Canadians collectively owned $60 billion dollars worth of federal real estate in 1985.

     In 1985, the people of Canada owned billions of dollars worth of Crown property. According to former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Public Works Erik Nielsen:

     "...the largest chunk of money in the  federal government is in its real estate holdings. My guess, based on preliminary research I had gathered, was that it was pushing $60 billion".
(From: Page 268 of the book "On the Take"---Stevie Cameron, the author, interviewed Erik Nielsen.)

My fellow Canadians and I can thank the following individuals and agencies for the massive sell off of OUR real estate holdings:

Marathon Realty
CN Real Estate - according to a 1980 inventory by the Trudeau government, CN Rail owned 32,000 hectares of Crown land.
Canada Post Corporation
recommendations of the Fraser Institute
National Capital Commission
Canada Mortgage and Housing - owned Habitat at Expo, the Kingstonian Apartments in Kingston, Ontario; land next to CMHC Headquarters at 800 Montreal Road in Ottawa, Regent Park in Toronto; Milton Park in Montreal; Willow Park in Winnipeg;Le Breton Flats in Ottawa... In April of 1998, all the residential land holdings of the CMHC, worth $62 million dollars, were transferred to the Canada Lands Company, a Crown corporation that privatizes Canadian federal property.

My stepmother and a friend (relative?) at Expo 67 in Montreal. Habitat can be seen in the background.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada - divested the entire portfolio of lighthouses.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - the CBC has been delisted from the Federal Directory of Real Property.

Museums, aircraft hangars, ( including the de Havilland aircraft hangar at Downsview,) marinas, the Diefenbunkers (the only remaining Diefenbunker is located in Carp, Ontario), foreign embassies, the Pinetree Line, several Dominion Observatories, several Agriculture Canada experimental farms ..the list goes on...are no longer Crown property.

A copy of the original Privy Council Order-in-Council that privatized Central Experimental Farm land in Ottawa in the year 1988. The Order reads:"Sale of a surplus parcel of vacant Experimental Farm land on the west side of Merivale Road, north of Baseline Road, in the City of Ottawa, to the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton." February 1988. 

Corrections Canada - The Kingston Penitentiary,aka "The Big House"; the Prison for Women in Kingston and the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary in Laval, Quebec were decommissioned.

Several people are trying to save the Kingston Penitentiary from a wrecking ball, including Kingston City Councillor Bill Glover, who said:

   "It's very, very important that City Council designates Kingston Penitentiary under the provincial legislation to give Council the power to protect this historic property...because federal designation as a National Historic Site of Canada, while it's important, does not protect the property after it passes from public ownership to private hands..." (From: Frontenac Heritage Foundation, Volume 40, Number 1 - January 2013.)

    After I found out that the Kingston Penitentiary was being decommissioned, I wrote the following letter to Huffington Post Canada:

     "The City of Kingston is fiercely protective of its heritage buildings, cultural sites and waterfront---read the Internet document "City of Kingston Official Plan - Section 7 - Cultural Heritage Resources" (2010). The City will use all measures possible to protect its "significant cultural resources" which include the Kingston Penitentiary and the Rockwood Asylum.
     The City of Kingston intends to designate Portsmouth Village, where KP and the Prison for Women are located into a Heritage Conservation District. No high-rise condo units will ever in the future obstruct views of Kingston's waterfront, parks, gardens, cemeteries, lakes, rivers, neighborhood shorelines, vegetation and scenic vistas.

     Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing approved the "City of Kingston Official Plan" (2010), so the Federal Government, Ontario Realty Corporation and developers cannot appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board for demolition and zoning changes".

A photo I took in Kingston, Ontario, 1971. The Kingston Armoury, a Classified Federal Heritage Building, can be seen in the background.

     I can envision the Kingston Pen being re purposed as a museum, or as a commercial hub, with restaurants, clothing stores, shops that sell post cards and art work. More movies could be filmed at the Pen---in fact the final scene of the first Superman movie was filmed at the Big House. The guard towers could be converted into observation decks, with telescopes. People from all over the world could see the former Olympic marina, Wolfe Island, the Martello Towers, Old Fort Henry, Lake Ontario...The tunnel that connected Kingston Pen to the Prison for Women could be reopened.

A letter I wrote to the Hon. Pierre Poilievre M.P. regarding the sale of prison farms, July 27, 2010: