BRITISH COLUMBIA ‘Revamp tenancy act,’ Hanson told _ Leaders from several tenant and anti-poverty groups made the point that the Residential Tenancy Act should be extended to cover hotel and rooming house dwellers in an hour long meeting Monday with the Social Credit minister responsible for tenancy. Labour Minister Lyall Hanson promised to look into the matter and has said he will take a tour of the hotels that are home for thou- sands of res- idents in Vancouver's downtown eastside. David Lane, co- ordinator of the Tenants Rights Act- ion Centre, said later he was “‘disap- pointed” Hanson did not give the group assurances that something would be done in the fall session of the legislature. “Since this is the United Nations’ Year of the Homeless, it is most crucial that the provincial govern- ment bring in legislative change to ensure that everyone in B.C. has the right to a home,” Lane said. Lacking legislative protection, hotel and rooming house dwellers may be evicted without notice at any time. Last year a demand from the Downtown Eastside Residents Association and other groups for legislation to stop the wholesale evictions of hotel dwellers due to . Expo 86 resulted in a government LANE stead. Meeting with Hanson at the government’s Vancouver offices were representatives of TRAC, DERA, the Council of Senior Citi- zens Organizations (Russ Hunter), the B.C. Old Age Pensioners (pres- ident Jo Arland), the United Church, End Legislated Poverty and several community groups and student housing organizations. “We'd been trying for about three months to get a meeting with the minister,” Hunter said after- ward. Hanson would give no com- mitment as to a time frame for implementation of any legislative changes, in a brief press scrum after the meeting. Other changes sought included: @ The abolition of security dep- osits; e A rent review system; @ Reinstating a rentalsman’s office with full power to investigate complaints, levy fines and force compliance with the Act’s provi- sions. Lane said local public activities to draw attention to the demands are planned to coincide with the UN conference on the homeless in Ottawa on Sept. 14. 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 2, 1987 Teachers meet sets tone for fall organizing drive The B.C. Teachers Federation should remain the “umbrella” organization of all the province’s public school teachers, dele- gates to the BCTF’s summer conference decided last week. By a 2-1 margin delegates voted to allow membership of non-union local associa- tions in the federation, as the organization gears up for a fall sign-up drive to unionize all of B.C.’s 33,000 teachers. Teachers also voted to continue their instruction-only campaign until five school boards withdraw letters of reprimand placed in teachers’ files for their participa- tion in the teachers job action on April 28 and activities on the province-wide job action June 1. At the same time, an active campaign to control the new provincial College of Teachers is designed to ensure that the fed- eration retains its role as a developer of teachers’ professional skills, a BCTF spo- kesman says. Hard decisions on the direction the fed- eration must take in the next few months marked last week’s conference and the smaller Representative Assembly on the weekend, as delegates hammered out their responses to the provincial government’s ° potentially ruinous Bill 20. Bill 20, now the Teaching Profession Act, makes membership in the seven-decades old federation voluntary and forces the BCTF to seek certification votes in each of its local teacher associations. The Act also removes principals and vice-principals from the federation and attempts to usurp the federation’s professional development func- tion through the newly established college. BCTF press officer Arnie Myers said conference delegates turned down a recommendation from the BCTF executive that teachers suspend their instruction only campaign. Teachers initiated the move, withdrawing from all extra-curricular activ- ities, to protest Bill 20 when it was intro- duced last spring. While the federation’s executive had wanted to end the campaign by Sept. 8 in order to concentrate on the certification effort, delegates were angry that five school districts had placed letters of reprimand or similar items on the files of teachers who withdrew their services in organized actions protesting Bills 20 and 19, the latter the Industrial Relations Reform Act. Myers said teachers would be negotiating “at the local and the provincial level” with the five boards to have the letters with- drawn. Included are the boards in Golden, Fort Nelson, Lillooet, Peace River North and Nanaimo. The federation is committing key resour- ces to the certification campaign, training organizers to head out in the fall for a certi- fication drive which must be completed by the end of the year. The campaign will involve video presen-_ tations, brochures, bumper stickers and other items, Myers said. Certification applications will be filed in January with the new Industrial Relations Council. While the council is under boycott by affiliates of the B.C. Federation of Labour, the federation has allowed the BCTF an exemption because of the crucial nature of the important campaign. : Despite opposition from delegates who contended that the BCTF must be a federa- tion of unions, a majority voted to amend the federation’s bylaws to facilitate mem- bership of both certified union locals and non-certified associations, to accommodate districts that do not go the union route. Myers said the federation also plans to “take over” the College of Teachers in upcoming elections for directors of the new body. Five of those positions will be filled by government appointees, while the other 15 seats are up for election by members of the education — the majority of which are teachers. The idea is that the role of the college will be limited to the issuance of teachers’ certifi- cates while the federation will continue its job of overseeing professional development, — Myers said. investigation of social housing in- The stage is set for a battle over wel- fare rates following a public refusal by Social Services and Housing Minister Claude Richmond to reinstate a $7 cut- back to monthly GAIN rates. Richmond rejected a request by DERA organizer Jim Green to reverse the cabinet-ordered cut at a packed monthly meeting of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association Aug. 28. “T think the most important thing you could do is change your mind and tell the people of B.C., ‘It’s my job to take care of people in need, and by God, I'll do it,”’ Green told the minister during a debate on the issue. Richmond’s refusal to make a com- mitment to reinstate the $7 cut, which followed a court victory by anti-poverty activists against the ministry, would mean DERA “will have to rally its for- ces,” Green said. “We'll fill out every appeal form, we'll go to court if necessary,” he vowed. Earlier this month anti-poverty acti- vists won a B.C. Supreme Court decision that the ministry’s practice of paying $25 less per month in benefits to persons under age 26 violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The provincial cabinet responded by ending the benefit discrimination. But it also cut the benefits of over-26 recipients by $7 monthly. The move, while anticipated, was denounced as cynical and vindictive by welfare rights groups across the pro- vince. The minister claimed that the budget for 1987-88 had been set already and that there was no further money available to top up the rate for under-26 recipients while continuing to pay full benefits for other GAIN recipients. The additional Angry eastsiders confront Richmond on welfare cuts TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON DERA’S Jim Green (I) tells Claude Richmond (r): “$7 cut is two days’ food.” é amount needed is estimated to be $4.6 million. “That $7 a month means for people in this community two days without food,” Green told Richmond during the meet- ing. He handed the minister 100 letters cal- ling for reinstatement of full benefits for those cut under the cabinet order. Richmond was also asked from the floor during question period to justify the cutback in light of the fact that wel- fare benefits in British Columbia are half the nationally set poverty level, and was met with catcalls and jeers when he claimed “there is no such thing as an official poverty level.” Boos greeted his statement that wel- fare “is not designed to be a way of life, but to get you over a rough period.” Richmond also drew fire for repeat- edly promoting the ministry’s Jobtrac program, an $81-million plan designed to get long-time benefit collectors off the welfare rolls. “Where are the jobs?” DERA members called out when the minister proposed the program as a solu- tion to the province’s staggering unem- — ployment. Green charged that the “Coquihalla Mardi Gras” shows there is money in the province to adequately fund welfare. He was referring to the scandalous cost overruns on the province’s newest high- way, built last year for Expo 86 traffic, which is the subject of a series of public hearings. DERA workers have been making the rounds of welfare lineups and fo banks collecting signatures on letters and formal appeals to the ministry. One part of the campaign is a letter t0 Richmond urging he reverse the cuts. Another is a letter to federal Health am Welfare Minister Jake Epp suggesting that provisions of the Canada Assistance Plan, under which Ottawa funds one half of the costs of provincial welfare, ar€ being violated by the cut. A third com ponent is the mass distribution of indi- vidual appeal forms. ae A court challenge to the cutback 1S also being examined, DERA organizers say.