There is widespread agreement among housing policy analysts that there are serious problems with Canada's urban rental housing sector. The specific problems include declining and persistently low vacancy rates, declining private sector starts, and the unaffordability of private stock for a considerable portion of low- and moderate-income renters. Given the importance of rental accommodation, particularly for those lower-income households unable to enter or remain in the ownership sector, this situation has prompted a discussion as to whether the past and current approach to rental housing policy is appropriate to the solution of rental housing problems, or whether new or different strategies for addressing rental problems are warranted. Within the context of both this discussion and of an ongoing debate as to the appropriate role of the state in housing markets, this thesis investigates what measures the Canadian government has taken over the past eighty-five years to address rental housing problems. Dividing this period into four eras - 1900-1940, 1940-1949, 1949-1964, and 1964-1985 - the thesis examines the existence and extent of rental housing problems; documents how rental problems have been defined and analyzed by housing experts and what their policy recommendations have been; and reviews the response of the federal government to rental problems. The primary assumption underlying the research is that government intervention in the rental market has been minimal, ad hoc, and largely market-supportive, and that this approach to rental problems has had an enormous impact on problem resolution. Government response to rental problems is reviewed and the research assumption is tested by examining major government and private housing studies, contemporary academic articles and media reports, statistical analyses, the debates in the House of Commons, and housing-related legislation in its original and amended forms. The evidence suggests that government intervention in the rental sector has indeed been minimal, piecemeal and reactive, largely market-supportive, and carried out within the framework of housing as a market commodity. It suggests further that intervention in the rental sector has been shaped largely by two interrelated factors: the federal government's terms of reference for intervention in the housing market, and its failure to adequately define the rental housing problem. The federal government's terms of reference for intervention in the housing market define housing provision as a private sector responsibility, home ownership as the desirable tenure option, housing problems as temporary conditions, and housing policy as a provincial responsibility. These terms of reference have severely constrained rental policy and program options and have prevented the implementation of potentially more effective rental programs. Moreover, they have resulted in either the neglect of Canada's rental problems or the adoption of a variety of short-term, ad hoc programs in response to crisis situations. The federal government's failure to see the relationship between the quality, supply and affordability elements of the rental problem and thus to adequately define the problem is the second factor which has shaped intervention in the rental sector. Intervention has tended to focus on the three problem elements separately and in a clearly sequential manner, with the result that opportunities for developing a long-term, comprehensive rental housing policy aimed at simultaneous treatment, of all three aspects of the problem have been missed. The thesis concludes that only by questioning the conventional assumptions underlying Canadian rental policy and by acknowledging the interrelatedness of the three problem areas will we make progress on resolving rental housing problems. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This thesis examines gambling in British Columbia and reviews the failed Seaport Centre casino proposal for downtown Vancouver. The third wave of gambling sweeping across North America started when the state of Nevada re-legalized casinos in 1931, and underwent a major boom with the introduction of the first state lottery this century in New Hampshire in 1964. Since this time, virtually every state and provincial government in North America has introduced some form of legalized gambling. This thesis examines the third wave of gambling, and the rise of the urban casino which began to emerge in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The rise of the urban casino provides policy makers significant urban planning considerations. First, a review is conducted of the literature on gambling, illustrating the new phenomenon in gambling - the urban casino. Second, an analysis and history of gambling in Canada and British Columbia is explored. Third, a case study on the Seaport Centre casino proposal for Vancouver's downtown waterfront is documented, illustrating the issues associated with urban casinos from a planning perspective. The thesis documents the history of gambling in North American society. The current gambling wave sweeping the continent has been described as the third wave of gambling. Driving the most recent wave of gambling has been governments revenue imperative, promotion of gambling interest from business and certain interest groups and consumers demand for gambling games. As casinos moved to the forefront of the gambling explosion, the rise of the urban casino provided complex urban planning considerations. The case study on the Seaport Centre casino proposal for Vancouver provides a good framework for understanding the issues associated with urban casinos, many of which are local in nature. While the Seaport Centre proposal ultimately failed, the comprehensive analysis the City of Vancouver conducted serves as a useful guide for policy makers to understand the issues associated with an urban casino. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This thesis examines the forces behind British Columbia's entry into the Canadian Federation in 1871 by examining the historical and structural circumstances surrounding the relative stages of economic development in the Colony and the British metropolis. The thesis argues that British Columbia's entry into Confederation occured within the total framework of capitalist expansion in the nineteenth century. It occured within the context of British imperialism. The instruments of British imperialism and the character of economic development in the hinterland region of the Pacific Northwest, however, changed as the economic structure of England changed. The road to Confederation for British Columbia—as for Canada—was essentially determined by a shift in the economic structure of England from merchant to industrial capitalism. At a lower level of generality, the thesis concludes that a triangle of trade and capital investment existed between Victoria, San Francisco and London, and through London,to Montreal. This metropolitan network tied the Colony to Great Britain and ultimately to Canada. The ruling class of British Columbia was firmly linked to British capital, and it actively sought, in London, Montreal and Victoria, the achievement of Confederation. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

This thesis explores contemporary Canadian cinema by investigating the convergence of films, policy and criticism as they are implicated in the idea of canon. Both fluid and multiple in its frame(s) of reference, the term canon extends beyond a list or core of privileged texts to include the processes of evaluation. Posited as a performative construct, the national cinema canon can be seen as offering a strategically deployed expression of national cultural identity, with appraisals of each film's value arising from the intersection of critical and governmental discourses; however, narrow admission criteria along with the displaced goal of developing a distinctive national art cinema reinforce perceptions of absence-of Canadian culture and/or identity-by delimiting canonical boundaries to exclude more than they include. Focussing on feature film production since 1984, and adopting a predominantly English Canadian perspective, this thesis aims to examine the underlying assumptions that direct canon formation; rather than attempting to reject or replace the existing canon, this process of rereading entails working within the prevailing discourses in order to generate an awareness of the politics of selection. Emerging from a tradition of liberal humanist nationalism, canon formation in the Canadian context invokes conflicting conceptions of high cultural enlightenment and mass commodity success which have become entrenched as a continuing tension between cultural and industrial goals. These tensions are further complicated by a "double conscious" perspective that simultaneously values and rejects American cinema culture. Chapter One explores the factors shaping the admission criteria of origin and value, while Chapter Two addresses the relationship between national culture and canon formation. Chapter Three considers the ways in which Canadian cinema is defined through policy, including a case study of the 1999 Feature Film Advisory Committee Report, which encapsulates the directional challenges facing cultural policy development. Approaches to devising a descriptive canon are addressed in Chapter Four, in which hybrid categories are suggested that could be used to supplant the nationalist perspective with an acknowledgement of the fluidity of the metaphysical frontier of culture, and hence the transnational, or perhaps post-nationalist, aspects of Canadian cultural experience. / Arts, Faculty of / Theatre and Film, Department of / Graduate

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