Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to today's episode of Red Eye. I'm Jane Williams.
Speaker: Vancouver City Council met this week to consider, among other things, the recent clearing of the downtown Eastside street camps, wine in grocery stores, and the sale of a small elementary school on the west side. Red Eye Collective member Ian Mass joins me now with his City Butte report. Hello, Ian. Good morning, Jean.
Speaker: Certainly the biggest story out of Vancouver this week was the sweep of the tents and the people living in them off East Hastings Street. Did Council talk about that this week?
Speaker: They did. They waited to the very end, to the last 15 or 20 minutes, and they pitched some pretty easy questions to staff. There was no critical analysis as far as I was concerned. There was no housing advocate, former Councillor Gene Swanson, to ask those tough questions. So really, we just heard a lot of what people have already heard this week. Councillor Carr asked about people not having shelter,
Speaker: The city manager said there was shelter if someone wanted it, and that was the end of that discussion. She asked about tents going into the garbage trucks. The city manager said only the unsafe tents went into the garbage trucks. Everything else is waiting to be claimed. And then she moved on, Councilor Carr, to ask about permanent housing.
Speaker: used referred to a press release, which came out last week about 330 units, which the province is putting together over the next couple of months. A lot of those were supposed to be open in March so that people on the street could go into it, but they haven't yet opened. Counselor Klassen asked about the criticism from a whole number of people, you know, United Nations Special Rapporteur, the federal housing advocate.
Speaker: The BC Human Rights Commissioner, BC Ombudsman, even the unions, HEU and QP were critical of what was going on in the street, but staff and council dismissed this criticism saying it really didn't reflect the danger people and property were in while camping on the street, which was the justification.
Speaker: And finally, Councillor Domonado asked about the provincial leadership and she was just, again, referred to a media release about a recent plan for the Downtown Eastside, which is really only in the beginning phase of being implemented.
Speaker: All of them praised the QPE 1004 for work they did while advocates described the way the tents and structures were removed as violent and traumatizing and dehumanizing. So you can see the council and staff have a whole different idea of what happened from the idea that people on the street
Speaker: talk about and say they've endured over the last four years. This is the fourth decamping on Hastings and two in parks in Oppenheimer and Strathcona Park. So what was clear at the end of the day is we're a long way off from solving this issue and there may be more street decampments happening in the next while. Who knows what's going to happen. And I've heard people have set up in Crab Park already.
Speaker: Yes, some more people in Crab Park. I was down there earlier on this week and people are on the side streets now on Alexander and Dunlevy and places like that. So, you know, they don't have a place to live, so they go somewhere else, but always in the downtown east side. Now, newly elected councilor Mike Klassen had a motion before council on Tuesday about selling wine in grocery stores. What's that about?
Speaker: Well, they spent more time on this than they did on the decamping. So we should talk about it. You know, we can buy wine now at public and private liquor stores and off sales at pubs and take home from restaurants. But Counselor Mike Klassen, who used to be the executive director of a wine task group that represents the interests of
Speaker: BC wine producers naturally believes that Vancouver grocers need to be able to sell wine off their shelves too. So the motion states in a positive way that this will allow retailers to support local farmers. Apparently a lot of the liquor stores don't do that.
Speaker: without harming the interest of existing liquor retailers. He points out that lots of municipalities around the province already do this in Lower Mainland, Richmond, Surrey, North Van, Delta, White Rock, Coquitlam, all of those are allowing it. So why not Vancouver? Quebec, as anybody who's been to Quebec knows that they have de panel, comedian stores on every corner.
Speaker: that make a lot of money on beer, wine, and lotto ticket sales. Is that what this motion is aiming for? Well, partially you would hope that these little grocery stores which are disappearing around Vancouver would be able to do part of this. But the province has already ruled that only stores that are 10 ,000 square feet or more
Speaker: can have these licenses, 10 ,000 square feet is a big store. So no Depañera or Covignan stores fit that description, only the big box stores like Savon Foods, real Canadian super store, which we just found out racked up
Speaker: great profits over the COVID time, but they need more money and why it's a good way to do it. So that's what the motion's about. Now, the challenge here is that the province in fact isn't giving out these licenses anymore. There's a kind of an indeterminate moratorium on this. So
Speaker: If Vancouver actually changes its policy and allows these licenses to come to Vancouver, it will mean really that a license needs to be transferred from some other location around British Columbia, which I'm imagining wouldn't be welcomed by the municipality who we're stealing from. So that's where it is. I mean, there was an interesting article in the Thai magazine this week that documented
Speaker: $20 billion in alcohol -related harms in 2020. So I'm not sure if we need more access to alcohol, but maybe more responsible access happens here. But the underlying premise, really, as this went through council, is that if any councilor voted against this, they're continually promoting this no -fund city label that was hung very effectively on Vancouver by the
Speaker: liquor industry decades ago and is brought up anytime any kind of entertainment or liquor thing comes up is you got to vote for this because if you don't, you're in favor of no fun city at all. So everybody voted in favor and we're going to have more fun. The second motion Councillor Classen had in front of council is a climate change initiative. What is he asking staff to do there?
Speaker: Well, it's a motion in my mind, and it was passed unanimously. I'll tell you the ending before I even get into it. It was a pretty good motion. It was focusing on reducing emissions in existing multifamily buildings, the apartments, care homes, SROs. He points out in the motion that Vancouver is transitioning to zero emissions in all new buildings by 2030, but close to 60 % of the carbon emissions generated in Vancouver
Speaker: come from heating of water and spaces, especially in the older buildings. The city, in partnership with the province, offers all kinds of energy efficient programs to
Speaker: help those living in single -family homes and duplexes and townhouses. But Vancouver, the province, doesn't extend those services to older multi -family accommodation, including rental apartments, where obviously some of the city's most vulnerable populations live without air conditioning. So the motion wants to change that. It calls on staff to pilot a program to reduce apartment carbon emissions through.
Speaker: energy refits, like installing electric heat pumps. Now, the only caution with this motion is that he wants this pretty ambitious idea to be funded through the existing budgets, which means that something else may not be funded. We're not sure what that is, but it'll all come out in the budget wash, as they say. And naturally, as I said earlier, the motion passed unanimously. So we'll see where this whole thing goes.
Speaker: Mayor Ken Sim is proposing to fulfill a campaign promise by establishing what's being called a budget task force. What is that?
Speaker: Well, first off, I actually reviewed the ABC campaign promises and I couldn't find it anywhere that they promise a budget task force. But, you know, let's not be picky here. Let's talk about what the mayor wants the task force to do. And he, in his motion, he talks about he wants a review of the current city of Vancouver budget, obviously, and examine where the funds are allocated on a line by line basis.
Speaker: And they're going to invite the park board, which is independent, to participate in this process. The priorities they're looking for is to find efficiencies, new revenue streams, opportunities, and any duplications that may exist. Because this year they've got a 10 .7 % tax increase. They don't want to see that happen. So they need to go through this thing. The task force will be comprised of a six member working group.
Speaker: of accountants and four other consultants working with them. But counselors Carr, Frye, and Boyle were concerned about what wasn't being looked at with this budget review.
Speaker: specifically the police budget, which makes up over 20 % of Vancouver's budget. And Mayor Sim basically said that that budget is untouchable. So don't bother adding it to the terms of reference. And there was a vote on that. And sure enough, ABC said, no, we're going to stick with what our terms of reference are, which is no police budget will be looked at here.
Speaker: The same counselors, Carr, Fry, and Boyle wanted an exemption for the climate emergency designated funds. It's underfunded already, but again, this was rejected by the ABC majority. In that case, they said, we want to look at everything.
Speaker: other than the police budget. So the task force is established, but interestingly near the end of it, Mayor Sim disclosed that all of these accountants and advisors are working for free, pro bono. So one hopes that old adage that you get what you pay for doesn't apply here when they report back in October of this year.
Speaker: The Vancouver School Board is considering selling Queen Elizabeth Annex. Now that's a Westside school that's closing down this June. What's behind this story?
Speaker: Well, it's a beautiful small kindergarten to grade three French immersion school annex right on the eastern side of the Pacific Spirit Park. So if you drive out King Edward, you come right to the end. We're talking past Dunbar here and it's at the corner of King Edward in Crown. So we're deep in the heart of the west side, but there's a lot of things going on here that affect east side schools and much beyond this little school on the west side.
Speaker: The first thing I got about four things I came out of this with. First is student numbers. Vancouver School Board says over the next seven years, we're going to have 5 ,000 less students citywide, despite all of the rezoning and things that are going on. Apparently, the province says, no, in fact, Vancouver will have 5 ,000 or even more students. So really, there's a difference of 10 ,000 students there.
Speaker: And since we only have 50 ,000 students now, the difference between having 45 or 55 ,000 is a lot. So do we need this school or not, given the numbers? Who knows what the answer is there, but that was certainly one of the concerns.
Speaker: of people who spoke about this to the school board. Secondly, what everybody agrees on is that the VSB needs money now, especially for a backlog of school seismic upgrades, which always costs more than a simple upgrade, because there's always improvements in the school they want, and the province doesn't fund that, so they always need money for that.
Speaker: Now, the 23 -24 budget, the school board is on a 23 -24 budget that they're going to consider on May 1st, that already has a $14 million deficit attached to it, which the province doesn't allow. So they're going to have to find $14 million already there.
Speaker: And the VSB has been lucky. They've had surpluses, which they've spent down over the last 10 years. So unless money can be found, service cuts are coming. And the Queenie Annex that we're talking about, they had a 2023 property assessed value of $46 ,359 ,000. And that kind of money solves a lot of financial problems, at least until the election in 2026.
Speaker: And furthermore, if the board allows this site to be sold, apparently there's about 20 more schools, most of them on the east side, that are on the list that could be surplus and sold or leased out long -term. So we got those two factors. There's a political intrigue going on behind the scenes here, apparently. The provincial government actually wants the board to sell this property
Speaker: to the Francophone Public School Board, who are in a constitutional fight with the province about Francophone schools. Apparently, the rumor has it that the province is dragging its feet about funding a new school at the Olympic Village, and apparently the Queenie Annex.
Speaker: if they sell it to the Francophone board, would speed up the approval for that new school in Olympic Village. By the way, the VSB staff thinks this is a good idea. Just sell it to the Francophone board, cash in $45 million or so, and let's move on. The final one, interesting twist, is the school board obviously hasn't endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights
Speaker: of indigenous people. And with that in mind, they reached out to the three host nations, asking them what they thought. The Squamish nation said the board needs to return the land back to the rights holders.
Speaker: which just happened to be the three host nations. And Musqueam is putting together something for the VSB, but the ABC trustees, they're rushing this decision. They decided they couldn't wait for the Musqueam input. So they put this whole mix of issues together just this last Monday, and the ABC school board voted to declare the land surplus and dispose of it.
Speaker: with only COPE trustee Susie Ma and one city trustee, Jennifer Reddy, being opposed. But it's not over yet. This one is going to go on for a while. There's another twist here, which is the Green Party trustee, Janet Fraser, who voted to dispose of the land but wants the land to be least not sold. And so the school board will be back again on May 1st, debating that one.
Speaker: And even then, it still has the Squamish Nation's advice, which was to give it back to the nations hanging out there, which at least at this point seems to have been ignored. So we'll see how all of this plays out. Well, thanks so much, Ian. Good to talk to you. Always good to talk, Jane. I've been speaking with Red Eye Collective member Ian Mass with his City Beat report.
Speaker: The Red Eye Collective is based in Vancouver. You can check us out at coopradio .org slash redeye.
