Citizens speak on proposed Vancouver Casino

(Here is a story I just wrote in 30 minutes in a mock webfile for a class at my college. I am going to invest in a smartphone, as I had to race back home from city hall on the bus to meet my professor's deadline!)

Over 200 people showed up to Vancouver City Hall last night to have their say on the proposed expanded casino next to BC Place, and after hearing from the applicants and staff only a handful of union representatives had the opportunity at press time.

Council voted to extend the hearing an hour, yet after hearing from the applicants — Paragon Gaming, PavCo and the B.C. Lottery Corporation — and city hall staff, there was only enough time to hear from a handful of citizens all union representatives who spoke in favour of the casino proposal.

Outside council chambers a rowdy overflow crowd of over 100 people sat and stood watching the proceedings, Mayor Robertson requested respect for the applicants several times.

"This is an important debate, I respect it," said David Podmore, head of PavCo — the government company that owns the land next to BC Place.

Vocal anti-casino protesters outnumbered two-to-one a group of about 50 Edgewater casino employees all wearing yellow T-shirts with the slogan “Save Our Jobs.”

“In 2013 our lease is up at our current location and if this project does not go through approval by the city that means 600-plus employees are out of work,” said CAW 300 spokeswoman and Edgewater PR representative Lesley Harris.

Many protesters rallied out front of city hall before the hearing under the banner “Vancouver Not Vegas.”

Proposal critic and renowned architect Bing Thom said outside city hall, “The government has become addicted to the gambling revenues, [to them] it's easy money."

Councillors were critical of these projected revenues in their questioning of the applicant’s numbers.

Council also critiqued the lack of weight the applicants put on the social problems the expanded casino might bring and BCLC president Michael Graydon admitted the BCLC has no ability to ascertain spending habits of problem gamblers in casinos.

Obvious News: Vancouver will still have hundreds of homeless people in 2015

                                         Chris Huggins (Flickr)/photo

Planning department shows city still has considerable challenges if it wants make good on mayor's promise to end homelessness in the next decade.

A new report from city hall says 450 new housing units are needed to end homelessness in Vancouver by 2015.

City Manager Penny Ballem’s report garnered praise from councillors during a festive Lunar New Year session. Only Coun. Suzanne Anton questioned the projected shortfalls and the secrecy of the report.

“To me, my conclusion [from the report] was that 450 units will solve homelessness in Vancouver. Well… no,” Anton said. “450 units will not solve homelessness."

                 Thomas Quine (Flickr)/photo

The report projects - despite the city’s partnership with BC Housing creating 14 new supportive housing sites by 2012 - the city will still be short hundreds of units by 2015. This shortfall will increase 750 units by 2020 to a total of 1,200 units if additional housing is not provided.

     

“Elimination of homelessness is quite realistic, it could be rolled back province-wide by an investment equivalent to the new stadium roof — $568 million,” said Coun. Geoff Meggs. “All that's missing is political will.”

Anton, the lone councillor outside of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s ruling coalition, believes these numbers are greatly undervalued.

“There’s about 7,000 built now, so there really needs to be 3,000 more to properly accommodate all the people who are living [downtown],” Anton said. “I think the mayor was looking for a real political solution to his election promise.”

Anton was also disappointed with lack of transparency in the report. “I thought it was a disgrace to democracy that it was brought in that forum so that nobody had any notice of it.

 Coun. Suzanne Anton

“It was a PowerPoint [presentation] and council didn't even have it in front of them. There was no opportunity to properly challenge it or question it or prod it or to see what it actually meant,” Anton said. “This mayor is famous for his disinterest in hearing from people. And presenting it in this way so nobody could address the subject was very odd indeed.”

Coun. Tim Stevenson thinks the report — on which the city will hear from the public and report back to council by the end of April — and its compiling of concrete numbers is another step in a larger process of understanding Vancouver’s homeless began by previous administrations.

“I've been awaiting this report for a number of years and it is excellent in my opinion,” Stevenson said. It will certainly lead us into the future.”

The report focused on mapping the city’s total homeless population, supportive housing and rental units. The report claimed only 10 per cent of Vancouver’s homeless — largely single men — come from other provinces, dispelling a popular myth that many migrate to get away from cold winters further East.

The Community Services department will conduct another count of the city’s homeless population Mar. 16, 2011, as part of its annual report card on the issue.

The report stressed the need for 12 to 15 more supportive housing sites to close the eventual 1,200-unit gap by 2020.

“There's no question that the only way to get adequate housing is for senior levels of government to help with the funding,” Anton said. “The best housing is when there's partnerships with the city — which is usually land and facilitation services — BC Housing non-profit groups and the province.

“That's what puts housing together right now.”


The report can be found here : http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20110201/documents/HousingandHomelessnessStrategy.pdf