Hastings Park? Equally important, what’s going to happen to the Pacific National Exhibition? Right now the answers are very much in doubt. A city council task force recommended that the green park space inside the site on which the PNE is located be greatly extended, a number of the older buildings be demolished, the race track be extended to one mile, Playland be removed and that the whole site be restructured into a year-round city, community and regional amenity cen- tre. The PNE board, headed by Erwin Swangard, is strongly opposed to those changes. It wants the race track extended to one mile, and it wants to build a huge so- called Pacific National Trade Centre, with taxpayers footing the bill. Failing these it proposes to move the PNE to another area in the Lower Mainland. Before passing judgement, some back- ground information may be helpful. The city of Vancouver has owned 160 of the 177 acres of Hastings Park since 1889. It owns not only the land but also all the buildings on the site which have been built at taxpayers’ expense. But, and this is a big “but,” the city has no say in how the site is run. That’s because way back in 1907 the city leased the park and city-owned facilities toa 2 « Pacific Tribune, June 19, 1989 group of businessmen who formed the Vancouver Exhibition Association. In 1946 the association changed its name to Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). This group of businessmen turned this public park site into a commercial venture for the profit of business interests. The PNE puts on a fair each year while facilities such as the Coliseum, Playland and the race track pay a very low rent to the PNE for use of the site. But the city of Vancouver gets nothing back in the form of revenue in spite of the fact that its invest- ment in facilities runs into many tens of millions of dollars. For years the PNE paid only $1 a year for the lease of this 160 acre site. Today it pays only $300,000 a year, which is a pittance compared to the market value of these facil- ities and the profits they generate for the people who own and run them. The PNE is not managed well; it has been losing $1.5 to $2.5 million annually and has only kept. . afloat because of revenues it derives from other sources, including indirect revenues from the city. To complicate matters still further the provincial government passed legislation giving itself the power to appoint the major- ~ ity of the PNE’s board of directors. The city has the right to appoint some members to the board but they are a minority. The PNE’s lease expires in 1994. The park was originally turned over to HASTINGS PARK.. the city on the condition that it preserve the site for the “use of, recreation and enjoy- ment of the public.” It failed to do that when it handed over the city-owned park and all city-owned facilities to a group of businessmen who turned this whole publicly-owned site into a commercial enterprise for the profit of business interests. What it means, in effect, is that taxpayers have been subsidizing these business inter- ests ever since. It’s about time this ended, and it can end in 1994 when the lease expires. Some of the changes I think the city should be looking at are: @ The city taking over the running of the whole park. @ The city operating the annual fair and turning it into a genuine people’s fair featur- . local residents want more green space to replace the asphalt. ing the economic and social achievements of the people of B.C. It can and should be a self-sustaining operation. @ Using the $3 million the PNE today receives from other sources (Coliseum park- ing lot, rent from privately owned facilities, etc.) to expand and improve the park instead of subsidizing the PNE. © Compelling privately-owned facilities on the site such as Playland, the race track and others to pay the market price for their leases. @ Greatly expanding the park’s green space. © Turning the whole site into an admis- sion free year-round family-oriented cultu- ral and recreational area for the benefit of the citizens of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.