Tsawwassen Area Plan Meeting

I asked John Barr if I could publish some of his observations regarding Wendy Holm and her "proposal". Here they are:

....."What she is proposing isn’t an alternative, it’s a red herring crossed with a pipe dream.

It’s instructive (and we need to point it out, not necessarily in your letter but elsewhere) that:

When I asked where this “collective” would find that kind of money, she said that various sources are available including the UN and international agencies – presumably agencies who would see more value in spending a hundred mill or so on an experimental farm in the Fraser Valley than in, say, Darfur). I pressed her for an estimate of cost. She thought out loud about “probably being able to negotiate a lower price once the zoning confirms that it can only be used for farming”, and estimated that the purchase price would probably be “about $50 million.” When questioned, she said she didn’t know how much additional spending would be required for remediation of the soils (drainage, irrigation) and buildings and infrastructure for an experimental farm/campus would cost over and above that amount.

I pressed her further:

• None of the universities has expressed any interest in doing this (I asked her, and she said that she lectures at UBC but isn’t part of administration and has never even put it to the UBC administration);

• While the idea of all the universities and colleges joining together in this way to further agricultural education is commendable, there is zero evidence that they are interested in doing so, and almost zero evidence that they have been able to act in concert in the past (she mentioned TRIUMF, but if I recall, that was an initiative of the Federal Government, and has never been replicated);

• All the universities and colleges are strapped for funds: I asked her where, exactly, would they find $50-$100 million to buy land and equip an experimental farm? That’s when she stated that there are funds available from international organizations. Really!

• At several points in her presentation Ms. Holm conceded what Southlands has been saying all along – that in their present condition, the soils on the site are not in good shape and would require extensive and expensive remediation (drainage system and irrigation) in order to become highly productive. Each time she segued past that point very quickly.

• She did not estimate what this remediation would cost, but of course it would have to be paid by the taxpayers (through the universities and colleges).

The other weakness of the “Holm Proposal” (if I can dignify such a hastily-conceived idea with the term “proposal”) are that:

• By giving over the entire site to agriculture, it would demolish the opportunity to add a stock of new and innovative housing to meet some of Tsawwassen’s pressing needs (eg., in-place housing for the aged, modest housing for downsizing seniors, affordable housing for young families);

• It would do nothing to address the fact that Tsawwassen is aging or that it would benefit from additional people;

• On the fact of it, an “experimental farm” will do nothing to connect Upper Tsawwassen and Boundary Bay, or generally to make available the Southlands property for recreation, walking, etc. While I guess, in theory, an “experimental farm” could be designed to include trails, etc., there is no guarantee that it would include them, and the idea of having to negotiate access with a distant, unaccountable owner of the property (a consortium of universities and colleges), should fill with dread the hearts of anyone who has ever tried to influence such a body. It would be roughly like trying to influence the Fraser Health Authority, only worse.

• As a matter of record, the University of Alberta experimental farm, in Edmonton, is very well known to me. It is a huge body of land, around which the city has grown, and it is surrounded by a 12-foot high chain-link security fence and no public access whatsoever.

If I read them correctly, the objective of the “antis” in deploying this woman, is to answer the charge that they have no alternative to the Southlands Proposal, they’re living in the past, etc.

“The Holm Plan” is their way of saying to the TAP Committee: “See? Just keep the Southlands designated as ‘agricultural’ and there is a way that the land can be brought back into farming and provide new educational opportunities to Tsawwassen at the same time. All you’ll give up is the housing subdivision.”

John Barr