Bassi iad a

BRITISH COLUMBIA

‘Layoffs erode
tenant rights,’
says TRAC

The provincial government is
slowly “phasing out” tenants’ rights
in B.C., the B.C. Tenants’ Rights Coa-
lition has charged in the wake of
further layoffs in the Residential
Tenancy Branch Jan.15.

Atiba Gordon, director of the coa-
lition’s Tenants Rights Action Centre,
said the pink slips given to eight more
branch employees mean tenant servi-
ces have been slashed by 85 per cent.

Calling the latest layoffs “a calcu-
lated erosion of tenants’ rights by the
provincial government,” Gordon
charged the Socreds’ are “determined
to keep carving up the service until
there is nothing left.”

The coalition is demanding Con-

. sumer and Corporate Affairs Minister

Jim Hewitt initiate “a major advertis-
ing campaign” promoting tenant ser-
vices, including a toll-free information
line for residents outside Vancouver
and Victoria.

The layoffs hit staff members in the
branch’s information . department,
including the information supervisor.

There are now only four information -
staff left, three in the Vancouver

‘branch office, and one in Victoria, the
coalition reported.

“By making information scarce
and difficult to obtain, they’ve created
a void. The government can then say
there’s no interest in tenants rights,”
said centre volunteer Suzi Kilgour.

Kilgour said the ministry’s total
printed information on rights remain-
ing for tenants in the new Residential
Tenancy Act enacted last July “was
one small leaflet.”

In fact, the government's claim that
tenants are offered information on
how to dispute evictions and to deal
with other problems is a “sham”
Gordon charged.

“Our action centre has received
calls from all over B.C. Some Human
Resources offices outside Vancouver
weren’t aware that the branch is still
open, and have been referring tenants’
problems to us,” she said.

The two Residential Tenancy
Branch offices were established fol-
lowing the enactment of the revised
Residential Tenancy Act last summer.
These replaced the eight regional offi-
ces of the Rentalsman.

The Socreds have replaced the Ren-
talsman adjudicators with six con-
tracted “arbitrators” — five in Van-
couver, one in Victoria — who handle
“non-monetary” disputes for a $30
fee. Disputes involving money, such
as returns of security deposits, must
be handled now through small claims
court. :

There are no arbitrators outside
Victoria and Vancouver. Instead,
tenants outside those areas must rely
on the local government agent — there
are 12 around B.C. — to supply the

“government’s pamphlet on landlord
tenant disputes.

“The leaflet has a long-distance
number in Vancouver. But when
tenants phone, they find the informa-
tion staff can’t handle their requests
— essentially, the information isn’t

there,” said Kilgour.
~ _ Kilgour also said the police invol-_

vement in tenant-landlord disputes
has “risen drastically” since the loss of
the Rentalsman’s office: “Landlords
are locking tenants out, and instead of
disputing the eviction, they go to the
police, where they’re told their dispute
is a ‘civil matter’,” she explained.

Yorke pledges no layoffs in’85

The Committee of Progressive Electors
made its major policy announcement in the
campaign for the re-election of Bruce Yorke
to city council Jan. 15 with a pledge that
once again, a progressive council would

_ balance the city budget and maintain city

workers’ jobs in 1985.

Yorke’s announcement that “I will be
following the principles I promoted in 1983
and 1984 budgets, after consultation with
the mayor, COPE aldermen and city staff” °
and move to take money from city reserves
to meet the shortfall caused by provincial
government restraint underscored the cru-
cial nature of the byelection race.

That position, greeted with overwhelm-
ing applause by delegates to Vancouver and
District Labor Council later that day, will if
adopted prevent the cutting of up to 350
jobs, Yorke told reporters at a city hall press
conference.

The announcement wrung from the
right-wing Non-Partisan Association the
closest thing to a political statement it has
made in the byelection campaign. The
NPA’s candidate, Philip Owen, said he
opposed using the interest money accrued
by the city’s rich property endowment fund,
saying there were “other ways” to balance
the budget.

Owen failed to say exactly what his civic
backers had in mind to balance the city’s
budget, but the vagueness of his rebuttal is
consistent with the right-wing’s avoidance
of policy debate both in last November’s full
civic race and the current byelection, neces-
sitated by the NPA’s court challenge to
Yorke’s re-election as alderman Nov. 17.

COPE charges, as it did during last year’s
campaign, that the NPA has a hidden
agenda of cutbacks and layoffs to be
implemented if the right is successful in cap-
turing the crucial seat on city council.

Yorke’s campaign, organized and backed
by COPE and an unprecedented unity
effort from local New Democrats, trade
unions, religious leaders and community
groups, stresses the balanced budget and
jobs in its literature and also cites Yorke’s
past roles as a tenants’ organizer and initia-
tor of a property tax revolt that helped
lower taxes around B.C. :

é

‘Flanked by council secretary Paddy Neale (I), COPE’s Bruce Yorke reports on

re-election campaign to Vancouver and District Labor Council.

But as both groups hit the campaign trail
with lawn signs, billboards and television
ads, Owen’s campaign stresses the wealthy
businessman’s “concerns” about Expo 86
and the ALRT rapid transit project in
broad, non-committal terms.

In his press conference, Yorke said his
re-election will mean that once again coun-
cil’s six-seat progressive majority, which
includes the COPE aldermen, Ald. Bill Yee
and Mayor Mike Harcourt, will call for a
transfer of $7 million from the property
endowment fund to meet a financial short-
fall anticipated at $18.5 million:

That figure represents an increase of $1.7
million over last year’s transfer of $5.3 mil-
lion from the interest earned by the $450-

million reserve.

During 1983 and 1984 the fund earned a
total interest of $21 million, from which the
city took $10.2 million to preserve city servi-
ces and jobs, Yorke pointed out.

Without the transfer, some 210-350 jobs _

(based on city finance department estimates
of 30-50 jobs lost for each $1 million cut)
would be axed. Without an accompanying
modest tax hike, 240-400 more jobs would
be cut, Yorke warned.

He recalled that “each year, the TEAM
(The Electors Action Movement) and the
NPA aldermen have opposed the transfers.
(But) the fact is that the city’s Triple-A
credit rating has been retained and the fund
continues to grow.”

City meeting on

Robert Jacobson, a consultant to
California’s state government committee
on utilities,“ will explain how de-
regulation of telephone rates in the Uni-
ted States has meant a doubling of phone
rates, at a special meeting called by Van-
couver city council Jan. 28.

The meeting, which begins at 7:30

B.C. Tel hike set

p.m. in the council chambers, was called
to hear all groups opposed to B.C. Tel’s
latest request to the Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunication
Commission for a 15 per cent rate hike
this year.

Jacobson has been brought here by
the Telecommunications Workers Union.

The Province newspaper disapproves of
civic employee unions contributing union
funds to the candidacy of Committee of
Progressive Electors aldermanic candidate
Bruce Yorke in the Feb. 2. Vancouver civic
byelection (editorial, Jan. 14).

- Itmagnanimously agrees (who needs its
agreement?) that “civic employees have
the democratic right to support any can-
didate they want.” But still it protests.

Why? Because it wouldn’t be “wise to
do so.” In fact it would be downright
“unfortunate.” And why would it be
“unwise” and “unfortunate?”

Because when a civic union donates to
Yorke’s election campaign “‘it is looking
out for the welfare of its members.” Such a
donation, says the Province, would “poli-
ticize” civic employees. “It muddies the
water at city hall...if Yorke wins, he and
his COPE colleagues will feel bound to
place civic jobs and employee ‘rights’
above all else.”

_ Let’s put the shoe on the other foot fora
minute.

The Non-Partisan Association gets its
donations from the corporate sector in this
city. That includes the developers, the real
estate speculators, the big landlords (who
are often trusts and banks) and the con-
tractors. The crowd of corporate execu-
tives that attended a meeting in support of
Bill Vander Zalm when he was running for
mayor looked like a ““Who’s Who” of big

- business in Vancouver. :

These hard-headed, tight-fisted busi-

Paper hypocritical on COPE’s support

nessmen didn’t support Vander Zalm and
the NPA for sentimental reasons. When
they donate they expect something in
return.

Aren’t donations from big companies
in Vancouver to the NPA “politicizing”
these companies? Why doesn’t the Pro-
vince protest against this?

Unions, when they donate to a labor-
backed slate in municipal or other elec-
tions, do so by membership decision and
agreement. Did any one of the corporate
contributors to the NPA and The Electors

| Rankin

Action Movement (and now to candidate
Philip Owen) consult with any share-
holders?.

When a union donates to COPE or any
similar labor-backed slate in municipal
elections, that is no secret. That’s a matter
of public knowledge, acknowledged by the
union and COPE publicly. But when cor-
porations and developers donate to the
NPA both they and the NPA keep this fact
a secret.

When unions donate to COPE they

~ aren’t doing so just to protect the interests

of their members. COPE is against cuts in
civic staff because this would only add to
the unemployment and welfare rolls.

Vancouver Province, which is backing the
7 NPA while pretending to be neutral.

COPE opposes cuts in services because
such Services are essential to citizens, to all
citizens.

That is one of the planks in COPE’s and
Bruce Yorke’s campaign. He has announ-
ced this publicly for all to hear and asks for
support on this basis.

The NPA, on the other hand, is keeping
its intentions secret, just as did Premier
Bennett before his re-election. That’s
because an NPA majority would cut staff
at city hall, cut servcies to citizens, relax
laws that help developers and relax laws
that compel slum landlords to observe the
city’s health and safety bylaws. City
revenues would be diverted to subsidies to
developers and private contractors.

But they won’t make this public. They
keep this a secret because they know damn
well that a majority of voters would reject
such a program. 2

When the corporate community donates
to. the NPA it is looking after the interests
of its members too — the profit interests
of its members that would be satisified at
the expense of the general public and tax-
payers. hee

COPE is quite prepared to make public
a list of who donated what to its election
campaign. The NPA is not and for a good

Treason — to do so would give the game
away.

So let’s not have any more hypocritical
protestations from the corporate-owned

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 23, 1985