An Ongoing Dialogue with Farm Neighbours

The Farm Society held its first official community meeting on May 14, 2003 at Cordova Bay United Church. This meeting was a tremendously successful start to an open and positive relationship between community members and the Farm.

The dialogue with the community will continue as the Plan evolves and the Farm begins to develop. Through our phone line, email address and website we intend to ensure that there will always be a means for community members to express their thoughts and concerns, and be informed of farm activities.

The Society has already produced and distributed two newsletters and will continue to provide these regular updates of our activities. The Society also provides regular information through the local newspaper, the Cordovan, which allows for broader communication with the citizens of Cordova Bay.

Our next steps will be to ensure that the Farm Concept Plan is made available to the public through our own website and through Saanich municipality. We will also continue to host regular events to include the broader community in our planning processes. 

Traffic Considerations

We recognize that increased traffic is one of key items that may affect local residents living on Haliburton Road and other adjoining roadways as a result of the start up of Haliburton Community Organic Farm. We have discussed and reviewed the traffic issue at our Board meetings, directly with local residents and at public outreach events, and we will make every attempt to mitigate the amount of additional traffic which may occur as a result of the start-up and ongoing operation of the Farm. We have therefore formulated some basic guidelines that we will be following to help regulate traffic in accordance with the events and activities that will take place at the Farm during the course of the year. To read more, download our Traffic Considerations (PDF - 23 kb) document.

We would like all local residents to know that we will continually seek out ways to keep traffic at a minimum and ensure local residents are not burdened by the activities happening at the farm. Instead, we hope that the residents will continue to work with us to help find solutions to ensure that we keep the Haliburton Farm and the community residents happy and healthy for many years ahead!

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Education and Community Involvement

Education and community involvement are central components of the Society’s plan for Haliburton Farm. The farm will be a site for research and teaching for students of all ages, offering:

• workshops for organic farmers, gardeners, and consumers;
• opportunities for farmer-driven research;
• opportunities to host post-secondary student research projects;
• educational activities for school groups;
• volunteer activities for community members (work parties are underway!).

The Society’s long term goals include gaining access to, and renovating the farm house to accommodate a classroom space for educational activities.

A full description of proposed educational activities and opportunities for community involvement at Haliburton Farm is available in our Concept Plan (398 kb -- PDF version).