Was the Arboretum in Ottawa sold?

A map from the Federal Directory of Real Property website. Until very recently the Arboretum covered 64.2 acres of land between Prince of Wales Drive and the Rideau Canal. Now the landscape ecompasses 7.08 acres.

Arboretum Property Number 02900.

Custodian-National Capital Commission.

Interest-Crown Owned.

Restriction-No Restriction.

Primary Use-Parks and Recreation.

Address- Prince of Wales Drive.

Municipality-Ottawa.

Province/Territory-Ontario.

Federal Electoral District-Ottawa Centre.

Census Classification-Rural.

Land Area-2.8692 ha.

Floor Area-0 sq. m.

Record Created-July 30, 1998.

Record Last Modified-September 25, 2017. On February 23, 2018 a 99-year lease agreement was signed between the Ottawa Hospital and the NCC, Public Works and Agriculture Canada.

Is it a coincidence that Prince of Wales Drive is being widened from 2 lanes to 4, and Isabella Preston's crabapple trees were all chopped down? That Prince of Wales Drive is being restricted to commercial and garbage trucks that service the Ottawa Hospital? That Senator Anne Cools told a Senate committee "The public fears that many other parklands, like the Experimental Farm and the Arboretum are on the National Capital Commission's list for for sale".That a tall blue fence is now blocking an entrance to the property? Is Disneyland North/the Botanical Garden behind this land grab? ("Prince of Wales Drive is being widened from 2 lanes to 4 lanes"-Google: Dow's Lake-Glebe Report, June 11, 2010.)

Ottawa Citizen, August 3, 2001.

The gates block an entrance to the Arboretum.

Prime Ministers of Canada Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Mackenzie King, Louis St-Laurent, John Diefenbaker, Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney never wanted to see the Experimental Farm commercialized and sold off. Neither did Agriculture Ministers Sydney Arthur Fisher, James Gardiner, Douglas Harkness, Eugene Whelan, Bud Olson, John Wise, Gerry Ritz..

Ottawa's Central Park "The Experimental Farm forms a central park within a residential area of the City of Ottawa." Page 167/395 of the 1950 Greber Report.

The Dominion Arboretum in October of 1963. National Archives photo.