Ellen Woodsworth

PUBLIC FORUM (please circulate)

"What Gender is your City?"  Women, Gender and Local Government. 

Thursday, Oct. 9, 7 pm, Rhizome Café 317 E. Broadway 

Panel Discussion with:

Prabha Khosla* will speak about her new book “Gender in Local
Government: A Sourcebook for Trainers”.

Erica de Castro** Planning Department UBC will talk about changing ways
municipalities deal with violence against women with specific examples
from Brazil and Canada. 

Ellen Woodsworth*** will talk about a Gender Equality Strategy for the
City of Vancouver. 

Someone**** from Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives will speak
about their new publication. See below

Join us to ensure gender issues are on the agenda for the Nov.15
municipal election.

* Prabha Khosla is an urban planner, researcher, trainer and activist
who has worked on issues of urban sustainability, planning,
democratizing local governance, women’s rights and gender equality. She
is a founding member of Toronto Women’s City Alliance (TWCA) and the
author of a recent UN-HABITAT publication - “Gender in Local
Government: A Sourcebook for Trainers”.

** Erica De Castro is a planner who has done a lot of community
development work in Brazil around gender issues 

*** Ellen Woodsworth as a Vancouver city councillor from 2202-2005 was
Cochair of the Women's Task Force which developed the document "Gender
Equality Strategy for the City of Vancouver. Ellen is running for City
Council on Nov.15

**** The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has just
published "Where Are the Women ? Gender Equity, Budgets and Canadian
Public Polity". See below.

Where Are the Women?
Gender Equity, Budgets and Canadian Public Policy

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Reports/2008/09/ReportsStudies1962/index.cfm?pa=BB736455  

Contemporary Canadian fiscal and social policy reforms have been
accompanied by the progressive disappearance of the gendered subject,
both in discourse and practice. Indeed, the minority Conservative
government of Stephen Harper has gone so far as to declare that the
goal of gender equity has been achieved in Canada. However, as Brodie
and Bakker argue in Where Are the Women? Gender Equity, Budgets and
Canadian Public Policy, not only has the goal of gender equality not
been met but the relentless attack on federal social programs over the
past decade has actually undermined gender equity, as well as the well-
being of Canadian women, especially the most vulnerable.........

VANCOUVER HOUSING FORUMS

What’s being done to address the housing crisis in Vancouver?

Eastside Forum: Tuesday September 9th from 7-9pm
Heritage Hall 3102 Main St.

Hosted by Libby Davies M.P., Vancouver-East and David Chudnovsky M.L.A., Vancouver-Kensington.

Moderator: Ellen Woodsworth – Housing Activist

Speakers:
• David Cadman,
Vancouver City Councillor
• Bill Siksay, M.P.
NDP Housing Critic
• Diane Thorne, M.L.A.
NDP Housing Critic
• Community Activist (TBA)

West End Forum: Wednesday September 10th from 7-9pm
at The Coast Plaza Hotel 1763 Comox St.

6:30 Doors Open
7:00 Speakers
8:00 Roundtable Discussions
8:30 Group Report Back
9:00 Forum Ends

Speakers:
Michael Byers
UBC Professor
Aaron Jasper
• West End Residents Association
Diane Thorne, M.L.A.
NDP Housing Critic
Vancouver City Councillor (TBA)

Moderator: Spencer Herbert
Vancouver Parks Board Commissioner

For more information, please contact Janet or Phyllis at 604-775-5800.

Libby Davies, M.P. for Vancouver East
2412 Main Street, Vancouver, BC V5T 3E2
T: 604-775-5800 F: 604-775-5811
E: daviel1@parl.gc.ca
W: www.libbydavies.ca http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7154945923

Check out the draft COPE policy statements on line at www.cope.bc.ca and let us know what you think. We will incorporate your suggestions to bring forward to the COPE policy conference Sept. 14/08.

Campaign Launch

Press Conference: Ellen Woodsworth seeking COPE nomination for City Council Monday, July 7, 2008 at 10:30 AM Science World

Welcome my name is Ellen Woodsworth

I would like to introduce the people who have come here today to support me. They do not necessarily represent the organizations they work for.

• Councillor David Cadman
• Park Board Commissioner Loretta Woodcock
• Former MP Margaret Mitchell
• Former MLA & City Councillor Darlene Marzari
• Meena Wong journalist/activist seeking COPE nomination for City Council seat
• Sid Tan from Head Tax movement
• Brent Granby President West End Residents Association
• Fatima Jaffer Journalist and Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence Against Women
• Fred Muzin President HEU
• Bill Saunders President Vancouver and District Labour Council
• Alexandra Youngberg President CUPE 391
• Mary Sherlock Cycling Advocate
• Patsy George President of UNA Canada BC Branch/ Steven Lewis Fund
• Rachel Marcuse Youth activist
• Carlo Bodrogi COPE Board Member
• Professor John Price UVIC
• Jo Thomas
• Dick Woodsworth

 I am here today to announce that I am seeking a COPE nomination for City Council.

 I am running for City Council because I want Vancouver to truly be a City for Everyone.

 Vancouver is recognized around the world as a beautiful city and a wonderful place to live.

 But Vancouver is at a crossroads.

 I look to the north and see the Down Town East Side – I see a community under siege. Thousands of people are sleeping on the street and thousands more worried about losing their homes. The city could be using the Property Endowment Fund to create affordable housing to address the catastrophe which is fast becoming a health crisis.

 If the NPA had implementing the Homeless Action Plan that the previous COPE Council passed, the DTE would have 800 more units of social housing per year. Instead, social housing is disappearing. Where is the promised Olympic housing Legacy?

 I look at the north side of False Creek and the West End and see communities that are facing an affordability crisis. While Peter Ladner and the NPA make it easy for developers to keep building even more million dollar condos, ordinary families, students and seniors can no longer afford to live in their own city. Seniors, at a recent meeting I went to in the West End Community Center, told me that they are terrified that redevelopment will force them to leave their apartment home of 40 years.

 I look at South East False Creek and I see the neighbourhood that COPE planned, being turned into another enclave that only the wealthy can afford. COPE had a vision for this neighbourhood that included an equitable share of 1/3 low income, 1/3 affordable and 1/3 market housing child care, green space, a sustainable source of energy, a community centre and a revitalized waterfront. The NPA under PETER Ladner and Sam Sullivan slashed affordable housing, cut 10% of the low income housing, and eliminated two child care centres.

 I look at the south and the east and see the last undeveloped part of this city that can still be turned into a city everyone.

 This is our chance if we elect a progressive government with ideas, principles and commitment.

 Peter Ladner and the NPA say they support small businesses. But instead of pushing for a new tax bracket that would give a break to small businesses, they instead punish ordinary homeowners and renters by shifting business taxes onto residential taxpayers.

 Peter Ladner says he is concerned about the environment, but he and the NPA shelved the Climate Change Action Plan that COPE created. They have not given out the Mayor’s Enviro Award that would recognize the outstanding work of an individual or group on climate change. I would work to establish a Climate Change Action Fund similar to Toronto’s Atmospheric Fund that gives out grants to community organizations that are working on climate change projects in the city. We could start a Green job strategy for youth.

 Peter Ladner and the NPA promised affordable public transit, but then voted for fare increases.

I am committed to fighting for more buses, bus passes for low income people and seniors, U-passes for all post secondary students and for reduced rates for off peak hours to get people out of their cars and get the pressure off overloaded buses.

 I am committed to fighting for elected representatives on the Translink board and open board meetings. The NPA made no attempt to strongly oppose the province’s decision to dismantle the former Translink board that was made up of elected representatives and replaced it with appointees who now hold secret meetings.

 I am also committed to fighting the Gateway Project that will flood Vancouver with more cars polluting and destroying East Vancouver.

 Peter Ladner and the NPA have tried to squash democracy at city hall.

 They dismantled the Seniors Advisory, Women’s Advisory, Peace and Justice, and Disability Advisory Committees.

 The NPA fired the Board of Variance for standing up for local communities, and gutted the Ethical Purchasing Program. Peter Ladner and the NPA ignored the Gender Equality Strategy and all its recommendations to make this a safe city for women and fired the Child Youth Advocate and the city’s Youth Mentor. The NPA has ignored the Report of the Immigrant Task Force .

 The NPA watched during the strike while strikers and other citizens suffered for months only to settle for the same agreement that every other municipality got without a strike.

City Council should be more inclusive. It should listen to all its citizens. It should listen to Coast Salish people who had the first villages on this land. It should pay attention to the ancestors of Chinese people who built the railway that made Vancouver. It should address the concerns of the South Asian people whose forefathers worked the mills. The diversity and strength of our neighbourhoods are what make Vancouver a great city to live in.

 Young people who are the future of this city, blue and white collar workers, poor, women, lesbian, gay, transgendered, bisexual, and queer communities, must be heard and have their issues faced. Instead, under the NPA, City Council has moved backward and has become little more than a debating club, while the real decisions are being made by a small group of NPA insiders.

 I know and love this city. I have been a Vancouver Councillor. And like the majority of people in this city, I am a renter. I have worked with seniors, on housing, equity and diversity issues and spent many years in the DTES. I am a cyclist and long time Strathcona Community gardener committed to environmental sustainability.

 I am committed to making Vancouver a city for everyone.