Sunday, August 18, 2019

All of the buildings on the Experimental Farm are endangered.

In 1996 the National Capital Commission and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada authorized the demolition of the Booth Barn Complex:
Heritage Ottawa; the Heritage Canada Foundation; the Province of Ontario and the City of Ottawa saved the Booth Barn.

 The Friends of the Farm are worried about the future of:
The Observatory Campus - The Chretien government faced immense public opposition when they tried to level the buildings in 1995.
The William Saunders Building
Heritage House (#60)
The Genetics Building (#34).
(Friends of the CEF Fall 2017 newsletter.)
In a few years the Civic Hospital will want to expand and the federal government and City of Ottawa will cave into their demands.  Then the people of Canada will lose:
The K.W. Neatby Building.
The Sir John Carling Building annex.
The Tropical Greenhouse - which is located on Maple Drive across from the William Saunders Building. The projected location of a new Civic Hospital--- intersection of Carling Avenue and Preston Street, and bordered by Prince of Wales Drive and Maple Drive.
Laboratory Services Building #22 - Carling Avenue, near the Neatby building.
Laboratory Services Building, Carling Avenue Ottawa.

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 Apparently the Dominion Observatory campus was removed from the land deal (temporarily in my opinion) in exchange for lands on the east side of the Sir John Carling site:
     "Site 11 centres on the former site of the Sir John Carling Building towards the northeastern site of the Central Experimental Farm. Site 11 was retained from the 2016 HDR report. However, its boundaries were modified to exclude existing buildings including the Dominion Observatory, creating an irregularly shaped parcel. Additional lands to the east including parcels under PSPC and NCC ownership were added to compensate for the loss in area occupied by existing buildings in the west. The modified candidate site is bounded by Carling Avenue to the north, Preston to the east and Prince of Wales to the southeast. 

  • Land Area: 20 hectares/50 acres.
  • Owner:  Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada, NCC. (Note: The true owners of the Experimental Farm are the people of Canada, yet we have no control over the disposition of our property; the demolition of Crown buildings and zoning changes...AC, the creator of this blog.)
  • National Interest Land Mass Status: Yes. (National Interest Land Mass properties are protected from redevelopment in perpetuity. As Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan said in 1975 the Farm is "untouchable"...AC, the creator of this blog.)
  • Existing Land Use:  Federal Facilities/Employment, Informal Greenspace, Park.
  • Long term planned use: Federal Facilities/ Employment, Greenspace. (Twelve acres of the 60 acres donated to the hospital have been rezoned "mixed use" to facilitate the construction of residential and commercial buildings, most likely along Carling Avenue. During the 1990's I heard a city councillor predict that a wall of condos would line Carling Avenue one day.)
(From: NCC Federal Site Review for the New Civic Campus - Page 27 of 256 pages.)
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I am not the only person who believes that Queen Juliana Park, 870 Carling Avenue will be given to the hospital:
  1.)   "I foresee there will be a lot of objections to rezoning Queen Juliana Park from parkland to institutional so the drama isn't over at City Hall". (New Civic hospital-Skyscraper Forum, Page 30.)
2.)     "Queen Juliana Park is also part of this land deal and will be lost." (Ottawa Civic Hospital update to GACA residents - September 2017.)
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There is a deliberate, on-going effort to privatize Government of Canada properties:

Former Agriculture Canada properties:
1.)  Jean-Charles Chapais Research Farm - Levis, Quebec.
2.)  Gamelin Research Farm - Gatineau, Quebec. Dismantled by the National Capital Commission.
3.)  Delhi Research Farm - Ontario.
4.)  Kapuskasing Beef Research Farm - Ontario.
5.)  Upton Experimental Farm - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
6.)  Fort Vermillion Experimental Farm - Alberta.
7.)  Vegreville Research Farm - near Edmonton, Alberta.
8.)  Cereal Research Centre - Winnipeg, Manitoba.
9.)  Smithfield Experimental Farm - City of Quinte West,, Ontario.
10.)Greenbelt Research Farm - "As of March 31, 1998 the Greenbelt Research Farm, which covers 1,200 hectares (2.965 acres) of land bordered by Hunt Club Road, Woodroffe Avenue, Fallowfield Road and Greenbank Road, ceased to function as an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre. This was announced in the 1995 Federal Budget."
11.)Senator Herve J. Michaud Research Farm, Bouctouche, New Brunswick - Member of Parliament Dominic LeBlanc was opposed to the closure of the centre on April 13, 2012.
12.) Frelighsburg Experimental Farm - Located 90 km SE of Montreal. Closed in 2012, reopened by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
13.)  Vineland Research Farm - Lincoln, Region of Niagara Ontario.
14.)  Kamloops Research Farm - British Columbia - Closed in May of 2013.
15.)  L'Assomption Research Farm - Quebec. L'Assomption is an off-island suburb of Montreal.
16.)  La Pocatiere Research Farm - Quebec.
17.)  Sheffield Research Farm - Upper Canard, Nova Scotia.
18.) Central Experimental Farm, Carling Avenue Ottawa. In 1988, 91 acres of land were sold, the Clyde/Merivale lands. Walmart, the Skyline Towers and many other entities now inhabit the space.


The 4H House on the Ottawa Farm was also facing an uncertain future.





















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