Transit Campaign Action Team Co-chair, Maria Robinson, made a powerful presentation on the need for a fair fare structure to the Translink Board. In the coming months MVA will be gathering our members' views on what a fair fare structure would look like. Here's the video ...

North Shore - On February 27, 2016 at St. Anthony’s RC Church in West Vancouver, nineteen north shore residents most of whom had attended the February 8th Affordable Housing Assembly and made a commitment to work on the campaign, met with the Housing Team. Michael Markwick (Capilano University), Paul Clark (St. Catherine’s Anglican Church) and James Cavalluzzo (BCGEU) headed delegations to plan the follow-up meetings with the three north shore mayors. Attendees at this meeting all committed to become delegates on one of these three teams: City of North Vancouver, District of North Vancouver, and City of West Vancouver. All three teams will meet again on Saturday, April 2nd at noon at St. Anthony’s Church in West Vancouver to report on their progress.

City of Vancouver - The City passed a revised Standards and Mainantence By-law in the spring of 2015. MVA had no input on this. We attended the Council meeting when it was passed to express our concern. 

Our campaign to make covenants a component of all new developments, locking in truly affordable purchase and rental housing in perpetuity is continuing. We announced last fall to the Board and Strategy Team meeting that we were prepared to start a pilot project of our own to test the covenant policy. After meeting with key people who helped shape the Whistler Housing Authority with its covenant policy designed to supply affordable housing to people who work in Whistler, we launched a pilot project to find developer(s) and a site where we could demonstrate that our ask at the 2014 Municipal Election Assembly would work in Vancouver. 

Affordable Housing Assembly a Success!

Over 300 enthusiastic members of the Metro Vancouver Alliance and community partners, representing a range of faith, labour, educational and community groups in North Vancouver gathered on Family Day to call on local politicians to address the affordable housing crisis on the North Shore.

Members of faith, labour, civil society and educational organizations gather to call on municipal politicians to make concrete commitments to deal with the affordable housing crisis on the North Shore.

MEDIA ADVISORY Thursday February 4, 2016

The idea of affordable housing in Vancouver, and especially on the North Shore, has become a fairy tale.  At the end of 2015, the median price of a single family home in North Vancouver was $1,042,600. This represents an almost 10% increase since 2014 and a 21% increase over five years.

Members of the Metro Vancouver Alliance and community partners, representing a range of faith, labour, educational and community groups in North Vancouver will gather on Family Day to call upon local mayors and councillors to address the affordable housing crisis on the North Shore.

Politicians will hear research and testimony from delegates representing MVA’s member organizations and be asked to commit to specific, achievable, proposals around affordable housing and healthy neighborhoods.

Darrell Mussatto, Mayor of North Vancouver; Craig Cameron, Acting Mayor of West Vancouver; and Richard Walton, Mayor of the District of North Vancouver have all confirmed their attendance.

Date: Monday, February 8^th, 2016
Time: 1PM to 3PM
Location: St. Catherine's Church, 1058 Ridgewood Drive, North Vancouver

The Metro Vancouver Alliance is a broad based alliance of community groups, labour, faith and educational institutions working together for the common good.

For more information: Patrick Bragg, MVA, cell (778) 889-3486

Website: www.metvanalliance.org

Feelings of loneliness and social isolation are common problems for Vancouverites. Paul Clark, co-chair of theMetro Vancouver Alliance Social Isolation Campaign Action Team was interviewed on Roundhouse Radio recently. Listen in at the link

Unions and The Metro Vancouver Alliance: Finding Common Ground and Working For The Common Good

Our friends at MoveUP, the Movement of United Professionals, have a nice article about MVA in the latest issue of their membership magazine. Check it out at the link, on page 14.

A space to stretch your brain! For those who want to dig a little deeper into the ideas that sustain our work, we'll gather in small groups to discuss readings and events broadly relevant to our goals. Our facilitator is Deb Cameron-Fawkes, an MVA Board member and part of the Leadership Training team.  Deb is a theologian and preacher, and also a union steward with the United Food and Commercial Workers. 

Watch for new events every other month! 

NOVEMBER

Going Public: An Organizer's Guide to Citizen Action by Michael Gecan

Anchor Books, 2004

Join us for a four-part study of an organizer's life with the Industrial Areas Foundation.  Gecan's readable and entertaining style is a great kick-off to our study groups. His story, told in four parts, gets us deep into the how and the why of this kind of organizing, its public wins and personal rewards. Copies are available for purchase through the MVA office.

LOCATION: Downtown Vancouver (Strathcona)

7pm-8:30pm

FREE

Please RSVP for our host's address and directions:  MVAseminar@shaw.ca

You need not attend all four sessions, but registration is required as space is limited.

• Nov 12, 7-8:30pm : The Habit of Relating
•  Nov 19, 7-8:30pm : The Habit of Action
•  Nov 26, 7-8:30pm : The Habit of Organization
•  Dec 3, 7-8:30pm :The Habit of Reflection

Upcoming topics:

• Laudato Si, the Pope's encyclical about climate change and social justice

• Relational Meetings Save Lives - lessons from citizens building peace in Northern Ireland; "Labour" and "Faith" - sharing stories, shredding stereotypes for a stronger Alliance.

Representatives from the Metro Vancouver Alliance’s over 50 member organizations will make presentations on four issues - social inclusion, transit, income justice, and affordable housing - to candidates in the upcoming federal election and ask for a response and a commitment to work with MVA to make Metro Vancouver a better place for all.

Vancouver has slipped into a state of social isolation over the years, a matter complicated by poverty, housing, and transportation. 

Since 2014, MVA's social inclusion committee, led by Clark, has been working on simple measures to reduce isolation based on the dynamics of individual communities. 

“There are thousands of little drops that fill a bucket, and it’s up to us to enable thousands of creative people to unleash them,” he explains. “We have to get rid of the barriers for them, allow them to magnify and upscale their initiatives.”

The Vancouver Observer talks to Paul Clark, co-chair of MVA's Social Inclusion Action Team.