The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) held a second emergency meeting Nov. 20 to discuss developments in the university’s plans to relocate their community garden.
In October the university notified the GSA that the Kitigànensag community garden had to be moved due to the construction of a new residence building.
Carleton sought and shortlisted proposals from private industry to finance, design, build, operate, and own the residence building.
Since the first emergency meeting, GSA president Grant MacNeil said the university proposed a new site for the garden, between the Nesbitt Biology Building and River Field.
He said the GSA sent a list of concerns about the proposed site to the university, which included darkness, seclusion, and inaccessibility.
He said the university has ignored the level of planning that went into the current location of the garden.
“We let the admin know that the garden wasn’t thrown together by a group of dreaded hippies,” he said.
Unlike the last meeting, the university did not send a representative to the GSA’s emergency meeting.
Chris Bisson, the community garden’s co-ordinator, said Ottawa bylaws designate the new site as a floodplain. This makes it a hazardous place for a building, but he said it could also have negative effects for a garden.
“The major risk is losing the soil nutrients,” he said.
Bisson said it was possible to work with the design of the area.
“There are a lot of cool things we can experiment with the site. It’s just going to be a lot of work to get it done,” he said.
Other concerns include the “dog-strangler vine” found at the proposed site by a biology student.
According to MacNeil, the only way to fight the species is with herbicides, which “doesn’t jive with our organic garden.”
GSA executive co-ordinator Phil Robinson said the university does not understand the process behind planning the garden.
“It just can’t be picked up and dropped somewhere else,” he said.
MacNeil said the GSA never agreed to the new site and they would be open to a move if they got a better deal.
The office of Duncan Watt, Carleton’s vice-president (finance), said they were planning on having another meeting with the GSA and could not comment further until that meeting took place.
The two parties are currently in the process of scheduling a meeting.
The university has previously apologized for the relocation and confirmed they would cover the costs of relocating the garden, as their contract for the garden states.
MacNeil said those who are concerned about the relocation should attend the open forum of the Board of Governors on Jan. 30.
