Ford weaseling

on TEAM promise

to support wards

The NPA-TEAM majority
on city council continues to sab-
otage all efforts aimed at estab-
lishing a ward system in Van-
couver.

’ The NPA’s opposition, even
if bull-headed and resulting
from blind prejudice, is at least
consistent. The NPA has always

Harry
Rankin |

opposed it, refusing even to in-
troduce it after the majority of
Vancouver voters in 1980 ex-
pressed their clear desire for a
ward system.

But TEAM alderman Mar-
guerite Ford is reneging on her
promise to the electorate that
she would support a ward sys-
tem. That was one of the prom-
ises that helped her get elected.
Now she is weaseling out.

City council established a spe-
cial committee on the ward sys-
tem, of which I am the chair-
man, It’s a committee of the
whole, that is, all council mem-
bers belong to it. At the Aug. 14
meeting of this committee every
proposal aimed at carrying out
an earlier council decision
(made by a 6-5 vote) to work
towards a ward system was de-
feated. Mayor Harcourt recom-
mended that council spend
$15,500 to up-date the 1979 re-
port on the ward system. That
was the report by urban sociol-
ogist George Gray calling for 12
wards. That motion was defeat-

ed. So was a motion to hold .

public meetings on the ward

issue throughout the city.
These motions were defeated
by a gang-up of four NPA al-

dermen and TEAM alderman -

Marguerite Ford. They made
flanking attacks on the ward
system. Alderman Puil, who
opposes any kind of a ward sys-
tem, now suddenly wanted only

five wards. And alderman Ford,
who voted in council for 12
wards, now suddently came out
for 10 wards. Obviously their in-
tent was just to confuse the issue
and prevent anything positive
being done.

What do we do now? Where
do we go from here?

My position and that of the
other two COPE aldermen,
Bruce Eriksen and Bruce Yorke,
is that both council and the vot-
ers have in their majority voted
for a ward system and it is our
duty to do everything we can to
bring about its implementation.

Therefore, it is my intention
to go ahead and call public
meetings in every area of the city
on the ward system. This will
give the citizens a chance for
some input and demonstrate to
the provincial government
(which has passed legislation en-
abling every city in B.C. except
Vancouver to adopt a ward sys-
tem if they wish) and to both
TEAM and the NPA that a
ward system must be established
and that their sabotage must be
ended.

GREATER VANCOUVER

Sixty delegations oppose
Socred plan for B.C. Place

More than 60 delegations are to
appear before Vancouver city
council next Tuesday to oppose
provincial government plans for
the development of ‘‘B.C. Place’’
— the massive 176-acre
commercial-residential develop-
ment on the north shore of False
Creek, including the 60,000 seat
amphitheatre.

Re-development of the area ‘will
have a large impact on the core-of
the city and the east end working
class neighborhoods from
Strathcona to Hastings Sunrise and

citizen opposition to the plans has
grown steadily since the concept
was unveiled by premier Bennett in
Nov. 1980.

However, provincial legislation
exempted the project from normal
city planning processes and the
provincially ented B.C. Place
Corporation, run by a hand picked
corporate elite, was given a free
hand to create a conceptual plan
without any public input.

B.C. Place brass were taken off

guard when over 200 angry citizens :

turned out to its first public infor-
mation meeting last month, and a
citizens committee to oppose the
plans quickly formed.

As public controversy has grown
over B.C. Place, Vancouver city
council has avoided a confronta-
tion with the Socreds on the issue,
in spite of the province’s arrogant
use of authority to unilaterally re-
shape the heart of Vancouver, by-

~ passing the legitimate right of city

council to plan the overall develop-
ment of the city.

The city was forced to face the
issue, however, when B.C. Place
officials asked the city to approve a
road plan for the site which would
connect the development with the
rest of the city. Citizen groups im-
mediately labelled the road plan a
“freeway plan’? — it proposes a
major six to eight lane arterial road
through the centre of B.C. Place —

and seized on the opportunity to
have their views heard on the entire
B.C. Place concept. Tuesday’s
special hearing to deal with the
road plan will hear a strong call for
the city to get tough with the
Socreds and to force major revi-
sions in plans for B.C. Place as a
whole.

Major concerns with the project
have been summarized in a motion
from COPE alderman Bruce
Yorke calling on the city to deny
approval of the road plan until
B.C. Place agrees to: ‘

@ Conduct a complete social
and environmental impact study;

@ Provide a detailed transpor-
tation plan which would ban the
use of automobiles to service the
amphitheatre planned for the site
and eliminate parking lots from the
site;

@ Reduce the proposed six
million square feet of office and
commercial space planned, which
violates the Greater Vancouver
Regional District ‘‘Liveable
Region Plan’, to a maximum of
two million square feet;

@ Shift the balance of floor
space removed from commercial
uses to affordable family housing,
and ensure that a major portion of
the entire housing component will
benon-market housing for families
with children;

@ Include in the plans a district
park of 40 acres.

“We support Yorke’s motion,”
Paul Lebofsky, a member of the
Committee for Community Action
and Participation for B.C. Place,
said this week.

“We're saying, don’t approve
this road system. Make no conces-
sions to this project until there is a
thorough impact study and we
have evidence that this project

meets the needs of the
community.””
The only real power the city has

to influence the character of the

development isits control over con-
necting B.C. Place to the rest of the
city, and it would be foolish to give
that power up, he said.

City council will begin hearing
delegations at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1 in.
city council chambers. Council will
then debate a report from city
engineering recommending ap-
proval of the road plan which must
be defeated before Yorke’s motion
can be considered.

ince few of the stories in the Tribune have a byline, readers may not
immediately be aware of the change. But as of this week, one name
will be missing from the columns of the paper. Staff reporter Janice
Harris left this week for a stint in a fish plant where she hopes to pick up
some overtime wages prior to taking off to England for a vacation.
Janice, who came to the paper shortly after graduating from Simon
Fraser University, was on the staff for two years and worked on a vari-
ety of stories, ranging from film and theatre reviews to covering educa-
tion and tenants’ rights issues. During her time on the staff, she also
helped to found a tenants’ organization, now well established as the
Greater Vancouver Renters’ Association.
Her plans for the future are uncertain and, in any event, she tells us,
she’s not going to make a final determination on anything until after
that long-awaited holiday. We wish her well.

* * * e *

f we were given to paranoia (we’re not, of course) we might have s

been just a bit suspicious when one Captain Ryan, a public rela-
tions officer with the Canadian Forces Base, Chilliwack called us up
last week to offer us a free tour of the middle atmosphere aboard one of
the new Aurora long-range patrol aircraft, recently purchased from
Lockheed Corporation. After all, the Canadian Forces has never be-
fore offered us a free ride on anything. And there’s no telling what a
Tribune reporter might say or do when taken up in a Canadian Forces
plane especially one which can keep flying for 17 hours without having
to come down for fuel. . .

The whole exercise, of course, is intended as a public relations event
staged for the benefit of media representatives who, it is hoped, will
take a few turns up in the sky and then return breathlessly to their type-
writers to tell everybody what a great plane this is even if it did cost tax-
payers a whopping $1.132 billion.

What is the plane intended for? Actually, we asked Captain Ryan if
the new Auroras, which are to be stationed at Comox, have a search
and rescue capability. He allowed that they did but told us in his most
authoritative militarese: ‘‘Their primary role is to locate and neutralize
hostile submarines.”’

Well, now, the only hostile submarines that we can imagine are those
that are armed with the U.S. first strike Trident nuclear missiles —
which are about to be stationed at Bangor, Washington, menacingly
close to Victoria. And frankly, we think that the best way to neutralize

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

them, and the threat to our security, is for the federal government to
quit spending money on the military and instead: lobby the U.S.
government to get back to the disarmament table and negotiate arms
reductions.

Needless to say, we declined the free flight.

* * * * *

t may not have been like the labor picnics of the ’30s and ’40s when

there were scores of events and thousands thronged Confederation
Park. But Sunday’s labor picnic in John Hendry Park still had the
main ingredients — sunshine, good food, friendship, games and a few
hundred people who came to take it all in.

And some of the traditions were brought back. As Bill Chobotuck
barked orders, dozens of people lined up with their hammers at the
ready for the nail-driving contest, or took opposite ends of the crosscut
saw for the log sawing contest. In the end, the husband and wife team
of Maurice and Pat Anderson was the swiftest in getting through the
log while, in the nail-driving contest, Marilyn Lanz took the honors in
the women’s competition and Nacson Espinoza took the men’s award.

Of course, we have a special reason for mentioning all of this: the
Tribune team won the 1981 championship in the Young Communist
League’s annual invitational volleyball tournament held this year in
conjunction with the labor picnic. The eight-member team edged out
five other teams to take the trophy which was first awarded to Co-op
Radio in 1978.

* * * * *

EX. congenial and hard-working, veteran woodworker Sam Alcock
has always been ready to discuss an important issue and to take an °
active part in doing something about it. Lately he’s found it difficult to
do the latter, since he was confined to a hospital bed some weeks ago
undergoing treatment for cancer, but he is still eager to discuss issues
with old friends in the progressive movement. In fact, he would
welcome visitors to his room in Vancouver General Hospital. He is in
East 10 in the Centennial Pavilion and visitors should ask at the desk
for his room number.

Landlord
won't
negotiate

The North Vancouver Ten-
ants Association will be asking
North Vancouver city council to
revoke the lease of a 110 unit
townhouse complex for ‘‘willful
violation of landlord and tenant
law.”

Association president Rich-
ard Blackburn said that the de-
cision to take the issue to the city
was taken after the landlord,
Cressy Developments, broke
off an attempt to resolve issues
by collective bargaining.

The tenants association have
been authorized to represent 79
of 110 tenants at Rufus Park
Village to fight illegal rent in-
creases of up to $300 per month.
Although the buildings were
opened in 1976 and are not sub-
ject to rent control, the rent not-
ices were issued without the re-
quired ‘‘form F”’ which informs
tenants of their right to have the
rent increases submitted to rent
review, nor where the rent in-
creases posted with the Rentals-
man’s Office as required.

The tenants association did
meet with landlord representa-
tives and a mediator from the
Rentalsman’s office which
resulted in a request by the land-
lord that the tenants prepare a
detailed list of grievances and
demands.

Alist of demands was prepar-
ed, including recognition of a
local tenants association, the
right to negotiate rents and to
send disputes to arbitration, and
the establishment of landlord-
tenant committees to oversee
building maintenance.

However rather than meeting
the tenants to discuss the de-
mands, Cressy broke off talks
and informed the Rentalsman
that it.would deal with each
complaint individually.

‘We had hoped to avoid 110
Rentalsman’s hearings and in-
stead arrive at a collectively ne-
gotiated deal, but Cressy has
forced us to go the route,”’ said
Blackburn.

The tenants association will
appeal to North Vancouver city
council which gave Cressy a 60
year lease on the land in 1974 for
the low price of $12,000 per unit
to become involved in the issue
by ordering the company to ne-
gotiate or to revoke the lease,
which prohibits Cressy from
breaking the law.

If North Vancouver city r re-
vokes the lease the Greater Van-
couver Housing Corporation
would be interested in taking
over the housing complex and

managing it, he said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— AUG. 28, 1981— Page 2