Posts from — May 2011

There are tens of thousands of workers in the City of Vancouver, visible but not seen, whose presence is due entirely to their job.

They are foreign workers, but local neighbours.

In Canada under one of the many Temporary Foreign Worker programs, these men and women from all over the world have limited or no access to immigration.

When their employer no longer needs them — or they can no longer work for whatever reason — they must go home.

What are the impacts of this reality on the city? Are these workers vulnerable to exploitation? Where do they live? What happens if they are injured or they fall ill? Do they understand BC’s safety rules? What is their impact on our economy?

The Mayor’s Working Group on Immigration, created by Mayor Gregor Robertson soon after his election, has decided to find out.

A forum May 28 at 3.30 p.m. at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch will see the launch of a new video that explores the lives of these workers. It marks the beginning of a brief public engagement campaign to learn more about this little-understood issue.

Tickets are free, but seating is limited, so book ahead here.

Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy, now stalled because of a single municipality’s refusal to sign on, would force intolerable housing prices even higher, according to Maureen Enser, executive director of the Urban Development Institute.

In a lengthy op-ed piece in today’s Sun, Enser uses the crisis in affordability to buttress a position which is really about who decides the direction of regional growth. Is it individual municipalities or should Metro itself have an oversight role?

The UDI, the voice of the province’s major developers, has been conducting a quiet campaign against the RGS which has grown much louder since Coquitlam denied Metro the unanimous support required to make the strategy law.

It’s fair to say the UDI has a number of members who believe industrial land, even agricultural land, should be converted to residential, a shift the RGS virtually rules out. Would that mean more affordable housing? In the absence of other measures, I don’t think so. [Read more →]

Now that the sun is coming out, cycle traffic on the Hornby bike lane is surging, heading above 1,100 trips per day or about double what it was a month ago.

That’s great news, particularly given the very limited traffic and parking impacts measured by the city’s engineering department.

Here, reprinted with permission, is an e-mail I received May 18 from a commuter cyclist whose decision to begin riding closely mirrors my own experience: if we build it, the trips will come. [Read more →]

Canada Post today advised its 1,200 Vancouver employees it has decided to build a new main sorting plant at YVR, opening the door to a new future for the downtown post office building.

The decision reverses a 2009 declaration that the post offie would remain downtown in a refurbished plant in one of the most distinctive buildings in the city core.

When Canada Post designated Vancouver  for renewal under its postal transformation strategy, Mayor Gregor Robertson asked the Vancouver Economic Development Commission to work hard to find an alternative location for these 1,200 well-paid jobs. Nothing was available that met Canada Post’s requirements within city limits.

That means Richmond and YVR will be the recipients of a major new investment, strategically located next to a key air transport hub.

Ironically, the existing Canada Post building includes a tunnel to the Canadian Pacific railway station — intended to link with transcontinental express trains — that was never used because of the development of air mail.

Could the post office building become a new art gallery? Many have raised the possibliity, but that would require involvement both by VAG, now looking at the old bus depot site nearby, and Ottawa, which must also reckon with the claims of the Musqueam and Squamish First Nations.

There are no doubt many new uses for the existing building that will generate jobs and economic activity, but whether a new direction can be plotted by 2015, when Canada Post wants to move, remains to be seen.