CHILLIWACK – Agricultural groups want a halt to the long-term shift away from agriculture at Chilliwack Heritage Park, which the city promised to maintain for agricultural groups when it opened the facility in 2001.
But Tourism Chilliwack has failed to honour a memorandum of understanding the city signed to that effect with the Chilliwack and District Agricultural Society and Chilliwack and District Horse Council in 1999, says Jeanie Calvers, one of the eight members of the working group for Bring Agriculture Back to Heritage Park, formed to hold the city to its pledge.
“The trajectory away from agriculture began in 2011 or 2012,” Calvers says. “It’s been a very marked shift away from this being an agricultural facility.”
Of the 41 large events the 65-acre park hosted last year, just three were agricultural.
Calvers says the city’s selection of Tourism Chilliwack as park manager in 2012 was the catalyst for a move away from agriculture.
The Bring Agriculture Back group set up a Facebook page in January and posted a survey regarding the park’s support for agriculture and the equine industry. Within two days, it received 515 responses, all believing the facility excludes agricultural events.
Representatives from the group met February 12 with three representatives from the City of Chilliwack and eight from Tourism Chilliwack. Agricultural interests were represented by 10 people engaged in dairy, beef, 4-H, barrel racing and other agriculture sectors.
“We just want access,” says Calvers. “We want some padlocks taken down. We want our kids to be able to access it. We want community there. That’s what an ag centre should be about. We are asking for simple things that make a big difference to ag.”
While the meeting was positive in tone, the Bring Agriculture Back group isn’t sure city and tourism representatives understand their concerns are larger than financial considerations.
Working group member Shanda Davis, of Fraser Bar D Angus, says Tourism Chilliwack’s presentation at the meeting defined the park’s success by how much money events generate. But with so few agricultural events, the park simply isn’t living up to its mandate.
“We need to keep advocating,” Davis says. “Our focus is to make this more of a community feel, like our old fairgrounds used to be.”
Calvers feels city and tourism officials object to livestock at the facility.
“We feel they absolutely don’t want animals on site. The organic side-effect of having agriculture there is so distasteful for them,” she says.
Positive outcomes from the February meeting included agreeing to ongoing discussion and strong interest from a few city and tourism representatives with agriculture exposure and experience.
“We felt that there’s some hope,” she says. “It will be baby steps.”
But some of that hope dimmed when Chilliwack mayor Ken Popove backed out of meeting with the group on February 14.
In an e-mail to Calvers, he explained he wanted to “let those of you involved continue to reach equitable agreements.”
Yet city council sets the priorities for the park’s use. Those include “special events such as conventions, race meets, rodeos, tournaments, shows, exhibitions, concerts, carnivals, inter-community events, BC and Canadian championships, regional training, testing and coaching clinics.”
Those events could be from any sector, not just agriculture, though the city told Country Life in BC via e-mail that it gives the Chilliwack and District Agricultural Society 15 free days a year at the park for its annual fair versus eight days at the fair’s former site in central Chilliwack.
But extra fair days don’t help improve access to the facility for agricultural events year-round or improve access to outdoor areas for activities such as drop-in riding. And the “red tape” involved in hosting an event is excessive, says Davis.
“Other arenas have open days where you can just drop in,” says working group member Deborah Anderson, a Western performance horse competitor. “They used to here.”
Calvers says the park should be managed for agriculture, not treated like any other event venue.
“We think the board of tourism is doing a great job of promoting Chilliwack but they shouldn’t be running an agriculture centre,” says Calvers.
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