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LABOUR
LABOUR Party leaders eager to win support of working people
by Charlie Smith
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On August 31, the Liberal Party of Canada promised a suite of initiatives to help Canadians cope with mental-health issues. And the timing isn’t a coincidence. Not only does it come in the lead-up to Labour Day on Monday (September 6), but it also o ers a rejoinder to the federal Conservatives, who have been trying to make inroads on this issue in the federal election campaign.
“In a typical year, one in ve Canadians experience mental-health challenges,” Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said in a party news release. “ e pandemic intensi ed those existing challenges, especially for front-line health-care workers, youth, seniors, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, and racialized and Black Canadians.” e Liberal response has been to offer a permanent ongoing funding to the provinces for a new Canada Mental Health Transfer, as well as a new fund for student well-being. In addition, the Liberals have promised to develop a mental-health and wellness strategy with First Nations and a review of disability bene ts and programs with an eye to assisting those with mentalhealth challenges. e Liberals say they’ll work with community partners on a fund to support Black Canadians’ mental health.
e Conservatives have promised to boost funding to provinces for mental health but not through a new transfer program. Leader Erin O’Toole decided instead to boost the annual growth rate of the Canada Health Transfer to deliver an additional $60 billion to the provinces for health care over 10 years. He also said that he’ll “encourage” employers to add mental health to employee-bene t plans with a 25 see page 4
– NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh
ON LABOUR DAY, LET’S RECOGNIZE OUR NURSES AND ALL WORKERS
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BC’s nurses and front line workers are working tirelessly. With gratitude, let’s acknowledge and support their resiliency and dedication to safe patient care.
September 2-9 / 2021
9 COVER
TAIWANfest’s guiding light, Charlie Wu, argues in a new book that Taiwanese people can learn lessons about identity from Canada’s multicultural mosaic.
By Charlie Smith Cover photo by Shimon Karmel
5 REAL ESTATE
An all-women team is developing a new social-housing project with an international charity not far from Vancouver City Hall. By Carlito Pablo
15 MUSIC
As artistic director of the 2 Rivers Remix Society, Meeka Morgan gets to indulge her deep love for, and vast knowledge of, Indigenous music. By Steve Newton
e Start Here 13 ARTS 7 BEER 18 CLASSIFIED ADS 12 COMEDY 6 FINANCE 2 LABOUR 18 SAVAGE LOVE 8 TAIWANFEST 16 WHAT’S IN YOUR FRIDGE
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from page 2 percent tax credit over the first three years.
The Liberals are also the only party to raise the issue of the “right to disconnect” from technology. It has been enshrined in legislation in four countries but not Canada, according to the federal government website. By passing a law, this would allow workers to disengage from mobile technologies to promote work-life balance. The Liberals say they’ll work with federally regulated employers and labour groups to codevelop such a policy for this country.
If they’re reelected, the Liberals said, they’ll “introduce 10 days of paid sick leave for all federally regulated workers”. In fact, the NDP pushed for this change last September in return for supporting the throne speech and avoiding an election in 2020.
This month, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh scoffed at Trudeau’s promise on sick leave, saying he had been demanding this for 18 months.
“Every day since then, people went to work sick because they didn’t have another way to pay their bills,” Singh told reporters. “Now he wants us to believe he’ll do it after the election. He’s saying the right thing now, but he has no intention of doing it.”
Traditionally, the NDP has been the party supported most heavily by organized labour. But in this campaign, O’Toole has surprised his opponents by stressing labour issues. He promised to give workers’ representatives a seat on corporate boards. In addition, O’Toole has pledged to extend employment-insurance benefits for seriously ill workers to 52 weeks. And he has indicated that gig workers would become part of a separate private scheme for EI under a Conservative government.
The latter pledge did not go over well with the Canadian Labour Congress, which described the promise to gig workers as a “kick in the teeth”.
“The Conservatives’ plan denies over a million gig economy workers access to not only the protections of basic labour standards, but to the Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance as well,” CLC president Bea Bruske said in a news release. “These workers kept Canada going during the darkest days of the pandemic, yet Erin O’Toole and the Conservatives would deny them retirement security, EI benefits, and even basic legal protections. That is reprehensible.”
The CLC followed that up with a video accusing O’Toole of an “anti-worker record”, which included voting against extending emergency pandemic help for workers and proposing a law that made it easier for corporations to “walk away from pension obligations”.
The NDP, on the other hand, has made pensions a key issue in this campaign.
“To that end, we will make sure that pensioners are at the front of the line when a company goes bankrupt—making sure unfunded pension liabilities owed to workers, and employees’ severance pay, are the top priority for repayment,” the party declared in its platform.
“We’ll stop companies from paying out dividends and bonuses when pensions are under-funded, and we’ll create a mandatory, industry-financed pension insurance program to make sure that no worker is deprived of the retirement benefits they’ve earned through no fault of their own,” the NDP noted.
The NDP platform also maintained that the federal government “has a critical role to play in protecting defined benefit pensions across the country”.
“The Liberal and Conservatives’ openness to target benefit plans in the public sector, which don’t guarantee stable benefits for retirees, puts defined benefits at risk for all Canadians—and we will immediately put a stop to this chipping away of retirement security.”
That’s in addition to creating a “Pension Advisory Commission to develop a longterm plan to enhance Old Age Security, boost the Guaranteed Income Supplement to lift all seniors out of poverty and strengthen the Canada Pension Plan”. g
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh hopes that working people respond to his party’s promise to put pensioners at the front of the line when companies go broke. Photo by Joseph Costa/Unsplash.
REAL ESTATE All-women team advances social-housing project
by Carlito Pablo
Carla Guerrera is founder of Purpose Driven Development, which is based in Vancouver.
The City of Vancouver has approved a rezoning application for a socialhousing development for and by women. The developer says it’s the “first of its kind in Canada and possibly even North America”.
“What is especially unique about this project is that it is being delivered by an all-women team,” Carla Guerrera told the Straight in a phone interview.
Guerrera is the founder and CEO of Purpose Driven Development, a Vancouver-based company working with the Soroptimist International of Vancouver (SIV) to redevelop the charitable organization’s property on West 13th Avenue.
Volunteer Soroptimist organizations operate around the world with a mission to improve the lives of girls and women. SIV’s development site is located near Cambie Street and is currently home to a three-storey affordable-rental building for senior women.
A new 13-storey building will replace the current Soroptimist Apartment House that contains 21 studio and one-bedroom units. A Vancouver staff presentation to members of city council states that rents at the present site range from $450 to $800 a month.
The new development at 546 West 13th Avenue will be geared toward seniors, single mothers and their children, and working women. The 13-storey building will feature a mix of 135 unit types, including studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units.
The staff presentation to council noted that SIV has received B.C. Housing funding under the provincial agency’s Community Housing Fund program. With this funding, the development will be able to “deepen affordability” for the new units at the project near Vancouver City Hall.
The presentation stated that 20 percent of the homes will be offered at so-called deep-subsidy rates. Fifty percent of the units will be at “rent-geared-to-income rates, with an income maximum set at Housing Income Limits (HILS) levels”.
B.C. Housing sets the annual HILS, which differs across cities. HILS represent the minimum annual income required to afford appropriate accommodation in the private market.
In Vancouver, the 2021 HILS are as follows: $57,500 for one bedroom or smaller, $69,000 for two bedrooms, $80,000 for three bedrooms, and $88,50 in the case of four bedrooms.
To illustrate, a HILS of $57,500 translates to annual rent of $17,250, using 30 percent of income for housing cost as an affordability measure. This means a monthly rent of $1,437.50.
The staff presentation to council about 546 West 13th Avenue said that the remaining 30 percent of homes in the project will be offered at “affordable market rates”.
Guerrera told the Straight that the market rates at the new development will be 15 percent to 20 percent below market rent in the neighbourhood.
“We’ve had some great support from all three levels of government who really believed in this project,” she said.
In addition to funding from the province, Guerrera said that the development is getting support from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation through a grant and low-cost financing.
For its part, the City of Vancouver is waiving $2,500,388 in development cost levy (DCL) charges because the project qualifies as social housing.
A separate staff report to council explained that the city requires social housing to “include a minimum of 30 percent of units as affordable to households with incomes which fall under the B.C. Housing Income Limits (HILs) levels, while the remaining 70 percent can be at market rents”.
An application booklet submitted as part of SIV’s rezoning application also acknowledged the funding support by the Vancity Community Foundation.
The soroptimist organization in Vancouver has an impressive history. Online, SIV says that Vancouver professional women formed the first soroptimist club in Canada on April 24, 1926, and it became “only the second within the British Empire”.
“In 1931, as the Depression hit,” the organization says, “they aligned themselves with another group of unusual women—the Police Women of Vancouver who had established a hostel for unemployed and low income women called Dunromin. Initially they donated money but a year later took it over.”
“Thus began the Soroptimist Club of Vancouver’s real estate odyssey. What began with a hostel in 1932 eventually became in 1960 Sor[o]ptimist Apartment House at 546 [W]est 13th. They were the first Soroptimist Club on the continent to open an establishment to house low income senior women.
“They continued buying and selling real estate until in 1970 they partnered with the Kiwanis Club of Vancouver to open a complex of ninety suites for low income seniors,” SIV notes on its website.
In addition to the Soroptimist Apartment House, SIV co-owns with the Kiwanis Club of Vancouver a seniors’ residence called Southwynd Place (8080 Yukon Street).
Vancouver city council approved the rezoning application for 546 West 13th Avenue on July 13.
Guerrera said in the interview that an application for a development permit will be submitted to the city in a few weeks. Construction is expected to begin in August 2022.
“We are working as a team to deliver this project in a very male-dominated industry,” Guerrera said. “We’re really focused on showcasing the leadership of women in the industry to deliver housing for women.” g
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