From Citizens Concerned About Oyster River Farmland Sale:

The inappropriately small advertisement buried in the back section of local papers announcing the sale of the UBC farmlands was not seen by many people. This “notice of courtesy” came as a surprise to neighbours, concerned citizens, and tenants of the farm, and the groundswell of response it sparked must have come as quite a surprise to UBC and their sales agents, Colliers International.
The notice allowed 5 business days for Comox Valley residents and 2 business days for Campbell Riverites to respond with statements of interest leaving many local people to think that by the time we heard about it the sale was already a done deal.

The 1,755 acres of UBC Oyster River Farm (upper and lower farmlands) comprising 14 different deeds are being sold as one offering to provide funds for UBC. This land has not been actively farmed by UBC since the dairy herd and milk quota were moved from Vancouver Island to Agassiz in 1999. Barrett Montfort willed most of this land to UBC in 1962 requiring the university to farm the land for 20 years. There are many people who now regret this bequest wishing that it came with stronger commitments to farming, to the community, and with protection for the Woodhus slough and the other sensitive habitat that surrounds the farm.

Over the past 40 years, the local community has developed strong ties with the farm. A research and education facility trained young farmers, it was the home of sustainable forestry research, a centre for school programs, and the location of the popular pub to pub trail linking the Oyster River Regional park with the newly acquired RDCS lands near Salmon Point. It is the most popular trail in the area, used by people from Campbell River to Union Bay.

The upper farm has also been the home for the Oyster River Enhancement Society and the 300+ volunteers who have been working since the early 1980s to restore salmon to the Oyster River. They have been successful due to the thousands of hours of volunteer effort that went into the work, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant money that was invested in the project. This grant money includes $20,000 that was paid by the Nature Trust of B.C. for the protection of riparian habitat along the Oyster River in 1987.

On Monday November 28th a group of concerned citizens and community groups met with UBC and Colliers International to learn more about the impending sale.
What we heard offered no comfort. While UBC stated the sale was proceeding, they would not say how much the land was selling for or who had made offers to buy it. What they did say was that the offers were being presented to a UBC committee on Friday December 2, and that a week later on December 9th the recommendations of this committee would go to the UBC Board of Governors for approval of the purchaser.

UBC is not interested in putting any leases or covenants in place to protect,or at least acknowledge the longstanding public equity in the property because it would not be in the university’s best interest to do so. They do not want to consolidate the lower parcels into a larger parcel to protect ALR land because this will devalue the property. There is no tax advantage to them, as they do not have to pay tax on the land.

Done deal. Or is it?
There are several outstanding issues that need to be settled before the sale is complete. The Woodhus slough and the boundaries of the crown land along the foreshore need to be legally surveyed. The sale also needs to be approved by the Ministry of Advanced Education. None of this offers any security to the community. There are very close ties between the Ministry of Advanced Education and UBC as Dr. Moura Quayle former UBC president Dean of Agriculture at the time the farm was closed is now the Deputy Ministerof UBC for Advanced Education, the same ministry that must approve the sale of the farm.

We are not opposed to UBC making the most of their investments or providing for their students, but they must recognize the major commitment that our community has made to this land and not to pass these concerns off, expecting a new owner to protect habitat and public interest when UBC will not. Once the property is sold will the new owner close the pub to pub trail, cut off access to Oyster River Enhancement Society, log the timber along the river, or not?
Colliers and UBC ask us to trust them to sell to an owner who will respect our interests, but how can we expect the new owner to do what UBC is unwilling to do itself?

I think that UBC president Dr. Martha Piper and, Minister of Advanced Education Murray Coell, should hear what our communities have to say about this sale.
Time is short so now is the time to send a strong message about how important this land is to our community.

Download this actions file now!

For more information please contact:

Kathy Campbell
kathycam@shaw.ca

Kathy Campbell facilitated a meeting of groups and individuals concerned about the sale of the UBC farmlands. The meeting participants included representatives from Fisheries & Oceans Canada, Comox Valley Naturalists, Oyster River Enhancement Society (ORES), Oyster River Watershed Management Committee (ORWMC), Woodhus Slough Restoration Society, Discovery Coast Greenways Land Trust, Comox Valley Land Trust, Oyster Bay Park Association, Wildlife Inventory Tree Stewards (WiTS), Comox Valley Farmers’ Institute, Tim Fairbanks Sawmill Owner/Upper Farm Tenant, CV Woodlot Association, Comox Valley Sustainable Communities Action Network (SCAN), Area C and Area D residents.

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