Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 13, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free january r u the columnists new Home prices soar Victoria firs time Home buyers have joined the list of endangered Spe cies in British As House prices continue to skyrocket in Vancouver and the most optimistic real estate agents admit affordable housing is a thing of the past in lower Mainland and on Southern Vancouver statistics Canada reported prices in Vancouver were per cent higher in november than a year giving the City the dubious distinction of having the fastest rising new Home prices in the the average House Price in Vancouver is Jerry Jackman of Royal Lepage in Vancouver says housing costs Are causing people to reconsider moving to the West were having an increasingly difficult time in getting people to relocate to British Jackman we had a re cent situation with an amalgamation of a National firm where the employees had a Choice Between Calgary and and they took Calgary because of housing dying Breed firs time purchasers Arent look ing As far but there not settling in Vancouver while firs time buyers accounted for 32 per cent of Home purchases in Canada in Only 23 per cent of British Columbia House sales went to people entering the that an eight percentage Point drop in the prov Ince in just two an indication Jackman that the firs time buyer is a dying analysts disagree on the reasons behind the continuing surge in in its statistics can Ada cited Strong foreign invest ment and an influx of canadians from other Jackman says both Are but the main reason is a Lack of devel Pable nervous looking at increased infrastructure costs for sewers and Community Are cutting Back on the amount of land made available to every parcel which comes available is snapped a new Home is becoming a Distant dream for firs time buyers in Ric Wiertz in British Columbia Maple Ridge and Richmond Are literally Boom Surrey is the fastest growing municipality in the province and the local Council has been besieged with complaints from residents about the effects of proposed developments on their concerns about who will pay for additional services have not fallen on deaf at a time when in creasing Mill rates have fuelled voter discontent during the summer of 1989 when foreign investment racial tensions came to the Vancou ver mayor Gordon Campbell made Public appearances to try to dispel rumours that Hong Kong investors were buying up Choice Vancouver properties at exorbitant forc ing longtime City residents to leave the neighbourhoods they grew up House prices became an Issue in a provincial won by the opposition new democratic party candidate who pointed the Finger at unscrupulous real estate speculators and called for a speculators tax which would penalize Sellers who reaped Large since foreign investment in British Columbia particularly Vancouver has dropped the provincial govern ment shrugged off the speculators tax proposal and turned its focus toward making Crown land Avail Able for Low Cost to efforts have been land needed Jackman insists his assessment of the problem is the right and says there is something the Provin Cial government can do in a meaningful he believes municipalities will make More development land available if the government subsidizes infrastructure the additional land will ease the Supply and demand situation and cause prices to calling on the government to throw Money at the situation is nothing but Jack mans proposal has a wry All the Money for the subsidies would come from the property Purchase a tax which generated an estimated for the prov inces general Revenue fund in much of that is considered a Windfall profit because of the sky rocketing House prices in and around the if would mean Money generated because of the problem would help to pay for its while Public cries for some form of action by the provincial govern ment firs time Home buyers dont have time to consider the irony of this possible there too Busy looking in communities 50 Miles outside Vancou ver and wondering if they can afford the two hour because they cant afford to live near employer or its about time Quebec started listening to West Edmonton in news of the latest Gallup poll was All Over the province within hours of its release last Good reason the poll shows that 27 per cent of canadians out Side Quebec favor the provinces separation from when such things i Al ways stay close to my and Montreal Seldom disappoints the Call came through before noon please go on they and explain Why the West is so apathetic about apathetic apoplectic is More like certain things need careful explanation to so i agreed to go on the along with a Montreal Anchorman and Lise Bis the Globe and mails Quebec Bissonnette is one of the Best journalists in like most of her Quebec she is quite Blind to Western Don braid in Alberta devoted Quebe cers like her cant seem to admit that any other canadians might have a especially with the so i minted out that westerners might feel friendlier if a Quebec Leader were to just that the Meech Lake Deal does not suit the it passes Over so Many Western issues Senate re native eventual prov inc Hood for the it be i if Robert Bourassa would just once admit these things How amiable he would seem if he would Only say the West has real problems in Canada lets talk about them not As part of Meech but just to get things not said Bourassa is being pressured by the he has no manoeuvring room to talk that As she i could feel the chill coming straight off the there you have the Core of the Quebec forever insists that its concerns Are the Only ones that the rest of us must agree or risk being called i Toler even our own in the Apt phrase of former Federal bureaucrat Gordon Are dismissed As Rural eccentric this is Why so Many westerners believe Quebe cers should try Mak ing do with their own after More than 20 years of com with never a conciliatory word in this mood is hardly saints have lost their patience with less but we must be very careful about waving Quebec the results could be if More than six million que Beers were to leave what province would suddenly have half the National population what province would Send 99 of 220 maps to a smaller Federal parliament our old Friend that if westerners dont like the Way Canada is working they will hate it when Quebec is gone and Ontario runs absolutely every this is Why Quebec and the West must reach out to each we have so much in common Aliena mistrust of Ottawa and Ottar a yearning to do More for but the West has done its share of reaching now its Quebec that the Point i tried to make on the Quebec to after my eyebrows i had to ask if it was Worth the Don braid is a Calgary Herald mohawks negotiate for native courts Montreal the que Bec and Federal govern ments Are quietly negotiating an arrangement which would significantly expand native autonomy Over courts and Law enforcement on the Kahn awake Reserve near if the talks with the Mohawk of Kahn awake Bear the new concept of judicial autonomy on reserves could become a Model for other native groups across and an important step toward defining native self gov Public information about de tails of the negotiations is but native leaders Are expressing it would mean that in areas affecting the Reserve the administration of Justice and the enact ment of certain Laws could be done by the native people them selves in accordance with their traditional systems of jus said John que becs minister of native real experts Ciaccia is one of the real experts in native be fore he entered Quebec politics he was a Deputy minister of Indian affairs in he was the chief negotiator of the James Bay treaty in the Early which recognized extensive land and Hunting rights of the and paved the Way for Hydro que becs Power development in norther Ciaccia and his Premier Robert Are interested in talking about judicial Auton omy for Kahn awake right now because Law enforcement on the Reserve is a Point of severe ten Sion and the Mohawk Are divided among the elected band Council is contested by the warriors traditionalists of the Longhouse who Bear arms and recognize no White mans the traditionalists Are engaged in the illegal Sale of in gambling and and in super Bingo Halls offering prizes far in excess of those permitted by Quebec two years following a raid by the ramp on cigarette outlets on the armed warriors blocked highways and a Bridge across the Lawrence for Sev eral some of them Are still having refused to re Spond to summonses to face charges in earlier this year Longhouse supporters opened a super Bingo Hall on the directly defy ing provincial the provincial who have been known to intervene roughly on played it they did not raid the in Stead they stopped buses leaving the Hall and issued summonses to some of whom had come several Hundred Miles for the big they seized the car won by one and issued sum Monses for the arrest of the Bingo who will presumably be arrested in due tensions increased neither the local band Council nor the local police let along James Stewart in Quebec the look kindly on intervention by other there was a lot of confusion and a lot of hostility about who had the right to do what and a former Energy min ister who had been put in charge of native affairs after last sep members moved in to look for a better he visited the talked with the chief and other including some of the Longhouse Ciaccia also began talks with which has primary responsibility for native people As Well As the criminal and of course with his own which has primary responsibility for Law enforcement the which began in no Are expected to take months before anything positive is there Are still Many questions to be the main one being just How much leeway native courts would and just How far native Laws could deviate from Canadian and Quebec Kahn awake grand chief Joe nor ton says the mohawks could end up enforcing their own civil and Crimi Nal Laws in areas such As divorce and provincial and fed eral authorities would remain responsible for offences committed by natives off the and for More serious crimes such As drug murder and sexual As Sault native courts another problem is financing the native courts and Law enforce natives on reserves pay few but presumably a autonomous judicial sys tem would have to be financed through local the biggest problem of has to do with who will run the show the elected band the traditionalists who reject the Council but oppose gambling and cigarette or the warriors who carry control the contraband and Bingo and reject but their unil the mohawks of Kah awake have settled that ques Tion among there is not much Hope of settling the broader questions of native self Ciaccia Heads of i fawns we invaded Sbrana to protect Hie Tesfil a Secfus dozens Turner the Irish times Dublin Ireland Hae Side time colonist Victoria Canada Hagen Verden gang Oslo Norway e53 j i f o opposes wet i Woof Boerger the daily yom Iuri Tokyo Japan 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