Save the Garden City Lands

We, the undersigned, request that the Garden City Lands, Richmond, B.C., remain green in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) for agricultural and ecological uses and park uses that may be permitted within the ALR.

We also request that the Government of Canada be prepared to restore its ownership of the Lands for program needs within the ALR, such as urban agriculture and ecology uses, that serve the people of Richmond and Canada.

Background: The Garden City Lands are a 136-acre area of open green space near the centre of Richmond, B.C., Canada. They are prime farmland that is well suited to urban agriculture, and they also have ecological value. The Lands have been owned by the federal government and are currently protected by B.C.s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), but there are plans to cover most of this open area with high-density construction and perhaps a convention centre if they can be removed from the ALR. Saving the lands is important for the Richmond community. It is also important for defending the Agricultural Land Reserve, which has been largely successful in protecting B.C.s scarce farmland since the ALR was established in the early 1970s. For more information and/or the Chinese translation of this petition, please visit the Garden City Lands Coalition's bilingual website, www.GardenCityLands.ca.

Note: With regard to our request, we draw the attention of the Government of Canada to the following: that, if the B.C. Agricultural Land Commission continues to reject applications to exclude the Richmond, B.C., property that is commonly known as the Garden City Lands from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), understandings in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Regarding Garden City Property between Musqueam Indian Band, City of Richmond, Canada Lands Company CLC Limited, and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, signed on or around March 18, 2005, may soon need to be renegotiated under MOU sections 1(22) and/or 1(23) and perhaps ultimately terminated under those sections, with the obligation that the Parties will cooperate in making whatever arrangements are necessary to restore each Party to the position that it was in prior to entering into this MOU.