A timeline of Experimental Farm land grabs---attempted and successful:
1.) 1970's - Agriculture Ministers Bud Olson and Eugene Whelan refused to transfer 700 acres of land for housing---7,000 housing units.
2.) 1988 - 91 acres of the Central Experimental Farm were sold to the City of Ottawa, the Clyde/Merivale lands.
3.) 1998 - The Woodroffe Experimental Farm was sold for $1 dollar. (From: Ottawa Citizen article by Tom Spears.)
4.) 2008 - Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz refused to give away 50 acres of property directly across from the current Ottawa Civic hospital, so that a hospital could be built there.
5.) 2016 - The Sir John Carling site was initially rejected as a location for a new health care facility.
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Edited Hansard - 38th Parliament, 1st Session Number 126 - Tuesday, September 27, 2005.
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More than 500 trees on the Sir John Carling site will have to be sacrificed to accommodate a health care facility:
3.) "Hundreds of trees will need to be cut down. Yes, we counted, but we stopped at 500!" (An open letter to the NCC from Jacquelin Holzman and Jim Durrell, former Ottawa Mayors---"NCC Federal Site Review for the new Civic Campus of the Ottawa Hospital"--Page 215 out of 256 pages, a 2016 report.)
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The QCH and Civic wanted 50 to 60 acres. But the QCH is continuously expanding; and the Civic has already stated that they need more than 60 acres in order to build auxiliary departments.
The QCH wanted to build commercial facilities on the site. (Edited Hansard-38th Parliament, 1st Session Number 126--September 27, 2005.)
The Civic is lobbying Ottawa City Council to rezone 12 acres of their 60 acre parcel, from Institutional to mixed-use . That will facilitate the construction of commercial and residential buildings. Land along an arterial route (Carling Avenue) will most likely see the construction of condominiums. Back in the 1990's an Ottawa City Councillor predicted that "a wall of condos" will line both sides of Carling Avenue.
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The owners of the Chateau Laurier Hotel own buildings that are located on former Experimental Farm property. The Skyline Towers on Baseline Road are the Headquarters for Agriculture Canada.
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