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ITCK up any of the
Pes magazines, riftle
through the pages and

the chances are that the slo-
gan, “A little bit of England,’
will catch your eye. This is
how Victoria, the Ccapital- and
the second largest city of Brit-
ish Columbia; has been adver-
tised far and wide. What this
absorption with the. tourist trade
has meant to the citizens of
Wictoria in terms of civic pro-
gress and industrial development
is by no means as widely known-
For years Victoria City Coun-
ceil, in cooperation with the
Chamber of Commerce, has con-
centrated its efforts on the
building up of a larger tourist
trade. EHstablishment of indus-
trial enterprises has been
frowned upon as out of keeping
with the traditional concept of
Vietoria as a haven for retired
business people and wealthy fam-
ilies who have been enticed to
spend their latter days in luxur-
ious residences located along
Rockland Avenue, in Oak Bay
and the Uplands district. The
tory-dominated council, always
solicitous for the welfare of
these wealthier members of the
community, haS avoided policies
which would tend to extend and
develop Victoria as a progres-

Sive industrial center of the
province.

During the war years, how-
ever, a decided change took

place in this city. The develop-
ment of new industries, such as
the shipyards and the aircraft
assembly plant, the establish-
ment of many small factories
brought an influx of industrial
workers to Vancouver Island.
Thousands of these workers
have taken up permanent resi-
dence in the capital and the
community as a whole has pres-
pered through their additional
purchasing power. From its pre-
war level of 60,000 the popula-
tion of Greater Victoria has risen
to an estimated 100,000 people.
During the war years the wor-
kers of Victoria, like the work-
ers of other industrial centers
across the country, organized
into unions and today their
trade union movement, still
growing, can look to a future
in which it will have a decisive
voice in the city’s affairs. In
1939, the combined membership
of the trade unions totalled
1,950. Now it is 9,000:
. e
f(OUSING facilities in Victoria,
as in other Canadian cities,
are very inadequate. Hundreds
of workers’ and veterans’ fami-
lies are forced to live in eramp-
ed quarters. Entire families are
eccupying one or two rooms
and one family of five could
find nothing better than a one-
room trailer.
Over 1,000 houses, many of
them intended for veterans are
Scattered throughout the city

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 12

By BOB MEZGER

NTN TUT TTT

The changi

capital

ngs

During the war years Victoria changed from a city of government officials, political
heelers, retired civil servants and fading aristocrats to an industrial city. Western

Match plant (top), is a new industry which went

(bottom) Moore and Whittington sawmill.

in various stages of completion,
held up for lack of building
materials. Yet, in spite of this,
the city council continues to is-
Sue new building permits for
theaters, garages, churches and
new business establishments.
@:

ICTORIA may describe itself

as “ a little .bit of England,’
but nowhere in England will you
find such an antiquated trans-
portation. Old decrepit trolley
cars, long discarded by other

cities, are still clattering along
Victoria streets. And now the
BCBHlectric, concerned more for

its profits than the long-suffer-
ing public, is proposing to serap
this obsolete streetcar system in
return for 20-year exclusive
franchise. f

Despite the demand for estab-
lishment of a city-owned trans-
portation system by the Trades
and Labor Council and AFL
unions, the Labor Council and
CCL unions, the LPP and the

CCF, the council’s transportation
committee, under the chairman-
Ship of Ald. Diggon, has contin-
ued its negotiations with the
BCElectric, in effect dismissing
the question of public ownership.
“Soon after the services of an
expert had been engaged to in-
vestigate the feasibility of a
publicly owned system, Diggon
announced that the city would
call for tenders. This means
that the BCElectric will probab-
ly submit the only bid. Former-
ly there were three companies
contending for a transportation
franchise, the BCHlectric, the
Blue Line and Vancouver Island
Coach Lines. Now the BCE lec-
tric, having bought out the Blue
Line and signed an agreement
with Vancouver Island Coach

Lines, is setting out to consoli-
date itS monopoly position in
Greater Victoria. :

Se

TREETS are in a deplorable
state which cannot be dis-

into operation during the war;

missed as due entirely to neg-
lect during the war years. Had
the city council spent a suffi-
cient amount to keep roads and
sdewalks in good repair in ‘the
years before the war when mb-
terials and labor were available
they would have stood up better
during the war.

For years citizens living in
the Fairfield district have lodged
complaint after complaint about
the condition of Cook Street,
a busy thoroughfare, the sur-
face of which has been a dis-
grace for more years than older
residents care to remember.
Street surfaces in Wictoria West,
particularly Craigflower Road,
are no better.

Ald. Hunter, former Conserva-
tive MLA, has suddenly become
conscious of the sorry condi-
tion of the capital’s streets, al-
though he sat on the council
for years without expressing any
undue alarm over the situation.

2

ABOR has been taking an

increasingly active part -in
the city’s affairs during the last
few years. Trade union candi-
dates sponsored jointly by ABE
and CCL unions failed to win

election in the 1944 and 1945 —
campaigns by only a narrow
margin.

This! year only two labor can-
didates have been put forward.
They are Ben Sced, whe was
nominated for council by Docal
1-118, TWA, and has been en-
dorsed by Victoria Labor Coun-
cil and its affiliated uniens, and
Robert Williams of the BG.
Telephone Workers, who will
run for school board. Last year
Williams missed election to the
school board by only 300 votes.

Disunity within the trade
union movement, jurisdictional
disputes anq partisan political
differences will have to be set

aside if labor is to develop the

most effective independent pol-
itical action.
A program of civic reforni

. for Victoria Should include these

points which, TI feel, will win
the support of thie majority of
eitizens.

@ TRANSPORTATION: A pub-
licly owned transportation sys-
tem. The BCHlectrie’s efforts to
secure an exclusive transporta-
ton franchise must be defeated,
if Wictoria is to have a modern
transportation system, operated
in the interests of the city and
its people. A plebiscite on this
question will give the electors
the opportunity to express their
opinion and it is the council’s
responsibility te see that a pleb-

iscite is held before any other
transportation plans are con-
Sidered. i

@ TAXATION: The taxation

burden at present shouldered by
home Owners and small busi-
nesses must be lowered. Money

required for road construction
and street repairs must come
from. other more equitable

sources. Broader taxational pow-
ers must be given the-city by
the provincial government.
Transfer of the gasoline tax to
city and municipal governments
would furnish an addeq revenue
adequate to cover the costs of
maintaining the streets in good
repair. Road and poll taxes
Should be abolished, and a uni-
versal franchise established. Big
business must shoulder a great=
er share of the responsibility of
financing the ecemmunity
through tax payments commen—
Surate with the profits that they.
extract from the city.

@ HOUSING: Permits for con=-
struction of non-essential build-
ings such as theaters, Garages,
churches and stores must be
stopped until sufficient low-cost
homes have been constructed to
house workers and veterans in
dire neeq of living accommoda-
tions. =

Labor’s need is to unite be
hind a program of civic reform
that can win thousands of Waic-
toria’s citizens to its support
The struggle for this program
will bring together the forward-
looking progressive forces in the
city, who alone can give Vic=
toria the kind’ of policies the
times demand.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27. 1946

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