Loophole
aids rent

gouging

Continued from page 1

newed mortgage costs as the reason
for the increases.

Increased mortgage payments
was the reason given for hefty rent
hikes on 639 East 8th Avenue by
the landlord, Shelmar Credit Ac-
ceptance Ltd., at a Rentalsman
hearing Feb. 5. The tenants, who
are represented by aldermen Bruce
Yorke and Harry Rankin, are
fighting increases which, if grant-
ed, would remove all units in the
building from the protection of
rent controls. :

As in the case of the Victoria
Drive tenants, this is the second in-
crease within months. Tenant
spokesperson Cran Campbell said
that his rent was just raised last Oc-
tober.

Yorke emphasized that the onus
is always on the tenant to produce
evidence refuting landlord’s comp-
licated calculations of expendi-
tures. Tenants, he said, must go
through ‘‘anguish, pressure and
uncertainty while the landlords
face them with batteries of
lawyers.””

“In fact, there isn’t even an
automatic requirement for a hear-
ing into rent increases under
67(3),’’ Richmond added.

Because of that, most Section
67(3) increases are merely passed
through the Rentalsman’s office,

_ many of them resulting in rents be-

ing jacked up beyond the controls
ceiling. Some 20,000 application
for Section 67(3) increases are now
before the Rentalsman and it is
possible that hundreds of them
could result in the removal of con-
trols from affected suites.

Tenants’ organizations have de-
manded the immediate repeal of
the section in the act.

GREATER VANCOUVER

City council’s approval on
Feb. 2 of a road system for B.C.
Place and particularly for the
60,000 seat stadium now under
construction wasn’t just a
mistake — it was a shameful
capitulation to provincial govern-
ment pressure.

The problem is this: because
the North Shore of False Creek is
owned by the province, its
development does not have to
conform with the city’s needs or
wishes. But access roads, to and
from the stadium and B.C. Place,
are under city control. This was
the only lever we had to compel
the province to meet our ideas on
how B.C. Place should be
developed.

The province, for example, is
planning to build 14,000 housing
units in this small area. Some of
us think the density would be far
too high, that 8,000 units would
be more appropriate. Then there
is the question of what kind of
housing and for whom. Is it going
to be within the price range of the

average citizen with provision for
families, including co-op hous-
ing, or will it be only for the
wealthy? The provincial govern-
ment won’t commit itself.

Then there’s the question of of-
fice space. The province is talking
about seven million square feet

Harry

Rankin

when 2% million would be ade-
quate. And parks are needed too.
The provincial government will
agree to only about half of what is
required.

When under these cir-
cumstances city council voted 7-4
for a road system before these
many questions were settled
satisfactorily, it gave away the on-

City ‘capitulates' on B.C. Place

ly bargaining tool we had. Voting
for the road system were all the
NPA and TEAM aldermen; op-
posed were COPE aldermen
Bruce Yorke, Harry Rankin-and
Bruce Eriksen, and mayor Har-
court.

The road system adopted may

be the best of the various alter-
natives offered to council, but it is
still entirely inadequate. It is
estimated that only about one
quarter of the people who will
take in stadium events will use
rapid transit. The remainder will
come by car — 14,000 cars is the
estimate. Where will these cars be
parked? The provincial govern-
ment expects them to evaporate

into the surrounding)
neighbourhoods. You can im-
agine what a horrendous traffi¢
nightmare this will cause. Therei
no provision for park and rid
facilities in surroundin
municipalities where people
leave their cars and come in DB!
rapid transit or bus.

The development of B
Place shows that this governm
seems incapable of doing t
things at once. It decides to build
a stadium and starts constructio
and then worries about the traffi¢
problems later. That’s what you
call ass-backward planning.

To make matters worse, coun’
cil voted for this road system evel!”
before a cost-sharing formula
had been agreed on. As far a
COPE aldermen are concerned,
if the provincial government)
needs a new road system to serve
its B.C. Place, it should pay for it
instead of saddling Vancouvel
residents with more taxes for 4
development over which we have
no control. 4

rn. ee ee ee bl

a a ee

Call for wards reiterated at hearin

A clear message that Vancouver
citizens want a ward system was
given city councillors Monday
night in the first of council’s five:
public hearings on ward bound-
aries.

Many of the speakers represen-
ting community organizations or
themselves also criticized the pro-
vincial government for its refusal to
amend Vancouver’s charter and
allow wards, despite majority sup-
port for a ward system in the 1978
plebiscite.

Speakers also noted the absence
of all the NPA aldermen — Nathan
Divinsky, George Puil, Warnett
Kennedy and Helen Boyce — who
were apparently boycotting the ses-

sion, attended bysome 75 peoplein _ always pressed for a ward represen-

Robson Square.

The establishment of a 12-ward
system based on traditional
neighbourhood boundaries as
originally recommended by ward
commissioner George Gray was a
central demand of the hearing,
voiced by the Committee of Pro-
gressive Electors and the
Downtown Eastside Resident
Association, among others.

Calling the current at-large
system of electing aldermen a
“dinosaur of a system in which
democracy remains a farce,”’
COPE president Jim Quail em-
phasized that his organization has

tation.

He blasted the Socreds for turn-
ing down the city’s initial request
for a ward system and called on
voters to ‘turn the provincial
government out of office if they
refuse this time.”’

Although Gray report recom-
mendations formed the basis of
the original ward proposal, the is-
sue has become more complex at
the hearings. Nine proposals are
before council, including several
prepared by city staff.

Part of the reason for the change
is the position of TEAM which in-
itially welcomed the Gray recom-
mendations but now favors a

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

istant though the country is, we’ve always had more than just a

ing interest in events in New Zealand.— perhaps because we’re in-
formed of them by a socialist paper — the New Zealand Tribune —
whose name and fighting spirit are the same as ours. So it was disturb-
ing to read in the latest issue that the paper’s offices in Wellington were
recently vandalized and looted by right wing goons.

Gaining entry through a back window, the attackers slashed and
broke pictures and photographs which had decorated the walls, smash-
ed costly typesetting equipment with a steel bar and then doused all the
offices with a mixture of photographic chemicals, beer, sugar and salt.
Typewriters and photo files were stolen although money was left
behind in a ransacked drawer.

What gave the event a particularly ominous note was that it came
amidst a mounting right wing attack on the paper which included crank
phone calls, threats and accusations from as high up as New Zealand
prime minister Robert Muldoon who claimed that the Tribune was get-
ting “‘cash from Moscow”’ through the Soviet embassy in Wellington.
Muldoon’s remarks were cited by the right-wing tabloid Truth which
called for public opposition to the paper in a full-page editorial assault
which stated, ‘‘. . . a message of hate seeps like slime from the open

bosses and top communists . . .’’ Tribune subscribers were described
as “‘ratbag readers’’.

But there is a fighting postscript: like the supporters of the Buck-
Bethune Centre in Toronto who rallied with thousands of dollars after
the arson attack on the building, supporters of the New Zealand
Tribune responded with anger — and money — pushing the paper’s
fund drive well over the target figure.

* # *

| few letters written to the Vancouver Sun which were intended to
correct some errors in the Sun’s historical reporting — about the
Workers’ Unity League, the Corbin miners’ strike of 1935 and other is-
sues. And the man who signed his name to those letters was in a posi-

pages of this publication which is supported by the Federation of Labor .

hile sorting out some files in the office last week, we came across a

tion to know; for Tom McEwen was not only a witness to the history,
but was also a participant in it and a leader of the WUL which had
helped to make it. ‘

This week, on Thursday, Feb. 11, Tom marks his 91st birthday.
We join with his many friends in marking the occasion.

* * *

S ince its establishment as a co-op in 1947, the People’s Cooperative
Bookstore has had a number of different locations — albeit most
of them on Pender Street — and a number of managers who have steer-
ed the store through economic times which were often more bad than
good. But there has been one name which has become familiar to
patrons of the store over the past 20-odd years — Columba Rush, who
has variously been the store’s bookkeeper, part-time clerk and always
willing volunteer.

This month, Columba decided to close her ledger books — not to
go into retirement (she’s much too young for that) but to slow the hectic
pace of he life which has always been taken up with activities in the
peace movement, the Committee of Progressive Electors and a variety
of other organizations and causes. As she puts it: ‘‘I’ll still be doing
work for the store. I just won’t be taking pay for it.’’

More than 50 friends gathered Saturday night to honor Columba at
an event that also served to kick off the Co-op Bookstore’s fund and
share drive. The store is hoping to raise $15,000 over the next couple of
months to help ease the debt load as well as to boost the stock and
finance some new projects.

* * *

0: a sadder note, we were informed last week that an old Tribune;
supporter, Alex Oling, passed away in Vancouver Feb. 1.

A Finnish immigrant to British Colmubia in 1930, Axel joined the
hundreds of other Finns in the province’s wood industry who were later
to become a powerful organizing force in building the first industrial
unions. A member of the International Woodworkers in its early years
he continued his activism in the trade union movement and for the last
years before his retirement in 1968, he was a member of the Machinists
He was also a lifelong member of the Communist Party.

A memorial service was held Feb. 4 in Maple Ridge.

10-ward system with each
having roughly 10 percent of
population. There are four pl
posals for a 10-ward system, ®
prepared by city staff — and#
would reduce representation on?
working-class east side of the cil)
Others speakers favoring |
12-ward system included String°
McDonald of the Save 1 1
Downtown Eastside Committ@
DERA worker Jim Green, Ma
Fornataro for the Greater V#
couver Renters’ Associati0!
GVRA president Tom Lalof!
and West End community acti”
Carol Walker. a

Ax a, ve
DAN KEETON

Keeton new
ass't editor

The editorial board this we?
appointed Dan Keeton as t*
new assistant editor of UP
Tribune replacing Fred Wils0!
who left in November to take!
position as organization®@
secretary for the Commu
Party. Keeton joined the staff
the beginning of February. _ |

A former field reporter f0'
Canadian University Press,
has frequently contribut®) —
material to the Tribune over
past few years including rev1

ee ee tee, Fhe

and reportage.
For the past four years, })
was on the Peoplé

Cooperative Bookstore
cluding a brief stint as man
just prior to taking the Tribu!
post. He has also had t
union experience, having bee
member of both t
Steelworkers and the Glass.
Ceramic Workers in Ontari0:

—-
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 12, 1982—Page 2