{3 i ea BRITISH COLUMBIA COPE picks seven for Vancouver election The Committee of Progressive Electors will field seven aldermanic candidates to join mayoral candi- date, Ald. Harry Rankin, in the fall Vancouver election, the labor- backed civic alliance has announ- ced. That will leave three spots open for Civic Independent and unity partner, Ald. Bill Yee, and two running mates, COPE stated in a release Sept. 8. West End community activist Carole Walker, a former Civic Independent and twice running mate of outgoing mayor Mike Harcourt, declared her intention to seek nomination for an aldermanic slot at the COPE nomination meet- ing on Wednesday, Sept. 10. That makes six candidates so far declared for the 10 aldermanic seats open in the Nov. 15 election, in which the civic group faces a well-heeled opposition from the business-backed Non-Partisan Association. Walker joins COPE incum- bents, Libby Davies, Bruce Yorke and Bruce Eriksen, along with Vancouver and District Labor. Council secretary Frank Kennedy and End Legislated Poverty repre- sentative Jean Swanson in seeking nomination to carry the COPE banner in the city council race. The seventh COPE council spot is to be filled by a “yet to be revealed person,” the COPE release stated. Also to be selected at the nomi- nation meeting, which was set for 7:30 p.m. at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, were full slates of seven candidates for the city parks board and nine for school board. COPE currently holds all nine seats on the Vancouver school board, having swept the remaining NPA trustees from power in last January’s byelection. Three COPE commissioners sit on the NPA- dominated parks board. Walker, who ran in the 1982 and - 1984 elections, said in an interview she has “always supported COPE policies. “T’ve worked with COPE mem- bers over the years, and now I'd like to show my respect and sup- port,” said Walker. A high school counsellor who placed 12th in the 1984 election, Walker has been chair of the West End Traffic Committee, a city planning commission member and . co-founder of Citizens for Rapid Transit. Also upcoming is the COPE “community directions” confer- ence, in which particianpts can address civic and other questions and provide direction for COPE Policy. It’s set for Sept. 20, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Robson Square Media Centre. COPE is also asking for volun- teers to work in the door-to-door poll canvass which began in the summer. The number to phone is 254-0555. 2 « PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 10, 1986 What is one of the fastest ways of mak- ing a few million bucks? The answer is: buy a big chunk of land that is in the Agricultural Land Reserve. (This is land that can’t be used for any purposes other than agricultural.) Then get the Agricultural Land Commission to take your land out of the reserve. Once that’s done and your land is rezoned for commercial use, its value will climb astro- nomically. It works. If you don’t believe it, ask Bill Vander Zalm. Of course it also helps if you know the right people, if you have. good relations with the provincial government and especially if you are the premier. In 1984 Vander Zalm, together with some wealthy businessmen, bought 8.5 hectares (21 acres) of agricultural reserve Bota Gardens for $1.7 million. Massot bought this high capacity agricultural land from the provincial government (ICBC) in 1978 for $451,000, so he didn’t do too badly on the deal either. Vander Zalm made some. significant changes to the property, most of them having nothing to do with farming. The taken out of the reserve. immediately increased by a large amount. How many millions were made by this one step has not been revealed, but it has been the agricultural reserve, Vander Zalm talked about a $7-million development. He has now boosted that to $10 million. Of course, Vander Zalm and his finan- land in Richmond from John Massot of developed section ended up as Fantasy Garden World. Then he applied to the Agricultural Land Commission to have approximately half of his land — the part he had developed for commercial use — The Commission complied. Its action resulted in the value of the land being noted that before the land was taken out of Want to make a quick $1 million 2 | cial partners had no doubt at all that the land would be taken out of the Agricultu- ral Land Reserve. They weren’t taking any chances. Their money wasn’t'risk capital, it was a highly profitable investment. So anxious was the Vander Zalm group to develop this land commercially that they even put up some buildings without getting building permits. The Vander Zalm group also appar- ently got some good breaks on taxes. A year and a half ago, according to Bill Vander Zalm himself, he paid only some $5,000 in taxes on the whole property. Its value at that time was presumably at least $2 million, and perhaps a lot more, since he paid $1.7 million for it originally and had developed it commercially. This year he paid only about $25,000 in taxes on an assessed value of $804,000. It had been assessed at $1.18 million (still far below its real value) by the Assessment Authority but Vander Zalm appealed this assessment as too high and had it reduced to $804,000. Compare the $25,000 in taxes that Vander Zalm is paying on 21 acres with the taxes you pay on your home. I’ve always maintained that big commercial and industrial properties are assessed at far below their market value and I think this proves my contention once again. Richmond municipal council, accord ing to newspaper reports, didn’t HY i block Vander Zalm in his commercial | development of this land while it was in the agricultural reserve. And, accor to Vander Zalm himself, he only asked part of his land to be takén out of tf agricultural reserve, while Richmol municipal council requested that all 0 be taken out. What will happen to the other 4.7 hi tares of Vander Zalm land that is § the agricultural reserve? Don’t hold y° breath. It won’t be long before this als0 taken out of the reserve and another # bonanza is handed to Vander Zalm. | During his campaign for the leadersh! of the Social Credit party and for the P miership, Vander Zalm admitted that Fantasy Garden World project could be conflict of interest. He even talked of 5¢ ling the land. That’s all forgotten now: now says he will keep the land, that #7) decision of the Agricultural Land Com mission was a “good compromise” 4] that “should finish it as an issue NOW. - I doubt that all citizens will agree. V a premier asks a government-appoll™ | body to make a ruling that will benefit hit | immensely in a financial sense, and wh |} the commission does just that, I think! is very much a conflict of interest. since then, Vander Zalm has revealed that he has extensive real estate holdings in 0 a parts of the province. What is going 107” his main occupation — premier or deve” oper? Apparently he thinks it’s okay t0 both at the same time. Is this a sample of the “high mol standards based on Christian principle |} that he said repeatedly he would bring inl? } government if elected? Or is it just anothet example of Social Credit “free” enterpmis¢ at its best? e GAIN plan ‘pre-election scam: EL Representatives of anti-poverty and wel- fare rights groups have blasted some minor changes to the Guaranteed Annual Income (GAIN) program as pre-election “scams” by B.C.’s Social Credit government. Sue Harris of End Legislated Poverty and the Downtown Eastside Residents Association branded a new program allow- ing GAIN recipients to “enhance” their benefits through part-time work as a “scan- dalous, hollow concept” that “provides no alternatives to poverty or ending poverty.” And Jean Swanson, also of ELP, said a 4.5-per cent hike in the shelter allow- ance for all GAIN recipients announced Sept. 8 is simply “a gift to landlords.” Ironically, the hike in the shelter allowance, which is paid directly to land- lords as a rent supplement, was announced the same day ELP called a press conference on the implementation of the “enhanced earning exemption” program. ° The program, announced last spring, - came into effect Sept. 1. Under it, GAIN recipients deemed “employable” may earn 25 per cent in excess of their GAIN benefits, based on the wage earned through employment. This is added to the $50 exemption granted single welfare clients and the $100 granted to families. But the catch, said Harris, is that all who wish to qualify for the extra income must do so under the “employable” category — irrespective of the type of benefits pre- viously collected. Offering an example, the coalition notes that a single unemployable recipient collect- ing the standard $430 monthly would, under the program, begin collecting the employable rate of $375. If that person were to earn an estimated figure of $400 monthly through employ- ment, he or she would have the first $50 exempted from the calculations of allow- FRED LEMIRE, SUE HARRIS . able income. The remainder, $350, would be further reduced by the program’s 25-per cent exemption, or by $87.50. That would leave $262.50 to be deducted from the basic single employable recipient GAIN rate, meaning the recipient would receive from the ministry of social services and housing (formerly the ministry of human resources) $122.50. With the $400 in wages added, that recipient’s monthly income would be $512.50. Since the recipient had been collecting $430 as an unemployable, the net gain in monthly income would be $82.50. “The only people who will really benefit from this program are employers, who will be able to take on labor at a cheap rate,” Harris charged. The maximum welfare recipients can = Welfare work program “hollow concept. earn monthly and still receive social # ance is $550. The only other “winner,” said will be the ministry which will be ablé cut welfare payments and look fi responsible, and also look as if they're © something about poverty and unemmpP ment on the eve of a provincial elect!® For welfare recipient Fred Lemire; "4 receives a handicapped rate of $548 J month, the program simply isn’t worth “I'd like to be able to gain some patty employment,” said Lemire, who has ® 9 problem and is hearing impaired, “put have to be reclassified as employable,“ that’s impossible.” a Harris said that the only solutions t0”), welfare recipients “are to create decent) raise the minimum wage, and hike wé to the poverty level.”