Probus Club of Vancouver Newsletter
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NEWSLETTER PROBUS CLUB OF VANCOUVER PO Box 74539, KITSILANO, Vancouver, BC, V6K 4P4 Enriching members with topical, entertaining speakers and social activities www.probusvancouver.com March, 2017 October, 2014 Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 14th at 9:30 am President FUTURE SPEAKERS Doug Jones Location: H.R. MacMillan Planetarium & 604 -228 -0504 [email protected] Space Centre, Lower Level April 11: Dr. Richard Fedorak, Speaker: The Honourable Judith Guichon, Dean of Medicine at U of A. Past President OBC, Lieutenant Governor of BC Jack Zaleski May 9: Christopher Gaze 604 -261 -7492 Topic: The role and duties of the Lt. Governor [email protected] Vice President Hugh Lindsay The Probus Club of Vancouver will be celebrating its 30th Birthday following the 604 -732 -0366 meeting. A sandwich and hot beverage luncheon with a celebratory birthday cake, will be [email protected] offered in the Joyce Walley Room of The Museum of Vancouver. Secretary DUE TO THE SPACE LIMITATIONS IN THE AUDITORIUM AND THE JOYCE WALLEY ROOM, Richard Carson 604 -261 -0974 WE ARE LIMITING ATTENDANCE TO MEMBERS ONLY AT THIS TIME. [email protected] IF YOU HAVEN’T RESPONDED TO THE SURVEY WHICH WAS EMAILED OUT, PLEASE DO SO Treasurer AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO THAT WE CAN KNOW HOW MANY TO CATER FOR. THANK YOU. Doug Cucheron 604 -687 -2006 [email protected] THE HONOURABLE JUDITH GUICHON Speakers Committee The Honourable Her Honour was also involved in sev- Hugh Chaun 604 -261 -8437 Judith Guichon was eral organizations. She served on the [email protected] sworn -in as the 29th local hospital board and Community Membership Committee Lieutenant Governor Health Council and was on the Com- Brian Maunder of British Columbia munity Health Foundation board. Prior 604 -222 -2391 - [email protected] on November 2, to this, she served as a 4 H Leader 2012. Prior to this and started a recycling society in Mer- Activities Committee appointment she ritt, B.C. with neighbours. She also Ian Paterson 604 -263 -7049 owned and operated served as a director for the Fraser Ba- [email protected] Gerard Guichon sin Council of B.C., director of the Web Site Committee Ranch Limited in the Grasslands Conservation Council of Nick LeMoine Nicola Valley in the B.C., member of the Nicola Water Use 604 -736 -0154 [email protected] British Columbia Interior. The Guichon Management planning committee and family has ranched in the area since played the flute in the Nicola Valley House Committee - - Doug Lambert 1878 and Her Honour's father in law Community Band. 604 -266 -2422 was awarded the Order of Canada in Prior to her term as Lieutenant Gover- Newsletter Editor 1974 for his leadership in Cattleman's nor, Her Honour served on the Provin- and Publisher Associations and his contribution to cial Task Force on Species at Risk and Peter Scott - 604 -263 -1746 agriculture in Canada. Two of her four completed a two year term as the [email protected] children now manage the ranch with a president of the British Columbia Cat- 700 head cow calf and 700 yearling tlemen's Association. She has also Membership Services Raymond Greenwood operation. been a part of the Ranching Task 604 -733 -6453 Her Honour studied Holistic Manage- Force for B.C. and the British Colum- [email protected] ment, a farming method which pro- bia Agri -Food Trade Advisory Council. Historian/Archivist motes sustainable management of Born in Montreal, Quebec, and raised Roy Williams 604 -926 -4727 livestock by emphasizing their natural on a farm near Hawkesbury, Ontario, [email protected] habitat. Along with her late husband, Her Honour moved to British Columbia Counsel commercial pilot Lawrence Guichon, in 1972. She and her husband, Bruno Brian Wasson she introduced Holistic Management to Mailloux, maintain a residence in the Ken Yule Ted Horsey the ranchers of British Columbia. Nicola Valley. Probus Club Of Vancouver March, 2017 Report of the February 14th Meeting Attendance: 156 Members and Guests The meeting was chaired by our Vice -President, Hugh Lind- gentrification have moved a lot of that out. say, filling in once more for Doug Jones, our President, who is One of the pivotal changes came with the passage of the still enjoying the Mexican sunshine. In celebration of Valen- Strata Titles Act in 1966 which allowed for the construction tines Day, we had been treated with appropriate cookies, and sale of condominiums, parcel of ownership of land subdi- courtesy of Raymond Greenwood, at our coffee social. To vided in three dimensions. This revolutionized the way devel- open the meeting with the usual PROBUS humour, Hugh told opment occurred in Vancouver, the way investors and devel- an amusing tale of a therapist testing his theory regarding the opers looked at the kind of housing they could provide and frequency of intimate relations between couples. Peter Hamil- also opened up a type of ownership for people who were ei- ton then introduced our three new members (see page 3). ther uninterested in or unable to get into single family housing. Chris Finch reminded us of the Rennie Gallery Tour on Feb- It had the additional impact of making the fee simple, single - ruary 28 and announced that tickets were available for the family house more exclusive, thus pushing its price up. The Christchurch Cathedral Tour on March 21. He also an- impact was so significant, by 1973, Vancouver City Council nounced that a Bard on the Beach evening, another John At- froze condominium conversions. kin Walk in May and a return to Nat Bailey for a baseball Just before that, in 1971, the federal government changed the game in August were in the planning stages. Details of all Income Tax Act so professionals could no longer write off real these and other events will be in the newsletters and on the estate investments in rental buildings against their profession- website as they come to fruition. Roy Williams gave us a brief al income. Much of that money began to be invested in mutual history on our club which is celebrating its 20th birthday this funds, rather than rental housing Combined with the closing of year. He also reminded us of the need for some new mem- Riverview around 1970, a perfect storm coming around hous- bers to fill out our waitlist. ing formed, with street homelessness re -emerging in 1982 for Ted Horsey then introduced our guest speaker, Michael the first time since the Great Depression. Food banks were re Kluckner who spoke to us about the forces affecting Vancou- -established as a “temporary measure.” ver’s housing market and communities throughout the years. The next major factor was displacement by the Expo evictions He noted Vancouver’s housing crisis has been building for of 1986, where the old hotels in which these old men had over a century and has led to displacement and impacts on been living for decades, were evicted so the buildings could the sustainability of community. be renovated for tourist accommodation. And then, in 1993, He explained the housing crisis in the context of gentrification, the federal government decided to no longer be involved in defined as, the process of people being displaced or pushed projects that built affordable housing. out of their neighbourhoods by people with more money. He He noted that Vancouver is not alone in this crisis and that it’s noted Vancouver’s population quadrupled in size from the taking place in desirable cities around the world. What distin- time of the city’s incorporation in 1886 right up to the Depres- guishes Vancouver from other cities, however, is the uncou- sion in the 1930s, when the city entered a period of degentrifi- pling of housing costs from the local economy. Toronto’s cation. During this period, which lasted until the 1950s, hous- housing prices, for example, are on -par with Vancouver’s, but ing prices plummeted and many single -family homes were Toronto has a real economy. They actually make and do real converted into suites or rooming houses. The significant thing things, as opposed to the, kind of, toy economy we have here about this type of housing is that the vast majority of it was in Vancouver. He described Vancouver as like a giant Whis- illegal. The vast majority of it was converted without permits, tler, with an increasingly, more or less, resort economy and generally in violation of the strictness of building codes, and not enough accommodation in the range of affordability in yet, in the main, provided good quality, affordable housing. A relation to the kind of wages on offer in the city. This is a huge lot of it continues to do so today. crisis. The first major displacement of tenants en masse took place He noted that Vancouver has both the population and the in Coal Harbour in the 1950s when the well -run houseboat housing stock to accommodate supply and demand for hous- community dubbed the “Shaughnessy of the shoreline” was ing. The problem is that developers build housing that appeals dismantled. The people who lived there had jobs in the marine to international investors, not the people who make their mon- industries and then in the war industries during the Second ey here. International investors who may be leery about the World War but the town planning commission wanted a very stock market view stable places like Vancouver or Seattle as different type of a Coal Harbour than what existed before the safe investment alternatives. That international money is the 1950s and they found their key way in with the Bayshore Inn. elephant in the room.