NPA drags feet

on housing policy

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN
Early last year city council re-
ceived a well documented report

from the planning department -

pointing out that 40,000 of Van-
couver’s 180,000 households have

housing problems. Of these 40,000

some 30 percent or 28,000 pay
more than 30 percent of their gross
income on shelter. The remainder,
11,200, were found to be living in
poor housing and also in many if
not all cases, suffering from too
low an income.

To begin to meet this need it was
recommended that the city adopt a
target of providing 600 units of new
housing in 1980. Of these, 270
would be for families with children,
200 for the elderly, 30 for the dis-
abled and handicapped, and 100
for single persons.

This was little enough, too little
in fact, in view of the great need.
But at least it was something. But
here we are, almost a year later, still
talking and still not taking any ac-
tion.

At one city council meeting last
month, council spent two and a
half to three hours debating whe-
ther or not to allow building on a
17’ lot. By the time that was over,
there was no time left to discuss
what to do about the 600 units we
are supposed to provide. To say
that city council’s priorities are
screwed up would be the under-
statement of the year.

It didn’t take city council any
time at all to agree to spend another
$3 million for a trade and conven-
tion centre. This was on top of the
$5 million already agreed on as well
as decisions to forego taxes and to
pay any deficits.

But on housing, which is for
people and poor people at that,
council continues to drag its feet.
There’s no enthusiasm in the NPA
for building houses, when in its
opinion, the money could be much
better spent to help out business in-
terests.

I’m chairman of a special city
council committee -dealing with

hardship cases, that is, with people
living in illegal suites. At a recent
meeting we spent almost three
hours taking up one case after an-
other. We have thousands of peo-
ple living in this type of accommo-
dation in the city. In spite of that
the vacancy rate in the city is prac-
tically zero. Some people still want
illegal suites abolished. If that were
done, our vacancy rate would be
less than zero, it would be minus
five and we’d soon have people liv-
ing In tents.

What I’m saying is that the need
for affordable housing is so great
and so obvious that there just isn’t
any excuse for city council to delay
action on these 600 units any
longer.

There will not be another
plebiscite on the ward system in
conjunction with the 1980 Van-
couver civic election.

City council made that clear
Tuesday when the right and left
wing on council said no in a ten to
one vote to an oddball motion
from alderman Doug Little calling
for a plebiscite this year.

The NPA majority had not
budged from their hard line posi-
tion of ignoring the results of the
1978 plebiscite. The ward system is
a “‘non-issue’’. in Vancouver,
declared mayor Volrich and alder-
man Helen Boyce.

“We intend to make the ward
system, and civic democracy, the
biggest non-issue this city has ever
seen,’’ Committee of Progressive
Electors (COPE) president Bruce
Yorke said after the meeting.

Although out of step with his

NPA colleagues, Little did tune in ©

to the dilemma facing them. “A
large body of people have said they
want change. How are we going to

PEOPLE AND ISSUES “

Ca all the experience that they’ve had,
federal authorities should by now be adept at

YOU WONT HAVE JOE CLARK y
TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE 2.

show that we are not ignoring
them?” he said.

COPE alderman Harry Rankin,
and independents Darlene Marzari
and Mike Harcourt challenged the

NPA to defend their stand on the '

1978 plebiscite in this year’s elec-
tion. Volrich accepted the
challenge and repeated his claim
that the NPA majority on council
outweighed the majority won in the
plebiscite.

Earlier, city council laid out a se-
cond issue for the election with a
decision, in effect, to do nothing to
meet the housing crisis in Van-
couver.

After nearly ten months of
delay, council finally debated the
recommendations of the McAfee
report on affordable housing (see
Harry Rankin, this page).

Themajor recommendation was
that the city ‘‘contribute to the pro-
vision of special needs housing by
assuring an adequate supply of
land at a price such that special
needs housing targets can be met.’’

izens Coalition (which is about as much a coalition of
citizens as Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservatives are

opening mail but, according to Jean Claude Parrot,
they’ve been swamped by the flood of mail coming to
the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre where the
postal workers’ leader has been imprisoned. Ina letter
to the Vancouver and District Labor Council, Parrot
noted that the federal prison authorities open all mail
and tear off the back flap but, in his case, ‘“‘they have
been unable to keep up with it.”

He also told the council that he has been allowed to
receive special minutes and conciliation reports on the
union’s crucial negotiations and, at one point, was
able to hold a two-day meeting with union officers in
the detention centre. But, he added ironically, “I
would have preferred to meet in the union hall.”

* * *

T ae hundreds of Soviet kids who pack one off with
them to bed at night could only be astounded. But
perhaps because his friendly face so completely cap-
tured the hearts and inaginations of people around
the world, Misha, the Olympic bear, has also become
the target of a nasty campaign mounted by the right-
wing Olympic boycott lobby. First there was the
jingoistic T-shirt that the hucksters at Lake Placid
peddled along with all the other trinkets, showing a
Stars-and-stripes-spangled boot kicking the poor
chap. But now we have the following gem, which ap-

peared in a full page ad in the Toronto Globe and

Mail’s Report on Business.

“‘Would you, .as a Canadian,”’ the ad asked, threat-
eningly, ‘‘like to bring home the official souvenir of
the Moscow Olympics, a stuffed Misha ‘friendship’
bear, knowing that it was produced by political
prisoners inside Russian concentration camps?”

The ad was inserted of course by the National Cit-
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 7, 1980— Page 2

“‘progressive’’). It called for support of the Olympic
boycott because ‘‘it’s time we did something tangible
in return’’ to show our gratitude to the U.S. which
“thas already pledged to defend our nation in the event
of Communist aggression — at its own expense.”

But perhaps the final comment is the contention of
the NCC that ‘“‘since the end of the Second World
War, the world-wide Communist movement has ex-
tended its influence to embrace some two dozen coun-
tries.”’ In aneffort to fill out its list, the group included
Mongolia — which successfully carried out a revolu-

tion in 1921.
* * a

or Communist Party candidates Vi and Gary
Swann in this province and Casey Swann in
Edmonton, the weeks after the election brought tragic
news with the death March 2 of Bill Swann, Vi’s hus-
band and father to Gary, Casey and another son Bob.
Born 73 years ago, he was for many years a mill
worker in the province’s wood industry and had been
an executive board member of the International
Woodworkers of America before an injury forced
him to take other work. In later years he was active in
the Canadian Union of Public Employees as an em-
ployee of the Surrey school board.

Hundreds of Surrey residents also remember his
long time work as a coach for junior league baseball
where among the athletes he coached were his own
sons.

A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, March
7, 3 p.m. at the Gidora home, 12715-66th Ave., Sur-
rey. People have been asked to make donations to the
Tribune or to the Communist Party in lieu of flowers.

City passes buck on housing crisis | oe : F
No plebiscite on wards for 1980

The policy was adopted, but on-
ly after attaching the rider that the

city would ensure available land.

with the assistance of senior
governments. That, Rankin
argued, allowed the city to escape
its responsibility until senior
governments meet theirs. _

“Show real leadership,’’ he ex-
horted the council. ‘‘This is the
most serious problem facing young
people in North America today.’

The city does have limited assets,
Rankin acknowledged. ‘‘But the
statement of policy that we are go-
ing to do our best to do what we
can, means something.”’

Only Rankin and Darlene Mar-

‘governments.

zari held out for direct city action!0-
provide land for housing, as MS
Harcourt joined with the majority
in passing the buck to senior

Moments later council voted
narrowly to rescind the city’s W
demolition control bylaw.
bylaw had required a permit to bé
issued before family homes wel®
demolished, but in a six-five vole
even this small protection for fam
ly housing was removed from the
books. ;

In other business, council, as €X-
pected, turned down the grant aP-
plication of the Downtowl
Eastside Residents Assocation.

_ aan

Mac Paps win support

The veterans of the Mackenzie
Papineau Battalion scored an im-

portant victory in their campaign to:

win recognition from the Canadian
government as war veterans with
the same rights and privileges as
other veterans of the second world
war when Vancouver city council
voted overwhelmingly to call on the
federal government to grant the
Mac Paps recognition. :

The ten to one vote Tuesday by
Vancouver city council was in

response toa request from Toronto —

city council which had earlier taken
the same action. The Mac Paps
took their case to Toronto city
council Jan: 21, and their appeal
was forwarded to Vancouver.

“About 1,250 Canadians went
to Spain as anti-fascists to fight and
to die in the hope that nazism and
fascism would be defeated in Spain
and thereby prevent the terrible
tragedy of a second world war,”’
veteran Ross Russell and Walter
Dent said.

About 30 veterans revisited ~

Spain last August and ‘‘surprised
many leading people there when
they informed them that the Cana-
dian government still does not
recognize their organization and
grant them the same recognition,
rights and privileges as is given to
second world war veterans.’’

The Spanish government, the
veterans pointed out, gave legal
recognition to former prisoners of
Franco who fought in the
Republican army.

Toronto council asked the
federal department of veterans af-
fairs about the Mac Paps and were

told that they ‘‘are considered to.

act nassau! hater cine

have acted in a personal capacity
rather than as representatives of
Canada, carrying out the policy of
their government.’? To grant
recognition would require an Act
of Parliament, the director of pro-

gram operations for the depart

ment said, and he viewed thal
“unlikely.”

The Toronto council voted not
only to ask the federal government —
to extend recognition, but to com —
municate with all municipalities —
with population over .200,000 to ;
ask them to join in'the demand. |

IWD meeting

International Women’s Day will
be marked by a unique program of
narration and song in honor of
women’s struggles, and of the 30th
anniversary of the Canadian Con-
gress of Women. :

The program will be held March
9 at the Britannia School Theatre,
1661 Napier St., Vancouver, start-
ing at 8 p.m.

The production, entitled Bread
and Roses, depicts women’s strug-
gles in three spheres, the home, the
workplace and in political life.

Brought together for the special
event are Vancouver Folk Song So-
ciety members Diane Campbell,
Lynn McGowan, June Simpson,
Tammy Lundy, Lorraine Helger-
son and Ross McRae, with well-
known labor folksinger Tom Haw-
ken and narrator Karen Dean.

Day care is provided at the Bri-
tannia day care room and parents
can drop off their children any time
after 7:30 p.m.

conch