Hospital to be built on historic Experimental Farm

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

The federal government has agreed to lease 60 acres of the 128-year old Central Experimental Farm to the Ottawa Hospital Civic campus, the Ottawa Citizen reports.

The current buildings are out-of-date, hospital President and CEO Dr. Jack Kitts told the CBC: "The facility is almost 100 years old . . . by 2020 and beyond the Civic campus, it will be too old and today is too old."

Some in the city are delighted at a chance for change. Citizen columnist Randall Denley gave "two cheers for breaking away from the idea that this public treasure has no greater use than growing wheat and corn."

However, others are upset over the land being used this way, especially without discussion. At press time, the Central Experimental Farm Advisory Council (CEFAC), which was created to ensure public access in the farm's management, has not yet been consulted about the lease. Eric Jones, CEFAC member and president of volunteer organization Friends of the Farm, wrote in a press release that "stakeholders need to be engaged if they are to provide meaningful input to decisions affecting the farm," adding that "we need to stand guard against erosion and loss of this Canadian treasure." Leslie Maitland, president of Heritage Ottawa, told the Citizen, "You don't have to go too far to see that this is the beginning of the whittling away of the farm."

There will be time to debate the issue. Dr. Kitts told the Citizen that "the timelines, historically, would be beyond a decade at best." BF