Agriculture Canada

A timeline:

2023 - The medical building at 1081 Carling Avenue in Ottawa is being demolished, and shadows from proposed high-rises could affect research at the Experimental Farm across the street.

2023 - High-rises are being built on 780 Baseline Road: "Concerned with shadows casting onto the Central Experimental Farm which could impact the research land," (A comment from "City Of Ottawa As We Heard It Report" January of 2023.) 

2016-2023 - 50 acres of the Farm on Carling Avenue are donated to a hospital. The Dows Lake parking lot and Queen Juliana Park are now being redeveloped; the designation "National Historic Site of Canada" was removed from 43 acres; Maple Drive and Prince of Wales Drive are being reserved for emergency vehicles; the Arboretum will be impacted if POW Drive is widened; the Historic Hedge Collection was dug up; at least 15 buildings on the Sir John Carling site may be flattened, including the Dominion Observatory campus and William Saunders Building; the Cafeteria Annex was flattened despite the fact that AAFC wanted to preserve the building as a visitor's centre and a museum for an historic insect collection.

2001 - 108 acres east of Prince of Wales Drive were destined for a botanical garden. The head of the Council of Canadians Maude Barlow said the project would lead to the privatization of the Farm.

Ottawa Citizen, August 3, 2001.The garden was never established. 

Botanical garden plan alarms Farm fans by Carolynne Wheeler, August 3, 2001:

-The Ottawa Botanical Society will charge $10 to $15 dollars for access to gardens it plans to build south of the arboretum. For the time being access to the Dominion Arboretum is free.

-Curfews are being imposed that prevent amateur astronomers and joggers from enjoying the site during the evening.

-The proposed botanical garden on the east side of Prince of Wales Drive would surround but not swallow the arboretum that is now a haven for nature lovers.

-Phase 1 of the project would fence off about 44 hectares (88 acres) of land now designated for research. It would improve the existing arboretum and (Fletcher) wildlife garden. (The Fletcher Wildlife Garden has a butterfly garden, a fish pond and bridges and they are open to the public and free. And the Arboretum and FWG do not have to be improved in my opinion.)

The Botanical Garden Master Plan in 2001. 

1997 - More than 50 buildings on the Carling Avenue location were slated for demolition, but the province of Ontario and heritage groups from across Canada saved them. ("The fight for the Farm goes on" Heritage Ottawa newsletter from the spring of 1997.)