Developers get buildings:

for free in ARP program ©

The federal-provincial ARP
housing program is_ giving
developers unprecedented benefits
and subsidies from public money,
according to an investment
analysis report obtained by the
Tribune this week.

The Assisted Rental Program
(ARP was introduced last May,
supposedly to encourage the
development of rental housing at
affordable rents.

But as the report of ConCost
Consultants, a Vancouver con-
sulting firm specializing in ARP
projects, shows, the program will
provide subsidies of up to $3,000 per
unit per year on top of the tenant’s
rent, for’ up to ten years and
perhaps 15 years.

The ARP program will allow the.

developer to earn 58 percent on
investment in the first year and to

CPR scuttles land

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Canada’s biggest corporate
welfare bum is undoubtedly the
CPR. It’s been on welfare ever
since its birth, over a hundred
years ago. And it doesn’t only get
welfare from one government, but
from all three — federal,
provincial and municipal. Van-
couver has been and continues to
pay much more than its share for
the welfare of the CPR’s
stockholders.

It goes right back to the 1880’s .

when Ottawa, in return for. the
‘CPR completing its ‘tran-
scontinental line from Port Moody

miles and a line which the CPR
intended to build in any case, gave
the CPR 6,000 acres of the best land
in the City of Vancouver.
Between 1871 and 1913, British
Columbia gave the CPR and other
railways some 22 million acres of
land. When the CPR later acquired
the Esquimalt and Nanaimo
Railway, it also acquired 1.9

Pulling the wool | over your eyes |

million acres, one quarter of all of
Vancouver Island.

And the same kind of give-aways
are going on right now.

In 1974 Vancouver City Council,
over my strong objections, rezoned
the CPR’s property on the North
Shore of False Creek — a total of 96
acres — from industrial to com-
prehensive. This opened it up for
commercial and_ residential
development. And this decision of
council -handed.a bonanza to the

‘CPR. This rezoning’increased the

value of this. land: frome about
$60,000 an acretoover $1 million an

to Vantoliver — a distance of ‘74°°20re and before long: it will be

worth twice that. (In 1973 the
CPR’s property, over 100 acres,
was assessed at $3 million — which
was 50 percent of its. market
value).

At the time I proposed that this
increased value, which the CPR
did nothing to create, should revert
back to the city. But our NPA-
TEAM council, headed by Mayor

Art Phillips, mould have none of
that.

Instead the caso and his
supporters settled for a few con-
cessions from the CPR as a face-
saver for council; A number of
them relate to Area 2, a section of
its property which the CPR now
wants to develop.

One of these “concessions”, if it
can be graced with this term, was
that Marathon Realty (the CPR’s
real estate arm) ‘‘would — look
favorably on selling land at a
reasonable price-for:such things as
multi-cultural >centres;: senior
citizen housing, or co-op housing”. :

‘Now the'CPR is reneging on the
deal; it doesn’t even want to live up
to these concessions.

For one thing, it has unilaterally
changed the wording of the
agreement from “‘selling land at a
reasonable price’, to ‘‘selling land
at a reasonable market price’’.
That changes the whole agreement
and turns it into its opposite. There

See CPR, Pg. 11

recoup the entire investment in
less than two years...

In effect, the ARP program is
using public money to provide fully
equipped apartment buildings to
developers for free.

The investment analysis of
ConCost, — itself the subject of
public criticism for its ARP
projects in Vancouver’s Grand-
view Woodlands — entices would
be developers with promises of
high profits and attractive tax
shelters.

ConCost offers developers a
package deal that would allow
them to invest only $3,50fi per
apartment — a mere 10 percent of
the development cost. The rest of
the money under the ARP contract
would be financed through NHA.

High construction costs are
encouraged under the program to
increase the level of tax shelters
and after tax profits.

The developer can then secure a

combination of grants and loans to -

American Indian Movement
(AIM) activist, Leonard Peltier,
who was jailed in Vancouver and
extradited to the U.S., went on
trail
charge in Fargo, North Dakota
this week. The trial is expected to
last eight weeks. A “Freedom for
Leonard Peltier’ caravan from
across Canada will travel to Fargo
during the trial.

‘developers will set.-

on a trumped-up murder.

subsidize each single apartment. Ae |
grant of $600 per year per. unit is
available from the provincial —
government. This gift money will
give the developer $50 per month,
per unit for up to 10 years, on top 0 of
then tenant’s rent. q

So-called ‘‘loans’’ are also |
available under the program. The
loans can add up to a subsidy of
$200 per month, per unit — again on
top of the tenant’s rent.

ConCost lauds the ‘‘loan”’ system
to developers as a tax dodge. With .
the loans considered.a cost rather
than income, the developer will be
able to save $37,000 per year in
taxes, on a taxable income of
$78, 000. j

On. a five-year projection, —
ConCost ‘assures »developers. an
average return on equity of 45 —
percent, thus paying for the |
building many times over. ;

In spite of the considerable
subsidies offered, there are no
restrictions on the rents’ that
ConCost
suggests that the rent be Set at $280
per month. for’ a one bedroom
apartment — a figure’ almost 50
percent higher than the average —
rent in Vancouver. The consulting
firm then goes on to project that in
five years the rent will have soared
to $357 per month for a one
bedroom apartment.

ConCost’s own ARP develop- —
ments in Vancouver’s Grandview —
district was the subject of a
demonstration by angry residents
three weeks .ago...The residents

pointed out that the developments - |
would. not, contain..a.,single.two _
bedroom apartment and. as such

ran counter. to. the.. needs of: the
farnily-orientated area. :

The needs of the community,
however, are a small incentive to —
developers when compared to the, —
substantial handouts offered in —
ARP subsidies. The subsidies are _
on a per unit basis which makes it
more profitable for developers to
build one bedroom and bachelor |
units exclusively. -

By MAURICE RUSH

hile Canadians were reeling from the news last. week

that Canada’s unemployment stood at an official
932,000 in February, the highest of any year since the
depression, spokesmen for big business and the federal
government showed a callous and monumental dis-
concern for the plight facing over a million breadwinners
and their families.

Here’s what the vice-president of the Canadian
Manufacturers’ Association, J. H. Stevens, had to say: °

“The fact that unemployment has risen in February is
not in itself a critical factor... Almost one million
unemployed is a big drag on the economy ... but the
= can’t be solved overnight and it may get a little
worse.

He was SS by the president of the Toronto Board of
Trade, A. R. McMurrich, who said: ‘‘The latest increase
in unemployment has no special implications. .
Canadians.

And what was the reaction of Canada’s prime minister,
Pierre Trudeau, to the shocking news? ‘Canadians are
living beyond their means” he told a news conference last
Wednesday. With more than a million unemployed, and

millions more living below the poverty level, our coun-

try’s prime minister tells us we are living too well and that
we will have to stop ‘“‘fooling ourselves” and accept lower
living standards.

Here we are; living in one of the world’s biggest and
richest countries with a relatively small population, yet
our business and political leaders admit total failure in
their system’s ability to provide a job and a decent
standardof living for the people. More unemployment and
lower living standards is the only message they have in
this period of growing economic crisis for Canadians.
What a condemnation of the ‘“‘free enterprise’’ system!

Without directly saying so, what, big business and the
prime minister are actually revealing in.their statements
is that they are pursuing policies to create unemployment

__ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 285, 1977—P;

Sines (1G

as a means of forcing down living standards. Mass
unemployment in Canada is not an act of God. It’s the
result of man-made policies. The fact is that the Canadian
government, acting on behalf of the big monopolies, sees -
mass unemployment as a weapon in the drive for bigger
profits and as a means of imposing lower living standards
on Canadian workers.

One wonders what world Pierre Trudeau is living in
when he says Canadians are living beyond their means.
Certainly the rich are getting more of our national income
than ever before — but we also have more unemployed

and more people living below the poverty line. What is .

needed is not to impose lower living standards on the poor.
What we need is a redistribution of our national wealth so
that the rich get less and the poor more. But that’s not the
way the capitalist system works.

The rich, who run Canada, have determined that mass

- unemployment and lower living standards is the way to

make Canada more ‘“‘competitive in world markets” and
thereby strengthen the position of the monopolies in their
drive for greater profits. Working people are the victims
of aninsane policy and an insane economic system. -

* * * * *

We have heard the same cry in B.C. for lower living
standards for working people from the Employers
Council, premier Bill Bennett, and the big business press
for along time. Last Wednesday, when the prime minister
was telling Canadians they are living beyond their means,
premier Bennett had a similar message for British
Columbians.

Speaking before an audience of the well-fed, who paid
$100 each to attend a banquet fo hear the premier, the gist
of his remarks were that B.C.’s working people and their
unions should not seek bigger wages this year because if
they did their higher wages would affect B.C.’s ability “‘to
compete on the world’s markets.’’ For many months now.
we have been subjected to a propaganda campaign that

_ higher wages in B.C. are making our goods too expensive.

and pricing us out of the world’ s iriarkets. “If we don’t
accept lower wages we will be forced to accept unemploy-
-ment.and lower living standards,’ that’s been their. cry:

Well, it ain’t necessarily so.-In fact on the very day the

'_ premier was delivering his speech on the need for workers

to accept poverty, a story in the business section of the
Vancouver Province exposed this whole propaganda line
as a huge hoax.

Headed, “B.C. exports took a big jump in 1976, ” the
story said: ‘‘The value of exports of B.C.-produced goods
increased by 38.4 per cent in 1976 to $4.96 billion from the
previous year’s $3.58 billion. .. The rate of increase was
more than double the national export gain of 15 per cent.”

So, here we have the truth. National exports have
climbed, and the fact that B.C. workers have over the
years achieved one of the highest wage ‘scales in Canada,
has not ‘resulted in this. province losing out on world
markets. The opposite has been the truth, What big
business is after with its propaganda drive for lower.
wages and living standards is bigger profits for them-
selves at the expense of working people.

This fact should be borne in mind by the hundreds of
thousands of trade unionists who are now entering con-
tract negotiations with their employers. Don’ t let them
pull the wool over your eyes. .

TRIBUNE

Editor - MAURICE RUSH
‘Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN:
- Business and Circulation Manager — FRED WILSON.

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