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A CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT

The Frovincial Government bought Colony Farm in 1904 in order to
supply Essendale, the mental health hospital, with food and to
pravide work and rehabilitation for its residents. Colony Farm was
then owned by the Ministry of Agriculture (App. 1.1).

In the early 1980s the Ministry of Agriculture declared Colony
Farm “surplus to its needs." (see the letter of the Minister of
Government Management, Carol Gran in App. 4.2). Soon after this the
Frovincial Government attempted to sell Colony Farm, but was
Unsuccegesful. The land was transferred to the British Columbia
Buildings Corporation which still controls Colony Farm. According toa
Premier Vander Zalm (App. 4.1) im November 1989 "I am pleased to
advise that most of the acreage of Colony Farm has been leased to the
North American Lamb Marketing Inc. for the past two years so that a
continuation af the property’s agricultural tradition has been
maintained." Colony Farm presently exists in the Agricultural Land

Reserve (see App. 1.2).

Unfortunately, despite this recognition of the land’s
agricultural importance, the Fravincial Government in 1989-1990 ance
again allowed the land to lie fallow while proposals for its use were
entertained (see Carol Gran’s letter in App. 4.2).

The proposals that came forth at that time were first to locate a
horse racetrack on the land (several proposals were put forward by
developers) and then to relocate the FNE to the site.

While local governments considered these possibilities in 1989,
local citizens began to protest against these proposals. In
Coquitlam the South-East Coquitlam Ratepayers Associatio (SECRA) held
meetings that were attended by hundreds of Coquitlam residents and in
the fall of 1989 Coquitlam City Council passed a motion stating that
it was not interested in seeing a racetrack placed in Colony Farm.

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In Port Coquitlam a group of residents banded together as Foca
Citizens for Colony Farm. On October 2 1989 this group held a public
meeting in Port Coquitlam to air public opinion about the future of
Colony Farm. The overwhelming conserisus reached at this meeting was
that at a minimum Colony Farm should be kept Green (App. 3.1). On
October 146 1989 they submitted a petition with 607 names to Port
Coquitlam City Council and to the Fravincial Government (App. 3.2).
These Foco residents stated that they were unalterably proposed to

using Colony Farm for:
1. any industrial, warehouse, or commercial development

2. any entertainment complex like the FINE

3S. any retail store complex

4. any spectator sports complex such as a horse racetrack.
Subsequent to that Mrs. Doris Wilcox and Paul Dutton from the Foco
Citizens for Colony Farm met with the Mayor and planning committee af

Part Coquitlam about the future of Colony Farm. They introduced to
the Mayor and the City Clerk representatives of the Western iTEM

Agricultural Society who had plans for An Agricultural World that
might have been located at Colany Farm.