BRITISH COLUMBIA

Fight for youth, ’ council

VICTORIA — After months of campaigning by local community organizations, city council has agreed to provide downtown youth with a special recreation centre — but it’s not enough, an unemployment activist and aldermanic candidate charges.

“Unfortunately, council’s offer does not include any money for utilities or staff,” said Peter Ramsey of the Victo- ria Unemployed and Welfare Rights Action Society.

Ramsey, who also runs as an aldermanic candidate for the Victoria Organization of Involved and Con- cerned Electors, said the relative lack of support for a fully financed youth centre contrasts with council’s green- light stance on a proposed downtown Eatons’ megamall.

Despite its reputation as a retire- ment city, Victoria among Canadian cities experiences one of the heaviest congestions of young people gather- ing downtown.

urged |

More events mark $7 WD

“Women Everywhere Unite” is the theme this year as the province’s women’s movement gears up to celebrate Interna- tional Women’s Day March 8.

Poster and photo displays, a march and rally, and a conference sponsored by the Women’s Committee of the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor are just a few of the events scheduled for Vancouver.. And women’s organizations in Nanaimo are planning that city’s first march and rally to commemorate the day and highlight the call for nuclear disarmament.

Events in Vancouver begin on March 1 when poster and photo displays detailing the history of International Women’s Day, women in unions and women in South Africa go on view at the Vancouver Public- Library and the Carnegie Centre.

Vancouver’s march and rally will be held on Saturday, March 7. Organizers are ask- ing people to assemble at the Georgia Street side of the Vancouver Art Gallery at 10:30 a.m. so that the march through downtown can begin at 11 a.m. sharp.

The event is sponsored by the ines tional Women’s Day Committee, a coali- tion of various trade unions, concerned women, and women’s organizations, inclu- ding Women’s Economic Agenda, Con- gress of Canadian Women, Women in Focus, Office and Technical Employees Union Local 378, North Shore Women’s Centre and the Vancouver Society for Immigrant Women. The rally at | p.m., also at the Art Gallery, will feature a panel of international speakers and focus on eco-

The B.C. Fed’s Women’s Committee wants to explore new ways to increase the effectiveness of women in their trade unions at their conference entitled “Tapping the Source.” The conference itself is open only to trade union women who are required to register through their union office at a cost of $25. But the opening session on Friday, March 6, and a “Feminist Happy Hour” social scheduled for Saturday evening are open to everyone.

The public meeting on March 6 will be held at Robson Square Media Centre at 7:30 p.m. Featured speakers include Edith Johnson, a retired activist from the United Auto Workers, and Nancy Riche, an execu- tive vice-president of the Canadian Labor Congress. Saturday’s social begins at 5 p.m. also at the Robson Square Media Centre. Participants in the conference will be joining the march and rally on Saturday morning.

The call for disarmament will be the focus of a luncheon sponsored by the Con- gress of Canadian of Women on Sunday, March 8. Special guests at the luncheon will be Elena Kamenetskaya from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and Connie Van Pratt, of the Institute for Security and Co- operation in Outerspace, from the United States. The luncheon begins at | p.m. at the Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave. Admis- sion is $8.

Last year in Nanaimo some 400 women participated in the events around Interna- tional Women’s Day and this year organiz- ers hope for an even greater attendance at two days of events.

1986 march.

IWD in Vancouver .

Canadian Women and Women in Dialogue —

are working together to hold Nanaimo’s first International Women’s Day march and rally. The march on Saturday March 7 begins at 12 noon at city hall and will pro- ceed to the court house for a rally featuring

local speakers, including: Maxine Zurbrigg,

president of the CUPE local at Malaspina College.

A dance and social are set for the evening celebration on March 7 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Branch’10 Legion on Wallace Street. Special international guest speakers include

Elena Kamenetskaya and Connie Von

Pratt.

Workshops, educationals on_ health issues and economic issues, including free trade, arts and crafts displays, and book sales, are all part of Sunday’s events in Nanaimo. Set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at

Malaspina College all events are free and

Procuring a drop-in centre for ) : free childcare is available.

The Nanaimo Branch of the Congress of

young people has been the object of a campaign by the 18-month old Asso- ciation of Street Kids (ASK), who have petitioned the mayor’s task force on youth for a fully financed centre.

The city’s response was to donate a building far from the area where

youth usually gather, placing it under the administration of the more recently formed Alliance Club.

While supportive of “any move” to create a centre for youth, Ramsey said funding problems may doom the cen- tre before it is even started.

Ina letter Ramsey hit council for its “bootstraps approach” — making the community responsible for the bulk of the funding.

He urged council to create a social services branch for jobless youth and to put pressure on the federal and provincial governments to create jobs.

Meanwhile, opposition to the con- struction of a gigantic Eatons mall covering two blocks of Victoria’s downtown — a move which would mean the destruction of several heritage-quality buildings — con- tinues to be opposed in meetings and rallies.

More than 3,600 residents have signed a petition calling for a review of the plan. An opinion poll contracted by Cadillac-Fairview is being kept secret, said Ramsey.

Council has established the office of special development commissioner to review the Cadillac-Fairview pro-

In a letter to the commissioner, Gwyn Symmons, Communist Party branch secretary Ernie Knott blamed the economic decline in the city’s downtown core on the loss of several industries and jobs since 1979.

“What Victoria needs is ... new job-creating industries and revitaliza- tion of closed older industries to supply the shopping dollars,” he wrote.

In the event the project proceeds, it should be built with union labor, ensure “maximum heritage protec- tion,” include a land sale and tax deal that protects taxpayers, and include a youth centre, Knott stated.

nomic and health and reproductive issues.

When does 40 per cent plus one consti- tute a majority?

ANSWER: When the NPA determines that 59.9 per cent of the electorate is not a majority for change in a plebiscite on a ward system for Vancouver.

This version of democracy as conceived by NPA mayor Gordon Campbell is the fate of the longstanding desire of the majority of Vancouver citizens for a ward system.

During the election when he wanted to appear as a political moderate, Campbell said that as mayor he would support a ward system for Vancouver. Now the mayor has presented a set of proposed

_ charter amendments which amount to a manoeuvre to frustrate the implementa- tion of a ward system.

Vancouver has already approved a ward system in two plebiscites. But the new plebiscite that the NPA has asked the provincial government to allow requires that 60 per cent of the voters approve the plebiscite question. And the question itself may beso cumbersome — possibly inclu- ding the number of aldermen, boundaries of wards, and the option for a full ward system or a partial ward system — that a 60 per cent majority will be extremely dif- ficult to achieve.

The ward system was one of several issues before city council Feb. 3 when it deliberated amendments to the City Char- ter that the city will seek from the provin- cial legislature. In addition to the 60 per cent requirement in a new plebiscite, the

three year term for members of council. They defeated a motion by Ald. Eriksen for a charter amendment requiring public disclosure of the amount and source of campaign donations over $100, and also defeated a motion from Ald. Davies to change the title “alderman” to the non- sexist term, “‘coucillor.”

QUESTION: When are 10 per cent cuts in the budgets of city departments not cutbacks in city services?

NPA fields ‘trick’ w

NPA also voted to ask the province for a

Answer: when the NPA pretends is public that there won’t be cutbacks and layoffs, but prepares for just that in pri- vate.

The process to adopt the 1987 Van- couver budget has now begun and it is obvious that cutbacks in city services and employment are being planned, in spite of Gordon Campbell’s many assurances dur- ing the election that the NPA would main- tain services and jobs.

City departments have already pre- pared lists of “reductions” of up to 10 per cent. Before department estimates are brought to the finance committee for debate, these will be given a private politi- cal screening by the NPA. There have already been howls of protest from the

ward plan —

ment, and kept taxes low. Recent data collected by the city of Edmonton showed that Vancouver had the lowest property tax increase (4.9 per cent) of any major city in Canada between 1981 and 1986. QUESTION: What is a fair wage?

ANSWER: The cheapest non-union wage that the NPA’s contractor friends can get away with.

The Vancouver Charter requires that “a fair wage” be paid to construction workers that do city business under contract. One of the major accomplishments of the pre- vious council was to define that fair wage and stop contractors from making exces- sive profits out of city contracts by paying very low wages.

As expected, the NPA has now abol- ished the fair wage schedule. They ignored

seven NPA park board members who warned in a private letter to council that political problems will result if the 10 per cent cuts are applied to the park system. The Committee of Progressive Electors

aldermen and COPE representative Bruce

Yorke will be carefully monitoring the direction of the 1987 budget and will alert the community to what cuts or changes are proposed. The COPE aldermen were

successful in having council call a public .

meeting to hear delegations on the 1987 budget, on April 13. This will be your opportunity to speak out in support of services and jobs. Plan to be there. Vancouver has been recognized as a model of fiscally responsible government that has maintained services and employ-

Libby Davies Bruce Eriksen

the presentations of over 20 delegations who demonstrated the social value of the fair wage policy. The council will now

- include in tenders the humorous provision that “fair wages” be paid. What is a fair .

wage? Whatever the contractor wants to pay, of course.

COMING UP: The COPE show on CJOR 600, Thursday, Feb. 26, Harry Rankin will host a program on CJOR, 8:30 a.m. to 12 Noon, on the United Nations Year of the Homeless, and hous- ing and poverty in Vancouver. MLA John Cashore will be there to discuss housing and social services in B.C. and Harry and David Lane of the Tenants Rights Action Centre will receive calls on housing and tenant problems.

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2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 25, 1987