The Finnish Organization of Canada marks its 65th anniversary this year and last weekend, some 100 members and supporters of the organizatior’s Local 55 gathered in Vancouver to commemorate the event. Alderman Harry Rankin (left) opened the ceremony while Sylvia Lowe, Osmo Lahti and Uno Soderholm (far right) read greetings from several organizations and paid tribute to the pioneers who had founded and built the organization and had played a major role in organizing the labor movement.

Housing a major issue

Housing legislation is expected to be one of the controversial issues at the upcoming session of the B.C. Legislature which will convene in Victoria on January 13.

Housing minister Hugh Curtis has already announced that the Socred government is considering legislation in line with a report prepared by recreation minister Sam Bawlf, former Victoria alderman and a developer, who was recently elevated to the Socred cabinet.

The Bawif report has come under sharp fire from many quarters which may make it- difficult for the government to carry through with some of the reactionary proposed legislation contained in the Bawlf report. The report was supposed to be a joint provincial-municipal project, but as it turned out, it was the in- dividual effort of Bawlf.

Latest criticism of the report came this week from Greater Vancouver Regional District planners. They charged that if the

Tribute to a fighting rebel girl

Bawlf recommendations for new housing legislation are adopted they will have the opposite effect, and lead to less action on housing rather than more.

Under legislation suggested in the report, housing minister Hugh Curtis would be empowered to set quotas on housing type and quality for each region and municipalities would then be required to prezone, or set aside sufficient land to meet quotas set by the provincial government.

The GVRD planners also ex- pressed sharp disagreement with a recommendation by Bawlf that the provincial government adopt legislation which would call for elimination of land-use contracts and relaxation of approval required for rezoning bylaws. The end result, say the planners would be ‘‘a virtual shutdown” on medium-density housing which would force up market prices of houses and land faster than any other feature.

The main aim of the Socred

* Calgary

government in appointing Bawlf to prepare the report, and then promoting him to the cabinet, appears to have been to prepare the way for provincial government action to wipe out restrictions imposed on developers at the municipal level. Under the report, Victoria will use the big stick to- force civic governments to make concessions to big developers on the pretext of getting action on housing. :

The Bawlf report also had one of its main conclusions repudiated last week by the chairman of the Central Mortgage and Housing Corp. Bawlf argued _ that speculation on land and the high cost of land was not a major factor in restricting housing. William Teron, chairman of CMHC, said in that two-thirds of Canadians who need housing cannot afford it, and that the high price of land, caused to a large extent by speculation, is a major contributor to the housing problem.

.municipalities in

“it in whatever way

Right wing aims to scuttle GVRD

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

An attempt is being made to scuttle the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). It emanates from the far right, specifically from right’ wing mavericks like Mayor Ed McKitka of Surrey and Mayor Tom Goode of Delta. :

The GVRD is composed of all 14 the Lower Mainland and three small electoral districts. Its governing board is made up of mayors and aldermen elected to the Board during the

course of municipal elections. The ©

GVRD deals with such matters as the building of hospitals, water supply, air pollution and parks. One of its main functions is planning. The direction of growth and development in the Lower Mainland, establishment of town

-centres and transportation all

require regional planning. Guidelines have been drawn up on some of these issues.

Some of the plans and guidelines established by the GVRD have run into strong opposition from developers. They want a free hand to gobble up all the vacant land in the Lower Mainland and to develop is most profitable for them, unrestricted by any rules and guidelines. The two mayors mentioned above reflect this pressure from the fast- buck developers. :

The main argument they use to attack the GVRD is that because voting strength is based on population, Vancouver and Bur- naby can outvote Surrey, Delta and other smaller municipalities. The answer to this argument is two-

Strength as North Vancouver of

“It’s the special file on dissenters.’’

fold. First of all, basing voting strength on population is the most democratic way there is in the circumstances. Secondly, ther@ has not, to the best of my knowledge, been even one instance where Vancouver and Burnaby have ganged up to defeat the smaller municipalities or to im pose their will on them.

This argument. of Mayor McKitka and Mayor Goodeis just 4 red herring drawn across the trail to divert attention from the real issue which is that some control must be exercised over develop ment and over developers. 3

This is not to say that the present structure of the GVRD can’t be changed or shouldn’t be. re) examined. It is unrealistic, for example, that small communities like Bowen Island and Lion’s Bay with less than 1,000 people each should have the same _ voting

Coquitlam. But such = an) examination or review should be aimed at strengthening the GVRD | by making it more democratic, not by dismembering it.

Mayors McKitka and Goode would like to see a GVRD com” posed only of the municipalities surrounding Vancouver an Burnaby, with both Vancouver and Burnaby left out. This would result in anarchy, not a_ planned development of the Lower Mainland. It may be good for developers’ profits and it may allow these mayors to build their political empires but it would be bad for the people of the Lower Mainland.

That is why it’s in the interests of all the, people of the Lower Mainland, including the people of Delta and Surrey, that these at tempts to dismember and destroy the GVRD be defeated.

But while defending the GVRD from destructive attacks from the far right, it is at the same time necessary to subject the GVRD 10 pressure from people on issues like housing anda rapid transit system for the Lower Mainland. Until noW the GVRD has spent far too much time studying these issues without doing much about them.

By MAURICE RUSH

be immortal Joe Hill paid a tribute to women in the

revolutionary movement with his song, ‘“‘The Rebel Girl” in which this line appears: ‘‘The rebel girl, the rebel girl, to the working class she’s a precious jewel.” I was reminded of that line last week when I visited Effie Jones in the Vancouver General Hospital.

Her hair all white now at 85 years of age, Effie has the same fighting spirit, enthusiasm and warmth as when I first met her more than thirty years ago. As we held hands and talked, my mind went back over the many years Effie and I worked and fought together in many civic cam- paigns in Vancouver, and I thought what a precious

jewel the working class movement in Vancouver has had _

in Effie Jones.

Always enthusiastic, never downhearted by defeat or setback, a militant, determined and courageous fighter for the needs of the ordinary people in Vancouver, the secret of Effie’s popularity lay in the fact that every little problem of the people — no matter how small — con- cerned her. Andshealways did something about them, not out of a sense of duty, but out of a deep feeling for her fellow human beings. To act for people was as natural to Effie as breathing. Everybody that had a problem knew they could go to Effie and that Effie would make their problem her own. :

Effie’s life has been a model of a Communist woman: deep devotion to the working class and the socialist cause in which she believed; militant, self-sacrificing and courageous in her fight for the rights and needs of her fellow human beings — yet always with a friendly warmth and sense of deep humanism.

Many were the delegations led by Effie to City Council to do battle against the B.C. Electric; the big real estate

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 10, 1976— Page 2

operators; for electoral and tax reform; against higher phone and transit rates; for decent welfare and housing for the unfortunate; for a chance for our youth. Effie’s campaigns, more than any other, discreditted and ex- posed the machinations of the big utility monopoly, the B.C. Electric, which profited and fed on the city’s population.

Effie’s name was enough to strike terror into the hearts of the rich and powerful in their board rooms from which they dominated Vancouver city hall. But her name also

brought affection and support from a growing section of

the population which reached a high point when Effie was almost elected mayor of Vancouver.

Although Effie was never elected to civic office because of the thoroughly undemocratic nature of civic govern- ment— which still persists to this day — Effie had a more profound effect on civic politics than many elected of- ficials because of the campaigns she waged and the growing public support she rallied for civic reforms.

The years of struggle by Effie have had a profound effect on our city. It was thanks to her many effective campaigns that a broad base was laid of public support for progressive civic reforms, some of which have been won and many which still remain to be won. She played a central role in exposing the Non-Partisan Association and probably did more than any other individual in helping reduce that once all-powerful big business civic political machine to a shadow of its former self.

Above all, Effie’s many election campaigns through the Civic Reform Association: and Effie Jones Election Committee, established in Vancouver broad electoral support for civic reform candidates. And it was not many

age, that her efforts led to the first breakthrough for thé reform voters with the election of Ald. Harry Rankin.

In a true sense, Effie Jones and her Civic Refor™ Association was the forerunner of Ald. Harry Rankin at the Committee of Progressive Electors. And if othe! reform civic candidates are now knocking at the door 9 civic office in Vancouver, they can thank Effie Jones fo! having plowed the ground and planted the seeds.to enable progressive civic movements to flower.

Some day a way will be found in the city of Vancouver to honor this great Communist woman civic leader who di so much for its citizens and whose efforts have made ou! city a better place in which to live. :

I started this tribute to Effie with a line from Joe Hill's “The Rebel Girl.” Let me end it with another: “We’ve had girls before, but we need some more, in the revolutionary movements of the world, for its great to fight for freedo™ with a rebel girl.”’ For me it’s been a great experience to have had Effie asa comrade and to have been by the side of this rebel girl in the fight for freedom.

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years after Effie was forced into retirement by advancing

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Editor — MAURICE RUSH Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN Business and Circulation Manager — MIKE GIDORA Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3; 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-8108

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