Wednesday, October 2, 2019

No wonder the National Capital Commission wants to see a hospital on the grounds of The Farm.

The Queensway Carleton Hospital has paid $1 million dollars in rent to the National Capital Commission.
     "Queensway Carleton Hospital was built on a 51-acre parcel of land in the former City of Nepean, Ontario that was owned by the National Capital Commission (NCC), and since QCH's opening in 1976, the hospital has paid approximately $1 million in rent to the federal government. The rent was $23,000 per year in the contract until 2013, when the rent was expected to increase to reflect the current market value of the land parcel."
     "Pierre Poilevre, Federal MP representing the riding of Nepean-Carleton, attempted to reduce the rent of the hospital to $1 per year during his first term in office. Poilevre introduced a bill in November 2005 seeking to reduce the hospital's rent, which saw support from the Conservative Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party of Canada."
     "Poilevre was reelected in the 2006 Federal election and was named Parliamentary Secretary to John Baird, President of the Treasury Board. Together, the two men unveiled a plan in August 2006 which use Treasury Board funds to pay the NCC rent on behalf of the hospital, such that the hospital continued to pay $1 dollar in rent." (From: Wikipedia.)
From the mid 1970's until 2006 the QCH paid the NCC $23,000 dollars a year for their use of the land. But the Crown corporation threatened to raise the rent by several million dollars once the contract expired. So now the taxpayers of Canada are paying an arms-length commercial Crown corporation so that the Queensway Carleton Hospital can continue to function. How many millions of dollars will the taxpayers of Canada pay the NCC when a hospital is built on another federal parcel of land, the Experimental Farm?
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A timeline of Experimental Farm land grabs---attempted and successful:
1.) 1970's - Agriculture Ministers Bud Olson and Eugene Whelan refused to give the National Capital Commission 700 acres of land for housing.
2.)  1988 - 91 acres of the Central Experimental Farm were sold to the City of Ottawa, the Clyde/Merivale lands.
3.) 1998 - The National Capital Commission tried to buy the entire Farm for $1 dollar. (From: Ottawa Citizen article by Tom Spears.)
4.) 2008 -  Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz refused to give the NCC 50 acres of property directly across from the current Ottawa Civic hospital, so that a hospital could be built there.
5.) 2016 - The NCC initially rejected the Experimental Farm East, Sir John Carling site, 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 the 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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Similarities between the Queensway Carleton and Civic land deals:
The National Capital Commission provided Greenbelt land to the QCH and Agriculture and Agri-culture and Agri-Food Canada land to the Civic. Both are designated as National Interest Land Mass properties. NILM properties cannot be sold which is why the NCC is renting them.
The Greenbelt and the Experimental Farm were supposed to be untouchable. The Greenbelt was created by Jacques Greber as a living memorial to Canadian soldiers who were killed fighting in foreign wars.

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. As I have said before, back in the 1990's an Ottawa City Councilor predicted that "a wall of condos" will line both sides of Carling Avenue.
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The owners of the Chateau Laurier Hotel, Larco Investments, 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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