British Columbia

Activists cite victory, but
note welfare fight goes on

Welfare rights activists are calling it a
victory after most people received their
GAIN cheques last Wednesday despite a
threatened government crackdown on
“employable” recipients.

But members of several anti-poverty and
community groups, who met with members
of the B.C. Government Employees Union
and Vancouver Centre MLA Emery Barnes
to assess the campaign against the crack-
down that day, cautioned that the fight is
not over.

The representatives mapped tentative
plans that included an open letter to Social
Services Minister Claude Richmond and a
joint billing from their organizations whose
members put in long hours advising welfare
recipients.

Sheila Baxter of People on Welfare —
POW — said a meeting in the Carnegie
Community Centre the previous Sunday in
which 250 people packed the auditorium,
undoubtedly played a role in blunting the
Social Credit government’s attempts to cut
recipients off welfare by demanding proof
of job searches from some 49,000 recipients
deemed employable by the ministry.

“Richmond got scared, and ordered his
staff to give the people their damn
cheques,” Baxter said.

Activists who. monitored the day’s pro-
ceedings at several Lower Mainland welfare
offices were anticipating huge lineups.
While there was heavier than usual traffic at
some offices in downtown Vancouver ear-
lier in the morning, by mid-morning lines
were reportedly less than average. Union
pressure forced the ministry to second sev-

eral management personnel from Victoria
to assist in processing claims.

And most recipients received their
cheques after submitting ministry job

search forms, although there were reports .

that some were cut off and some were
receiving help from welfare advocates in
launching appeals.

Welfare activists chalk this up to the fact
that the ministry is backing down after com-
ing under heavy fire following a news leak
early this month to the Vancouver Sun that
so-called employable recipients were to be
sent a letter and a job search form to be
filled out and handed in at local offices on
welfare Wednesday.

Employable recipients were required to
make an appointment with the office and
were not mailed their cheques for August.

Following the news leak the ministry
issued a press release Aug. 4 in which Rich-
mond said that 49,000 recipients would not
collect their cheques until they were able to
prove they had sought and were unable to
attain employment.

“The economy is booming and there are
thousands of jobs available throughout the
province. Employable single people and
couples without dependents are mobile and
I expect them to work when work is availa-
ble,” the minister stated.

‘In fact, statistics showed that unem-
ployment in B.C. had risen one percentage
point at the time of Richmond’s announce-
ment.

Activists who attended Wednesday’s
meeting called the ministry’s move “terror-
ist tactics.”

Several advocacy groups — including
the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre,
First United Church, and POW — said
their offices were inundated with calls from
panicked recipients following the release of
the news.

Muggs Sigurgeirson, president of the
Carnegie Community Centre Association,
said the centre in Vancouver’s downtown
eastside was swamped with requests for
information for several days.

And Baxter pointed out that although —

Richmond has. claimed the job search forms
were a one-shot deal, recipients were
handed new forms on Wednesday, for the
month of September.

The 250 people who packed a meeting at
the Carnegie Centre on Aug. 20 were told
not to be intimidated by the letters and job

search forms, and to show up at the offices —

and file an appeal if they were turned down.

“Go and get your cheque,” Baxter
advised the crowd. “If you don’t, Rich-
mond can say he’s right about welfare peo-
ple scabbing off the system.”

Significantly, the meeting was attended
by members of the BCGEU, which repres-
ents financial aid workers. Spokesperson
Sheila Fruman said ministry staff were not
informed of the letters prior to.the news
leak, and revealed that workers are under a
gag order not to speak out on the issue.

Jean Swanson, chair of the umbrella
organization End Legislated Poverty,
charged that the government’s move shows
its “welfare for business” mentality and. is
designed “to reinforce the myth that people
on welfare are lazy.”

The city of Vancouver has become a
developer’s paradise. They’re making
hundreds of millions of dollars in profits
without lifting a finger or spending a
cent — simply by having the city rezone
their lands. Not only that. Where before
city planning staff was there to protect the
city’s interests now under new policies
adopted by the NPA dominated city
council, city planning staff is there to serve
the developers and to help them get what
they want. Expo 86 lands which were
given away to a Hong Kong developer for
a song is one example. The Coal Harbour
project is another.

This 36 acre (32.4 hectare) piece of land,
located on the waterfront between the
convention centre on Burrard Street and
the Bayshore Inn on Cardero, is owned by
the CPR, or rather by its developer arm
Marathon Realty. The CPR proposes to
reclaim another 10 acres by filling in the
waterfront, bringing the total to 46 acres.
As it is now zoned it is worth relatively
little compared to adjacent commercial
properties. But once it is rezoned by city
council for commercial and residential
use, its value will go up by somewhere
between $300 and $500 million. The irony
of this situation is that the CPR didn’t pay
a nickel for this land. It received 6,000
acres of land in downtown Vancouver as a
gift from the government of B.C. in 1885.
Previous to that it had been given a gift of
25 million acres of land “fit for settlement”
along the railway route by Ottawa. The
CPR is the supreme example of a corpo-
tate welfare bum.

Now the CPR wants to undertake a
grandiose $1 billion redevelopment pro-
ject on this waterfront site. It would
include a huge array of skyscraper office
buildings, very expensive condos, hotels
and retail stores. The density that Mara-

Marathon project exceeds limits

thon Realty wants would be far in excess
of anything we now have in the city, and
twice that of the West End. The population
of the area would be increased by 12,000.
It would be another extension of our so-
called executive city —office buildings,
stores, condos, apartments and hotels to
serve the wealthy.

It doesn’t require much imagination to
realize the horrendous traffic problems
this development would create at the
entrance to Stanley Park. This isn’t the
kind of development our city needs or

wants. In my view city council should
insist that this development be of benefit

to all the people of Vancouver, not just a —

wealthy few. That would require the fol-
lowing:

@ At least 20 per cent of the housing
built on this site should be affordable
social housing including family housing. A
small school should be built. The housing
should be available for the people who
work on this site or adjoining neighbour-
hoods. This would solve two problems —

- housing and traffic.

© Reduce the density by half of that
demanded by Marathon.

® The historical character of the site
should be preserved. Provide a breakwater

and space for small boats, for ship repair
shops and a seaplane base at the east end
of the site.

@ Marathon Realty should provide a
site, free of charge, where our Maritime
Museum could be relocated.

@ The proposed walkway along the
waterfront, which Marathon would like to
limit to a narrow strip, should be at least
150’ wide and accessible from both ends so
all the citizens of Vancouver can enjoy it,
not just those on the site.

© The proposed park should be 14%
acres instead of the six acres proposed by
Marathon. :

® Provision must be made, at CPR
expense, to handle the huge volume of
traffic that its project will generate. The
SkyTrain should be extended to serve this
area. i
@ A little horse-trading would also be in
order. The CPR should be informed that it
will not be given rezoning or a develop-
ment permit until it agrees to provide a
right of way, free of charge, for a public
transit railway commuter line on its rail-
way from Coquitlam to Vancouver. Such
a railway commuter rail line is necessary to
decrease the volume of car traffic coming
into Vancouver. According to reports the
CPR is demanding some $8 to $10 million
for a right of way, a demand which is out
of all reason. It got this land for its railway
free of charge; the least it should do now is
3 allow us a right of way for a commuter
ine.

If the CPR did all of the above, it would
still make a profit of hundreds of millions
of dollars on this site.

For over a hundred years the CPR has
just been raking in money from its vast
landholding in Vancouver, for which it
didn’t pay a cent. It’s time it gave some-
thing back.

2 e Pacific Tribune, August 28, 1989°

SHEILA BAXTER ... welfare activist
says pressure forced ministry to back
down.

Most job vacancies are in low-paying
fields such as fruit harvesting and service
industries such as the restaurant business.
Swanson said the anti-poverty groups must
fight the notion that job retraining an
counselling .are adequate responses [0
unemployment, and should demand the
creation -of meaningful, adequately pal
jobs.

Disabled
cut off,
Says union

Thousands of. unemployable, welfare
recipients in British Columbia may have
been cut off benefits because of the Ministry
of Social Services’ new policy of instituting 4
job:search-criterion’for-single and-childless
couples deemed. employable, a B.C.
Government Employees Union spokespet-
son says.

Sheila Fruman said the ministry sent 4
letter to unemployable recipients last”
November demanding a doctor’s note that
they were unable to seek employment. For
some reason, thousands did not receive that
letter, and these people were subsequently
deemed employable, she said.

Fruman said lineups at welfare offices —
around the province were, contrary tO —
expectations, lighter than usual, indicating
that many recipients were intimidated by 4
ministry job search form sent to so-call
employable recipients this month.

That means mentally or physically
impaired people have been cut off benefits, _
she said.

Financial aid workers forced to imple
ment the government’s jobsearch policyo
Aug. 23 — the day welfare cheques were
distributed — suffered no “incidences”
from angry and frustrated GAIN recipients, —
Fruman said.

Fruman also credited “pressure from
various sources” for the fact that few of the
people who did show up failed to receive
their financial assistance.

She said the union is angry that workers
were not consulted about the job search
requirement, news of which was leaked tO
the press early this month. The BCGEU
said the new criterion puts extra work loads
on financial aid workers and places its
members at risk.

As a result, the ministry sent ““manage-
ment exclusions” from Victoria to other
parts of the province to assist union workers
in handling the caseload.

BCGEU representatives who attended
recent meetings with community and anti-
poverty groups have said the union consid-
ers the new jobsearch criterionahealthand
safety issue for its members, and they have;
pledged to work with organizations such as
End Legislated Poverty on the issue. *

Fruman said a BCGEU representative _
has been attending ELP’s regular meetings: