Unions challenge Bill 42

THE WESTENDER

February 19, 2009

"Shut your yapper. You cannot communicate your ideas to a group of people,” warns Bill 42, the bad-cop star of The Unspeakable Deeds of Bill 42, a digital video produced by the BC Health Coalition (which can be viewed at BCHealthCoalition.ca). It was produced just before February 13, the day the controversial Bill 42 took effect in B.C.

The bill, introduced in May 2008, places advertising-spending restrictions on individuals or organizations other than political candidates, registered political parties, or registered constituency associations for the 120-day period leading up to and including the May 12 provincial election. That means groups such as the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF), the BC Nurses Union, the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) — all of which have launched a court challenge against the bill — must limit their advertising spending for the next three months to no more than $150,000 in total and $3,000 per riding. Registered political parties can spend no more than $4.4 million on total election expenses, and individual candidates can spend no more than $70,000.

“Election advertising” is defined by the 2008 Election Amendment Act — which includes Bill 42 — as “the transmission to the public by any means, during the period beginning 120 days before a campaign period and ending at the end of the campaign period, of an advertising message that promotes or opposes, directly or indirectly, a registered political party of the election of a candidate, including an advertising message that takes a position on an issue with which a registered political party or candidate is associated.”

Last month, WE reported that Vancouver tenant advocacy group Renters at Risk faced a $10,000 fine or criminal charges if members failed to register the group as an election advertising sponsor under the Elections Act. The BC Health Coalition, which continues to produce materials like its digital video in protest of Bill 42, registered last year and this year as a means of avoiding the scrutiny that Renters at Risk now faces.

“We [registered] because we do speak out about various things, certainly [about] the health ministry, and that’s exactly what Bill 42’s about: You’re not allowed to speak out against anything,” says BC Health Coalition co-chair Joyce Jones. “If you don’t, you’re facing huge fines: $500 a day, and each day [the fine] goes up until you pay or you do register. $10,000 maximum fine, I think, or jail time. I’m too old to go to jail.”

Now, with Bill 42 in effect until the end of the provincial election, big unions like the BCTF are speaking out against what they see as an undemocratic gag law imposed on them by the BC Liberal government.

“It’s clear to me that the main target of this legislation was unions who want to criticize government policy before an election,” says BCTF president Irene Lanzinger. “Teachers, for example... We are on the front lines in schools, so we see first-hand the impact of government policies in education. When we want to criticize those policies before an election, one of the ways that we do that is advertise. We do that through the union — we use our members’ money to do that — and we have resources to do that because we’re a fairly large union... Our goal is to make sure that education is one of the issues that gets debated.”

Lanzinger says the BCTF conducted a “significant round” of advertising over the last month before Bill 42 took effect in order to raise awareness of closed schools, overcrowded classrooms, and the lack of government support for special-needs programs, but she’s worried that the three months remaining between now and the election will leave too large a gap to effectively raise awareness of what she says is a poor government record on education.

With a $150,000 cap on advertising spending, and with a single prime-time TV ad costing about $14,000, Lanzinger says Bill 42 stifles the political debate necessary at election time. “There’s a principle in democracy about allowing free and open debate around elections, and it is the best time to engage in that debate, because it’s when you have the attention of the public, it’s when you have the attention of the politicians, and that political process around an election is a fundamental piece of democracy,” she says. “I think the Liberals are trying to limit that to their advantage.”

The BCTF and three other unions against Bill 42 went to trial in December of last year to launch a constitutional challenge against Bill 42, but were informed on the first day of the hearing that the judge would not be able to rule by the date Bill 42 would take effect. “We’re waiting for the ruling; the court of the judge has not ruled yet, as he predicted,” says Lanzinger. “[The ruling] may come before the election, but it really will be too late for us to do any significant advertising.”

Calls to the Attorney General seeking comment on Bill 42 were not returned by press time.

PHOTO: Irene Lanzinger, BCTF president. By Doug Shanks.

Homophobia the root cause of cancelled course, activists say

THE WESTENDER
February 19, 2009

Social Justice 12 promotes the pursuit of social justice as an important responsibility for all, and encourages students to develop the commitment and ability to work towards a more just society.”

So reads the 2008 integrated course package for Social Justice 12, a Grade 12 elective piloted in seven post-secondary schools across the province last year. The course glossary includes terms such as “discrimination,” “entitlement,” and “homophobia.” The presence of queer discrimination as one of many issues covered in the Social Justice 12 curriculum was the subject of controversy when the course was offered in the 2008 calendar for Abbotsford’s W.J. Mouat Secondary School. After 96 students registered for the course, it was pulled from the curriculum, as administrators alleged that the course had been mistakenly added without approval from the school district. But many students and community members believe the action was a strike against the LGBT community and an affirmation of the influence of Abbotsford’s politically conservative, often religious population.

Vancouver-based gay activists Peter and Murray Corren have filed a human-rights complaint against the Abbotsford School District for dropping the course. Although the district announced on February 10 that Social Justice 12 would be offered as an elective in Abbotsford schools beginning in September 2009, the Correns contend their battle “isn’t over yet.”

“As far as the [school board] now approving this course, it means very little [to the students who were denied from taking it],” says Murray Corren. “We have a problem with what the board has said in its [February 10] press release, in that they’re going to require students to have a written permission from their parents to take the course because of the ‘sensitive nature of some of the content.’ I want to know what that ‘sensitive nature’ is.”

Corren says it is not standard procedure for students to require written permission from parents in order to register for an elective course, but Julie MacRae, Abbotsford School District Superintendent, says it’s “common practice.” When asked to give examples of other courses that require written parental consent, she replied, “I can’t give you specifics because I’m too new to my school district to know the answer.” (MacRae has been working with the Abbotsford School District since October 2008, and did not provide WE with another spokesperson on the matter.) When asked to clarify the “sensitive nature” of Social Justice 12 that is described in the press release, MacRae said, “No, I’m not prepared to do that.” However, she agreed to comment on the potential benefits of including Social Justice 12 in Abbotsford’s secondary school curriculum: “The more you learn about any topic, the better understanding you have of it,” she said.

According to the Correns, the Abbotsford School District had until Monday (February 16) to indicate whether or not its representatives were prepared to go forward with a settlement process with the Human Rights Tribunal. MacRae was unable to provide further information on the school district’s position, but the Correns said they will settle on condition of three points: that the board send a personal letter of apology to the 96 students denied access to Social Justice 12 in 2008; that the board give its assurance that it will not place obstacles in the way of any Abbotsford school prepared to offer the course; and that the board agree to go through a sensitivity training course recommended by the Tribunal, at the board’s own expense.

“What I find really ironic is when the board was challenged back in September about why they had pulled the course, the reasons they gave was that... the course was too difficult, too complicated for high-school students... and secondly, teachers weren’t capable or prepared to be teaching it,” says Corren. “The point about this complaint is that the students had already enrolled in the course and had made educational plans accordingly, and then, at the last minute, had the course pulled from them... And the course was pulled because of parents’ religious objections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

According to preliminary reports from the Vancouver School Board, at least eight Vancouver schools will offer Social Justice 12 in the next school year. Corren is passionate about its benefits. “It helps to create citizens who are informed, able to have opportunities to think critically, and to make decisions for themselves about where they stand on issues,” he says. “Those are very important skills to have.”

PHOTO: Peter and Murray Corren. By Doug Shanks.

Subletting for the Olympics? Know the rules first

THE WESTENDER
February 19, 2009

Making a profit by subletting your rental apartment to visitors during the 2010 Games might sound like a good idea, but the legality of such a move is one of many urban myths that a citywide Olympic rentals campaign aims to cut off at the pass.

The campaign — a joint initiative of the Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre (TRAC), the BC Apartment Owners and Managers Association (BCAOMA), the City of Vancouver, and the provincial Residential Tenancy Branch — launches next month, with the objective of spreading public awareness about tenant and landlord rights and obligations before either party starts making plans for their rental units during the Olympics.

“There are two messages that they’re wanting to get out: one is that there is a law that protects tenants against illegal eviction or illegal rent increases; and the second point is that tenants cannot sublet their places without the landlord agreeing,” says Martha Lewis, executive director of TRAC. “That happened during Expo [’86]. There were some tenants who rented out their unit without the landlord knowing. And, of course, you can be evicted for doing that.”

Just as a tenant might not be allowed to sublet his or her rental unit for a short-term event like the two-week Games, Lewis and her colleagues want to make it clear that landlords cannot evict a tenant without a reason. “What we’re concerned about is mom-and-pop landlords who own a condo or a few condos, or who have people living in mortgage-helper suites, who may want to evict sitting tenants in order to rent space out during the Olympics,” she says. “Unless you have a fixed-term lease that expires at that time, there’s no way a landlord can evict tenants without a reason. And there are not many reasons.”

According to Lewis, acceptable reasons for eviction include not paying rent, causing disturbances, damaging property, the scheduling of major renovations or demolition, or if the landlord wants to move his or her parent, child, or spouse into an occupied unit.

Another purpose of the campaign is to mitigate or avoid the displacement that has affected the residents of other cities that have hosted mega-events like the 2010 Games. “For every mega-event in the world, people have been displaced... whether it’s Miss Universe, a sporting event, Expo,” says Lewis. “People have always ended up losing their housing in large numbers. This [campaign] is to try and prevent that sort of stuff from happening.”

For Marg Gordon, CEO of the BCAOMA, the campaign falls in line with the objectives of her organization, which brings together apartment owners and managers from across the province. Members sign a code of ethics, and part of the BCAOMA headquarters in Vancouver functions as a resource centre for landlords. “Our association and our membership is about promoting long-term, sustainable rental housing,” she says. “We’re not in the business of eviction.”

Still, many building owners and landlords are not part of the BCAOMA, and building owner Issac Kramer attributes the persistence of bad landlords to the chronic shortage of rental housing across B.C. Kramer owns heritage apartment buildings in the West End, the South Granville neighbourhood, and in White Rock, and has recently issued rent decreases to some of his tenants because their previous rent exceeded current market rents.

“With all the constraints in place, nobody will build apartment buildings. Because nobody will build apartment buildings, there’s a shortage,” says Kramer. “In an open market, bad landlords can’t do well... The reason why we have to put up with the bad stuff is there’s not enough [rental buildings].”

Heritage Foundation’s free guide offers tips on sustainable living

THE WESTENDER
February 12, 2009

The clean, futuristic image of modern sustainable-building technologies makes “building green” seem inextricably tied to ideas of newness: new construction developments featuring all-new sustainable materials on newly excavated plots of land. But the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s (VHF) latest guide to sustainable heritage conservation suggests that the most sustainable building practices lie in improving upon what’s already been built. In other words, renewing a heritage building conserves more energy than building a new one, and it reduces construction and demolition wastes.

The guide, titled New Life Old Buildings: Your Green Guide to Heritage Conservation, was released last week, and is available for download from the VHF’s website. The guide includes information on sustainable building practices that can be adopted to heritage buildings, such as using low-energy building materials, reusing and repairing windows, and what individuals can do to help prevent urban sprawl and create affordable housing.

“It’s a bit like the elephant in the room: If you only look at new buildings and greening new buildings, what’s going to happen to the incredibly large number of existing buildings we already have?” says VHF executive director Diane Switzer, who helped write and edit the guide. “We did this because there’s so much literature out there... We felt there was misinformation and a lack of information floating around. Many people only know what they’re told by a realtor, a contractor, or another professional.”

The guide is intended for use by prospective or existing owners of single-family homes, but Switzer hopes it will also find its way into the hands of realtors, building appraisers, and related professionals. The approach it suggests, she says, has the potential to create more sustainable communities while offsetting the negative effects of rapid gentrification. “Without going in and smacking up apartment buildings and changing the quality of the neighbourhood, you’re creating a more sustainable neighbourhood,” Switzer says. “There are alternatives to moving to a location where you have... not necessarily the most sustainable lifestyle — where you have a long commute, you’re very far from public transportation; you have to drive for every litre of milk you need. What living in older communities does is it puts you close to all of those things. It becomes a more sustainable lifestyle.”

Copies of New Life Old Buildings: Your Green Guide to Heritage Conservation are free, to a maximum of 20 copies per person or company. They are available from the VHF office (402-510 West Hastings) or online at VancouverHeritageFoundation.org.

Curb poverty in B.C. now, letter urges

THE WESTENDER
February 12, 2009

An open letter urging all of B.C.’s political parties to develop a poverty reduction plan was presented to the public at a press conference last week. More than 200 organizations and individuals signed the letter, including children’s entertainer Charlotte Diamond, acclaimed author and Downtown Eastside physician Gabor Mate, the BC Soccer Association, and Victoria City Council.

The letter — a joint effort by the BC Healthy Living Alliance, Vancity and Citizens Bank of Canada, Dietitians of Canada, the Public Health Association of BC, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — highlights the importance of implementing a provincial poverty reduction plan, given that B.C. has had the highest child poverty rate in Canada five years in a row, more than half a million British Columbians live in poverty, and the 2008 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count showed double the number of homeless in the region since 2002.

“There’s no disputing the fact that, by any measure, B.C. has the highest poverty rate in the country,” says Seth Klein, B.C. director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “What that tells us is that, for too long, we’ve operated on the assumption that economic growth and lower unemployment would inevitably translate into improvements in poverty, that a rising tide would lift all boats. And it hasn’t.”

Furthermore, despite our well-publicized image as Canada’s most prosperous and leisure-friendly province (as exemplified by the “Best Place on Earth” campaign), Klein says B.C.’s prosperity is only enjoyed by a relative few. “The gains of economic growth have not been well shared, and certain policy choices have exacerbated that,” he says. “Whether it’s cuts to welfare, making welfare less accessible, freezing the minimum wage for eight years, or eroding employment standards — all of those things have exacerbated the fact that we have not seen the kind of drop in poverty levels you would normally expect, given the economic growth rate.”

The open letter features a list of recommended targets and timelines for poverty reduction, such as ensuring that every British Columbian has an income that is less than 25 per cent below the poverty line within two years, and ensuring no one has to sleep outside within two years.

Ted Bruce, president of the Public Health Association of B.C., says the targets are reasonable. “They are challenging targets, but that’s why you set [them],” he says. “We don’t think these targets are unreasonable for a province that has the capacity that British Columbia does.”

Bruce adds that strong collaboration will be crucial to successfully reach the targets outlined in the letter. “The groups that have signed off on this letter don’t see this as a partisan strategy,” he says. “All of us delude ourselves a little bit about how well we’re doing because we tend to look at averages... I think that’s why so many people have come together around this call for action. It’s because we know, below that general [idea] of how things look good, there are huge problems that need to be addressed.”

Ernie Cre, policy advisor for the Sto:lo Tribal Council, another of the letter’s signatories, says he hopes the letter will inspire all political parties to establish poverty reduction plans before the May 2009 provincial election. “It gives them three months... more than enough time to come up with a plan as to how they would tackle poverty in British Columbia,” he says. “That’s where the issue of political will comes in... I think this is the central issue because of the turn of events in the economy... More and more folks are joining the ranks of the unemployed.”

While the recession might make the establishment of a poverty reduction plan seem like a tough gamble, Klein maintains that the recession only makes it more appropriate to launch such a plan this year. “A poverty reduction plan like this is exactly the right kind of [economic] stimulus because it focuses our efforts on those who are most vulnerable, those who will be hardest hit by the downturn,” he says.

The open-letter call for provincial action was followed Sunday (February 8) by the opening of a fifth homeless shelter, at 1442 Howe Street, by Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Homeless Emergency Action (HEAT) Team, as well as the February 4 opening of the Rainier Hotel, a supportive housing unit for Downtown Eastside women, established through the joint efforts of the provincial government, the Portland Hotel Society, and Health Canada.

Hospital battle continues

THE WESTENDER
February 12, 2009

The future of St. Paul’s Hospital remains a bone of contention between community groups and Providence Health Care, the not-for-profit, faith-based corporation that founded the hospital in 1894. According to the Save St. Paul’s Coalition, an advocacy group consisting of representatives from local organizations such as the Yaletown Business Improvement Association, the West Coast Gay Men’s Health Project, the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, and the St. Paul’s Hospital employees’ union, there has been little assurance from Providence that St. Paul’s will remain at its current downtown location at Burrard and Helmcken, despite vocal community support for it to do so. A mooted alternative has been to move the hospital to a new location on the False Creek Flats.

One-hundred doctors associated with St. Paul’s Hospital co-signed a letter to Premier Gordon Campbell last fall that pushes for the immediate initiation of hospital upgrades; its aging buildings, the letter says, require seismic improvements for earthquake safety, and key services such as its elevator and phone systems also need to be improved. “The buildings lack the space and design to properly protect patients from infection challenges,” reads the letter. “Although there have been sporadic low-level investments into the infrastructure and technology, these are band-aid solutions.”

The letter is dated October 1, 2008. There has been no known response from the premier as yet.

Brent Granby, West End Residents Association president and co-chair of the Save St. Paul’s Coalition, is concerned that the hospital’s relocation out of the downtown core would negatively affect the culture of the hospital and the community it serves. “Why would you move something away when 90,000 people can walk to it?” he says. “This hospital is world-renowned for its teaching and its doctors. It takes a long time to build that culture. People come from all over the world to train at this hospital.”

For Providence Health Care CEO Dianne Doyle, however, the biggest barrier to improving St. Paul’s’ aging facilities is the challenge of doing so on its existing downtown site. “Initial estimates have been that it could take as much as 15 years for such a process; it would likely also be more expensive than a brand-new build at another site,” she says. “In comparison, a complete rebuild at a new site would take, at most, five or six years, would be less costly, and would enable more efficient and effective design and care models.” Doyle also noted that 40 per cent of St. Paul’s patients come from outside of Vancouver.

Save St. Paul’s Coalition members counter that moving to a new site on the False Creek Flats could put the hospital in great danger in the event of a flood or earthquake, and that more emergency patients en route to St. Paul’s from downtown could die as a result of longer travel times. The coalition aims to continue to raise public awareness and discussion of the St. Paul’s stalemate through ongoing advocacy work, which will continue through the spring. (More information can be found at SaveStPauls.ca.)

Doyle agrees that the issues require more public debate. “Our hope is we can have movement on our renewal vision and get to a stage of more public consultation,” she says. For now, regional health authorities are continuing to investigate the best healthcare options for its citizens over the next 30 years. “The first step toward renewal has to be the conclusion of [discussions regarding] the larger health-planning... process currently underway with the Lower Mainland health authorities. This process is trying to determine what the needs of Lower Mainland citizens will be for 2020 and beyond.”

Councillor moves for City to pull funding of Ambassadors

THE WESTENDER
February 5, 2009

Vancouver city councillor Raymond Louie is calling for the City of Vancouver to stall funding of the controversial Downtown Ambassadors program, following a motion he introduced to council Tuesday (February 3) that calls for City staff to “not proceed with the execution of any contracts in furtherance of the expansion of the Ambassador Program or similar services in the respective Business Improvement Association areas.”

Louie says the motion follows a Vision Vancouver campaign promise to phase out the Ambassador program, which was the subject of public scrutiny last summer when the Pivot Legal Society launched a human-rights complaint against the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) and Project Civil City commissioner Geoff Plant, which co-manage the Ambassadors program with Genesis Security. Thanks to a recent expansion program, fleets of the red-jacketed Ambassadors can currently be found on streets across the city.

“The program itself has had some controversy for some time now,” Louie says. “More specifically, [the motion is] a promise that we made during the election to stop this program because we didn’t feel it was appropriate that public money be used for private security.”

Louie says the City funds previously used to finance the Downtown Ambassadors program should be more appropriately used for police and community policing centres. “The entire program had a budget of just under $1 million. As the various components of this initiative were brought forward by the last council, or phased out, I expect that we wouldn’t be spending that amount,” he says. “This program should never have been initiated to begin with... Initially, this was brought before council as a staff recommendation that it be a grant... When it became clear to the past government that it would not pass, they changed the process mid-stream from a granting process to a sole-source contract [with the DVBIA], and, of course, that further created controversy amongst the public that they would sidestep [standard City] procedure in order to accomplish what they wanted to do.”

With or without financial support from the City, Charles Gauthier — executive director of the DVBIA, which introduced the program in 1998 — is confident that the Ambassadors program will carry on. “Our program will continue,” he says. “It will just mean that we cut the eight [overnight] hours [for which] we expanded the program to [operate] 24/7. So it will be a 16-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week program like it has been since May of 2000.”

Gauthier added that the Ambassador program has played an important role in helping homeless people locate shelters, reduce street disorders, and deal with issues of drug addiction. “Even with the loss of City funding, that rapport will still be there,” he says. “We made that commitment. We have a role to play.”

As for the tenuous future of Project Civil City, former mayor Sam Sullivan’s controversial initiative to address homelessness and street disorder, Gauthier says he commends the efforts of the new Vision Vancouver-dominated council for its work in those areas. “We’re looking for outcomes. I don’t think the name [of the project] really matters,” he says. “I don’t think the tactics really matter. If it means reducing street disorder and reducing the number of people we see living on the street, does it really matter what you call it?”

The continuation of the Downtown Ambassadors program throughout the city will depend on interest from neighbourhood business-improvement associations, who will carry the brunt of the Ambassador funding if the City pulls out.

The Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) applauds councillor Louie’s motion to pull City funding from the Ambassador program. “We think that there are some things of value in [Project] Civil City, like the focus on reducing homelessness. However, the plan was far too focused on enforcement and ‘cleaning up’ incivility and street disorder by ticketing people,” says VPSN spokesperson Josh Paterson. “We think it’s more effective for government to focus on healing the underlying problems on our streets, like poverty, mental-health issues, addiction, and homelessness, than to simply hand out tickets to people who are too poor to pay.”

Whether or not the Ambassadors program is funded by the City, Paterson remains concerned with the continued use of private security forces in Vancouver. “They will still be a team of security guards, without public accountability, who make it their business to interfere with people living on the streets and move them along to other parts of the city,” he says. “Let tour guides help tourists, let outreach workers assist people in need, and let police enforce the law. In our opinion, private security guards are not well-suited to play any of these roles.”

PHOTO: A Downtown Ambassador on patrol. Courtesy of the Blackbird.

City gives Burrard Bridge lane trial another try

THE WESTENDER
February 5, 2009

The volume of pedestrians and cyclists crossing the Burrard Bridge increased 30 to 40 per cent between 1996 and 2001, according to information from the City of Vancouver. Transit ridership crossing the bridge increased about 20 per cent between those years, and cycling trips over the bridge nearly tripled between 1994 and 2004.

Despite these statistics, and in addition to multiple studies by City staff and Vancouver residents concerning the effectiveness of the heritage bridge’s pedestrian and cycling facilities — which currently consist of a shared 2.6-metre sidewalk, and dangerous intersections on the north and south ends of the bridge — a stalemate of sorts has persisted since the early 1990s as to what to do about expanding pedestrian and cyclist capacity.

Now, the City of Vancouver has produced preliminary designs for a lane re-allocation trial, which would allow for cyclists to ride on the road instead of sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians. A lane trial was last attempted in spring 1996, but was allegedly forced to an early stop when frustrated motorists on the bridge called City Hall from their cellphones to complain about the traffic. This year’s lane re-allocation follows a December 2008 motion brought forward by Vision Vancouver councillor George Chow, asking staff to prepare a report and implementation plan for a trial by mid-February. City staff held an open house last Saturday (January 31) to show preliminary designs and collect public feedback, and will present a full report to council March 3.

“I heard there were a lot of complaints [in the ’96 trial]. From what I gather, there was not really enough planning before they executed the trial. I don’t even know if the council at the time was really behind it,” says Chow. “Now, it’s gotten to a point where people recognize cycling as a viable mode of transportation... People are more aware that we need to change our transportation mode in order to actually make the city livable.”

The cost of the lane re-allocation trial will be significantly lower than a $63-million sidewalk expansion project proposed by city engineers last spring. Chow estimates the re-allocation to fall in the $1- to $2-million zone.

Timing of the trial will depend on factors such as the re-opening of the Cambie Bridge and citywide events like the Vancouver Sun Run, says David Rawsthorne of the City of Vancouver’s neighbourhood transportation branch. “From a traffic and engineering point of view, we would like to see how this works in a range of conditions, including the fall, when we have the full complement of community traffic, university students, people back at work,” he says. “And it’s not just engineering; it’s our communications department that’s part of this process. Public education is going to be a big part of it. I would hope that if this goes ahead, nobody shows up at the bridge surprised by what they see.”

Longtime cycling advocate Richard Campbell, who is part of the community group Friends of Burrard Bridge, says people will be better prepared for, and more receptive of, the trial this time around. “I think everybody’s learned a lot from the [’96] trial,” he says. “Reading over the staff report, one of the pieces they highlighted was that a lot of drivers didn’t know about the trial, and they arrived on a Monday morning, surprised,” he says. “I expect there is going to be confusion for the first couple of days... but after a week, things tend to settle down.”

Rob Wynen has been involved with advocating for better cycling facilities on the Burrard Bridge for 15 years. He is the former president of the West End Residents Association, a former director of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation, and is now part of Friends of Burrard Bridge. “I think it’s going to be very smooth this time around,” he says of the prospective re-allocation trial. “The amount of cars coming across the Burrard Bridge has gone down since the trial in ’96... Another big thing is that Cambie Bridge will be opened up pretty soon, and the Canada Line is supposed to take 100,000 vehicle trips out of the [downtown core]. And you have the excess capacity to Granville Street and on Cambie Bridge and on Burrard Bridge already.”

According to ICBC and Vancouver police statistics obtained by Wynen and Campbell, 25 pedestrians and 80 cyclists were injured in accidents on the Burrard Bridge between 1996 and 2006. They say lane re-allocation will deliver immediate improvements to bridge safety.

PHOTO: Longtime cycling advocate Rob Wynen has been advocating for lane re-allocation for the Burrard Bridge for 15 years. By Jackie Wong.

Keeping the Games accountable

THE WESTENDER
February 5, 2009

A UBC professor of population health has launched an interactive study on the potential impact of the 2010 Winter Games, and how the lead-up to the event seems to be fulfilling the goals laid out in the Inner-City Inclusive Commitment Statement (ICIS). The ICIS, a document produced in 2002 by VANOC and the municipal, provincial, and federal governments, contains a list of goals for maximizing “opportunities” and mitigating “potential impacts” in Vancouver’s inner-city neighbourhoods (the Downtown Eastside, Downtown South, and Mount Pleasant) during the Games.

The study, begun last year by Dr. Jim Frankish, will continue through to the end of 2010, with the aim of expanding public knowledge about the Games, and sharing information with future Olympic host cities. Data has been collected through community forums and polls, and through feedback left at 2010Impacts.blogspot.com, a blog Frankish and his research colleagues established for the study.

The study looks at promises laid out in the ICIS and how they have — or have not — been successfully executed in the months leading up to and following the Games. Those promises include the protection of affordable housing stock, maintaining the delivery of health and social services to inner-city residents during the Games, providing disclosure of all financial aspects of the Games during the organizing process, and the employment of an independent watchdog group to monitor progress.

Last week, Vancouver City Council passed a motion to ensure that a public consultation on civil liberties and public safety — as listed in the ICIS — would take place.

But there is no similar motion for other “missing” ICIS commitments, and Frankish is unsure if they will be met. “Promises that... all the partners will work with an independent watchdog — that hasn’t happened,” he says. “VANOC and other partners have allowed the time to go by — years and years — and they’ve never [established] a community watchdog. The ICIS also says there will be community representation from inner cities. Our perspective is that hasn’t really happened either.”

Frankish, a professor and the director of UBC’s Centre for Population Health Promotion Research, frames his study in the context of what factors make for a healthy city, and how the process of organizing and hosting the Games succeeds or fails at honouring the health determinants outlined in the ICIS. “If you look at the determinants of health as they relate to population health, the list has aspects such as employment, housing, social support, gender, education,” says Frankish. “If you look at the ICIS statement against those determinants, there’s a lot of overlap. Civil liberties is another piece that I would consider as part of the determinants of health.”

Part of the challenge in ensuring that ICIS commitments are honoured, Frankish says, is the fact that many Olympic decisions are made behind closed doors. “A lot of the decisions are not made public or not made quickly enough, and it’s often too late to do much about them,” he says. “Nobody really knows what the rules are going to be around civil liberties and protests.”

Frankish’s study, funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, will be completed in late 2010. The study aims to produce new information that will be useful to both Vancouver residents and other bid cities, particularly in the context of the current economic downturn. At the very least, the study will help build public awareness of, and engagement with, the ICIS. “I don’t think the average person in Vancouver even knows that the commitment exists,” he says. “Hopefully, the results will be of value and interest to people.”