The Les Jardins de la Pinède farm, in Oka, west of Montreal, publicized for its financial difficulties and seized by a bailiff, was eventually sold to the Mohawk organization called Kanesatake Health Center. The transaction was signed on June 11 for the amount of 4.1 million dollars in addition to a certain sum intended for the purchase of equipment, indicates the agricultural real estate broker David Fafard, in charge of the dossier. The Kanesatake Health Center will use Les Jardins de la Pinède and its greenhouses to make it primarily a social reintegration center with an agricultural vocation, he adds. It was the federal government that transferred millions of dollars to the Mohawk organization so it could purchase the farm’s land and assets, Fafard says.
When the property was put up for sale, David Fafard said he met with several neighbors and sent letters to farmers in the region offering them to buy Les Jardins de la Pinède. Without success. Then, this unlikely call from a representative from Kanesatake Health Center.
They wanted to create a social reintegration center, so that those who didn’t have an easy life could find a good job on the land. They came to visit me and I saw that the matter was serious.
The broker eventually received more offers, but they were slightly lower than Kanesatake Health Center’s. “It’s a lot of people talking about (this transaction), but it’s a very nice project. It’s still going to be a farm, and it was important to me to know that I was selling to someone who was going to do farming. Of course, we can’t expect them to run the site at 115 percent capacity in the first year; they have to learn how to walk. But this year, there will be farming,” says the broker who specializes in agricultural transactions. He also serves as an advisor to the new owners. “I explained to them how to register as a farmer. It’s a relationship I’ve built with them and I want to see it grow,” he says. Earth he tried to contact the indigenous project manager, in vain. David Fafard discusses the possibility for his client to form a partnership with local farmers, in order to maximize the location and income from the farm.
The pill is difficult to pass
The former co-owner of the farm, Louis Vaillancourt, who has invested part of his life in Les Jardins de la Pinède, is having trouble digesting the sale.
I have nothing against social projects in agriculture, but in the case of my farm, if it had been sold to professional agricultural producers, who would have optimized the systems to adapt them to the potential of what we have built, the pill would have passed more easily.
Louis Vaillancourt says construction of the greenhouses, which dates back to 2021 alone, cost $4.1 million and features some of the most advanced greenhouse infrastructure in Quebec. “Heat shield, cutting-edge automation system, mister (to lower the temperature of plants), zoned lighting, root zone heating technology, growth tubes (intravegetation heating tube), CO management system2, gutters that melt snow and water collector. There weren’t many boxes that hadn’t been checked to ensure maximum productivity per square meter. With their social reintegration project, it is as if someone had bought a formula one to bring children back to school,” he compares. The former farmer points out that greenhouses alone can generate an annual turnover of 1.5 million dollars in vegetables, in addition to the production of fields and tunnels. “I look at what happens on the farm and I feel sorry for myself and for my former partner Marie-Josée Daguerre. Despite our differences, we lost everything. »
An illegal social reintegration center in an agricultural environment?
Transforming part of the Les Jardins de la Pinède garden into a social reintegration center may not be easy in Oka, because the mayor, Pascal Quevillon, says that his municipality’s regulations do not allow it. A change of use request could be made by the new owners, but the mayor says that the bylaws would then have to be changed to authorize this type of use for the entire agricultural zone and not just for a single farm. “My opinion as mayor is that it will not work for the entire agricultural zone, so it will not work for Les Jardins de la Pinède. If the federal government subsidizes the acquisition of a property for a social reintegration project without ensuring that the project is feasible and complies with the regulations, I wonder how public funds will be managed at the federal level,” Quevillon asks.
The mayor of Oka accuses the federal government of encouraging unfair transactions
Oka Mayor Pascal Quevillon is concerned about the purchase of the Les Jardins de la Pinède farm with federal money. “He IS unfair,” he said. There aren’t many people who can compete financially with the federal government and, more importantly, (his department) Indigenous Services Canada, which has significant resources to fund projects like this. » This agricultural operation brings to light the thorny territorial issue. We remind you that the municipality of Oka is close to the Kanesatake Native American settlement, where the Mohawks live and where the 1990 clash took place. However, the mayor does not look favorably on the purchase of this agricultural property in the Oka territory with federal money the goal that now belongs to the Mohawks. “The federal government has a land claims process, but by subsidizing acquisitions of this type, it finds itself bypassing this process, which involves consulting with cities and municipalities (prior to the transaction). In our eyes it is a bit like a disguised expropriation,” underlines Quevillon.