New hospital would be built on site of 'irreplaceable' soil experiment, say scientist
Elizabeth Payne, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 20, 2015 | Last Updated: September 20, 2015 7:45 PM EDT
“Irreplaceable” experiments that contributed to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 would be lost with the construction of The Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic Campus on part of the Central Experimental Farm, raising alarm among scientists around the world.
“This would be an incredibly unfortunate time to lose such an international treasure,” wrote Pete Smith, professor of soils and global change at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen, in a letter to federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz earlier this year. “History would judge this a very short-sighted decision.”
Former federal cabinet minister John Baird and hospital officials made the surprise announcement last fall that 24 hectares of the farm would be transferred to the National Capital Commission and then leased to The Ottawa Hospital for a new Civic location. Although officials noted the land in question makes up just six per cent of the Experimental Farm, opponents say it represents more than 10 per cent of total usable crop research area on the farm and includes fields that have been in continuous use for experimentation since 1886.
The land deal has been approved by cabinet, although a complex transfer deal between Agriculture Canada and the National Capital Commission — which will then lease it to the hospital for a nominal amount — is still being ironed out. An advisory committee to Agriculture Canada and groups including Friends of the Farm say they were not consulted ahead of time and have been told the land transfer is a “done deal.”
There is still no approved funding for a new hospital — with an expected price tag of $2.5 billion or more — and it could be years before it is built.
Clarke Topp, one of the scientists who spent a career working on long-term experiments in the farm’s Field No. 1, the proposed site of the new hospital, is among those raising alarm bells about the plan. Topp argues the deal would mean the end of long-term soil experiments. The internationally recognized scientist, who is now retired, says he cannot watch decades of important scientific study get washed down the drain without speaking out.
Topp said he has heard from current government scientists who back his efforts to draw attention to the loss of the research to make room for a hospital.
“They can’t speak up, but they were pleased that I decided to become the usual s**t disturber that I was in my career. A number called me and thanked me.”
Some of the experiments on Field No. 1, bordered by Carling Avenue in the north, Fisher Avenue in the west, Ash Lane in the east and close to the Scenic Driveway in the south, have been underway for decades. A key one involves studying the effects of low-tilling and no tilling on carbon in soils, something that contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, making Agriculture Canada scientists among joint recipients of the prize.
Topp, who continued to work on his experiments without pay for several years after retiring, said his work involved measuring the impact of low tilling or no tilling methods on carbon, water and other aspects of the soil as a means of improving its quality, something that is crucial to feed a growing population. Carbon, which is vital to feed plants, is depleted when the soil is repeatedly tilled.
Smith, of the University of Aberdeen, said the land “houses irreplaceable experimental plots which are of international significance, and those will be lost.”
He goes on to write that while he understands “the need for local hospital services, the choice of site is extremely unfortunate” and that the soil experiments “help us to understand carbon dynamics in soils and provide information to inform governmental policies in the context of global carbon balances and environmental change.”
The year 2015, Smith noted, has been designated the International Year of Soils by the United Nations.
Ten months after the announcement about the land transfer, there has been virtually no public information about plans to build the new hospital to replace the aging Civic campus. Public consultations on the design will begin after the land transfer between Agriculture Canada and the NCC is complete, which an NCC spokesperson said will occur after the election.
Still, there is growing concern within the scientific community and elsewhere that construction of the new hospital on that part of the farm will come at too high a price.
In addition to Smith’s letter to the agriculture minister, a number of international scientists also wrote in June to Jamie McCracken, chair of the board of governors of The Ottawa Hospital. The letter calls on the hospital and federal government to look at other options, noting that the Central Experimental Farm is a national historic site and a “significant cultural landscape” that belongs to all Canadians. Groups including Heritage Ottawa, Friends of the Farm, National Trust for Canada and others are opposed to the plan.
David Burton, an agriculture professor from Dalhousie University who is president of the Canadian Society of Soil Science, said the transfer of farm land to the hospital “will result in the loss of scientifically significant agricultural field experiments, which have been conducted on that parcel of land since the late 1880s.
“There are very few places in the world where agricultural experiments have been running so long and the data generated from those experiments have helped make Canadian agriculture profitable and secured the livelihoods of Canadian farmers, while also contributing to international scientific knowledge and practice.”
Topp said Canada has been in the forefront of research on soil in the past and should be now. “I have an international reputation for the research that I did, and we can do that again.”
Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Lieper said he knows many people who live near the current hospital will be glad to see a new one being built which, among other things, might reduce traffic and parking tensions in the neighbourhood. But he said he has also spoken to people in the community who are concerned about the hospital “taking over some of that scientific soil.”
Mark Kristmanson, chief executive of the NCC, was asked by David Jeanes of Heritage Ottawa about the project at the NCC’s open house in June.
The alternatives to the site for a new hospital “are not fantastic” said Kristmanson.
“When you think of the densification coming in this city, when you think of the growing health needs of this city and you think of the actual condition of the Civic hospital … it’s hard to imagine that it would be preferable to locate this hospital much further out … As much as we are seized with the loss of a portion of this very important heritage cultural landscape and heritage site, the social benefit is hard to argue against.”
epayne@ottawacitizen.com
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...-say-scientist
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