enn p 1 | + 4 VANCOUVER Family Place cut — a political axe job? In one fell swoop, the provincial govern- ment has axed funding for thrée major community help organizations in Vancouv- er’s East Side, threatening those agencies’ continued existence. Told in late May they would no longer receive provincial grants — which consti- tute the main funding for the organiza- _tions — were the popular Eastside Family Place, the handicapped program run by the First United Church, and the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. Family Place received notice of the fund- ing out in a telephone call May 18. A tele- gram fired off to Human Resources Minister Grace McCarthy in response has so far been unanswered. The 100-per cent cut to Eastside Family Place, which last year received $39,000 from the Ministry of Human Resources, left the organization’s administrators, in a sense, speechless. “Tt just makes you wonder how much more you can say. It’s (funding cuts) got past the point of being ridiculous,” said Mary Bosze. But the administrator had no trouble talking about the outcome: when the funds run out in August, the centre, barring last minute changes or some alter- native source of financing, will have to close. Eastside Family Place, a kind of home to some 250 couples and single parents and their children since 1979, was described as a “model” for its type in both Homemaker magazine in 1982 and MHR’s-own B.C. Council for the Family manual the same year. “We've had people say they’ve moved to this neighborhood just to be with us,” said Bosze. “They come to be part of what the centre has become, an extended family.” One of the four major family places in Vancouver, Eastside began as a drop-in centre for parents and their children. That still is the core Eastside’s services, and it’s credited with saving thousands of dollars in social costs arising from family breakdown, child abuse, drug abuse and a host of others. But the centre — community initiated and controlled by parents elected to the board of directors:— also offers courses on nutrition, creative arts, job preparation for adults and basic social and emotional train- ing for preschoolers. Additionally, family - place has opened preschool courses in low- rent housing projects, has sponsored a drop-in service in the Hastings Community Centre and stages a chidren’s festival and field trips for pre-schoolers each summer. These projects — partially funded by federal government grants — have also TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON Two articles which appeared recently in the Vancouver Sun (Pete McMartin, May 30, and Gordon Hamilton, June 4) paint a rather alarming picture of what prices and costs will be like at Expo 86, now less than two years away. They suggest that the admission price just to get into the grounds will be $20 for adults and $12-$15 for children. Parking your car (if you can find a space) will be $2 per hour. Hot dogs and hamburgers may be $5 each. If this becomes the case you can use your imagination to figure out what meals will cost: : Amusement and thrill rides for child- ren will also be way up. A family of four could easily spend $200 to $300 a day and have little to show for it. A concession at Expo 86 will cost an enormous amount. The rent alone ‘will be approximately $44,000 a month. A service charge levied by Expo will cost ’ another $8,000 a month. Both of these must be paid in advance, half of it a year before Expo opens. Then the person or business renting the concession has to supply all the interior furnishings (elec- trical, plumbing, heat, water, painting, air conditioning, and so on.) It all adds up to about $60,000 a month or about $330,000 for the 5% months of the fair. On top of that Expo will charge a percentage of all the profits — ranging from 25 per cent to 40 per cent. ; What is clear already is that the aver- age family will not be able to afford such high prices and that small business firms will be effectively excluded. The Bennett government and Expo officials estimate that every family will visit Expo six times and that the total attendance will be 15 million. They could be far off the mark. Expo 86 could end up with a huge deficit. In these circumstances it seems to me that the citizens of Vancouver and city council too should be making demands for some safeguards to offset the inevita- ble adverse effects that have afflicted all cities of the world where Expos have been held. Expo 86 prices make sure small business excluded The provincial government should implement rent controls and other neces- sary legislation to prevent people being evicted from their apartments to make room for high-paying Expo visitors. Controls should also be established on hotel room rents to prevent profiteering. Non-union contractors paying low wages are now getting building contracts at enormous profits to themselves and at the expense of the workers. A lot of the help hired at Expo will be paid only the minimum wage of $3.65 an hour. That’s just not acceptable. That’s exploitation of the worst type. All wages paid during the building of Expo and during Expo itself should be at union rates. The city will incur extra costs during Expo for police and fire protection, traf- fic control and street repair that. will amount to millions of dollars. The city Harry Rankin should be reimbursed by the provincial government for these extra costs. There is no reason in the world why they be shoved onto Vancouver taxpayers. The concession rents should be greatly ~ reduced to enable small businesses to also take part in Expo. As it stands now only big corporations and big food chains will be able to meet the high costs. The entrance fee should be greatly reduced. A $5 admission fee is plenty high enough. The provincial government should right now reveal the real costs being incurred in Expo and how these will be met. We don’t want the people of Van- couver or the province being stuck with a huge debt after Expo 86 is over — a debt that will be paid off by imposing further taxes or by cutting education or health funding still more. 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 13, 1984 supplied employment to as many as 14 people at a time. That, coupled with the centre’s use of welfare recipients through the MHR’s Community Involvement Pro- gram, until the program. was axed last year, have had a “spinoff employment” effect on the economically strapped working-class east end, Bosze noted. : “And we have volunteers whose work easily is equivalent to that of a full-time staff person,” she said. Funding cuts last year, when the provincial grant was cut from » $41,000 the centre received in 1982, to $39,000 in 1983 forced the layoff of one staff member. Additional sources of funding include the city, with a yearly grant that pays for one staff member, and whatever the family place can raise through its own activities. ‘“But what’s fund-raising going to get you? We made $12,000 last year through benefit dinners, raffles and so on. We’ve got raffle tickets until they’re coming out of our ears, but that won’t keep us going,” said Bosze. © While no one has publicly said it, the Majority favor COPE’s © “ONE EXTENDED FAMILY ’...parents and c! " publicizing the event and bringing pressure hildren are the victims of Socred ‘sciss0l unavoidable conclusion is that the 2 singled out for the harshest Socred action are those whose voices were added ta “ mighty uproar against government traint” during the active Solidarity fight _ Eastside Family Place provides 4M glaring example. A member of the 2028 arity Coalition, the organization was © only one of four major family places 10 city — and by no means the most funded — to get the axe. : And according to internal sources wi Te the MHR, the order to do so came direct | from Victoria, rather than from the regional ~ ministry office which normally makes dec sions on local funding. That charge is g1Ve weight by the fact that, for this purpose the family place was transferred from its regua! district into that which governs the Down town Eastside, the locale of First United church and the women’s centre. i Eastside Family Place has mounted media and letter-writing campaign aim z to bear on Victoria to reverse the cut. ") policy, canvass finds — Volunteers participating in the Commit- tee of Progressive Electors’ telephone can- vass of key Vancouver polls find a public that is receptive, generally interested in the civic political scene and in many cases is ready to go to the polls this fall to elect a unity slate to council, parks and school boards. “We've had, I would estimate, about an 80-per cent response to our questions. And ~ we’ve been getting new COPE members, at the rate of about two per day,” reported canvass organizer Carmela Allevato. For the past week COPE members and. _ Supporters have been staffing special tele- phones in the new office space donated by Vancouver’s port council unions in their Maritime Labor Centre. They'll be at it until the end of June, asking citizens in 10 polls that showed a high vote for the labor unity slate in 1982 their opinion on a variety of city issues. “The questions are so straightforward and brief people don’t mind answering them,” said Allevato. And,she pointed out, participation in the canvass reaps benefits for volunteers. “There’s a really good feeling you get once you get started. Once you tell people © you’re from COPE and they realize it isn’t some market survey, they appreciate it,” she said. Between the hours of 6-10 p.m. each evening except Saturdays, volunteers ask citizens five key questions concerning the peformance of city council as a whole, how they rate the job done by the four COPE aldermen, and how they would likely vote in the mayoral race and in the next provin- © cial election. A_ key question put to Vancouver residents — and one which represents what for school board, including trustees Wes will probably be a key issue in COPES platform this fall — concerns their opinion on maintaining city jobs and services in light _ of the provincial government’s policy % wholesale cutbacks in social services. . - Finding the answers to those questions: said Allevato, is essential if COPE — and, by extension, the anticipated unity slate backed by the Vancouver and District Labor Council again this year — is to plan a successful campaign based on a true PIG ture of citizens’ awareness of Vancouvel $ crucial issues. : : | So far, phone canvassers report, a major ity have answered “yes” when asked if they agree with COPE’s position that city serve ces and jobs must be maintained. Some 125 COPE supporters have volun ‘teered their services. But with 10 telephones and a six-day week allotted to cover the polls in their entirety, many more are Sut” needed, Allevato stressed. COPE will be heading to the polls this fall with eight candidates for council — aldermen Libby Davies, Bruce Eriksen, Harry Rankin and Bruce Yorke, joined by Jean Swanson, Allevato, Sol Jackson and Jim Quail. Additionally, there are full slates Knapp, Phil Rankin and Pauline Weinstein, and parks board, with commissioner Pat Wilson and six other COPE candidates. . For council, two seats — in addition to the mayor’s — have been left vacant for Mayor Mike Harcourt and runnning mates. Last election, COPE members also voted for eight candidates, but amended that later on and dropped one more spot to accom- modate the Harcourt team, from which Ald. Bill Yee was elected. Talks are cur- rently underway between the parties and the Vancouver Labor Council to strike a 1984 unity slate.