Benny Farm boondoggle

>> Canada Lands pulls the plug on social housing project

by CRAIG SEGAL

A bid to preserve Canada's biggest war vets housing project died Monday, when Canada Lands cancelled their contract to sell the property to Benny Farm 2000. "Their contract expired yesterday," said Gordon McIvor, vice-president of Canada Lands Company. "They were unable to meet any of the conditions in the contract. We have had a very good relationship with Benny Farm 2000. But unfortunately you can't indefinitely continue discussions with people."

But Benny Farm 2000 says the fight isn't over. "Canada Lands is behaving badly towards us," says Lucia Kowaluk. "They keep shifting. It's like a roller coaster." Kowaluk is a member of a non-profit group that wants to buy 13 acres of the vets' property and turn it into 430 units of low-cost housing for low- to middle-income families, seniors and severely handicapped youth. The project, Benny Farm 2000, would cost $40-million, and they say financing is arranged.

After WWII the federal government built homes for vets across the country. One of these was Benny Farm, a series of 64 three-storey buildings spread over 16 acres in NDG. Benny Farm was designed for families. Courtyards face inwards so parents could keep an eye on kids running around over play areas that became hockey rinks in the winter. "Thousands of kids grew up there," reminisces Sam Boskey, former city councillor for Décarie and vice-president of Benny Farm 2000. "My school was on one side of the park and Benny Farm was on the south side. Those kids could go home for lunch. I remember feeling it was a nice place to grow up."

But as the kids grew up and the vets grew older, four groups began warring over the site. The federal government tore down half a dozen six-unit complexes and built expensive new buildings with 250 units. They said they were for the vets, but some say it was a deliberate strategy to sell off the land.

"The average age of the vets is 80 years old. The federal government knows that," says Mark Poddubiuk, an architect working with Benny Farm 2000. "That's why they made the deal. In five to 10 years they'll be privatizing all the apartments."

Canada Lands had told Benny Farm 2000 they would approve their project if it met certain conditions by October 1. These conditions got stalled last month when west-end city councillors Jeremy Searle and Michael Applebaum voted against it. "The social housing project turned out not to be social housing," says Searle. "It's affordable housing. You have government money to help you pay less. So Mickey Applebaum and I ditched that. It doesn't make sense to use the most valuable piece of real estate in Quebec for affordable housing." Searle says he wants the city to buy the land and turn it into community space for recreation facilities and a library. But Sonia Biddle, Vision Montreal city councillor for Décarie, says Searle had other motives. "The feeling I got from him was sort of revenge," says Biddle, who voted for the project. "It's just a power struggle with the people who sort of run the community."

Canada Lands says they have no other projects on the table, and is considering developing the property themselves, says McIvor. But he guarantees social housing will be a part of any project.