An inner city Prince George farm has survived generations. Now the owners want it to belong to the community

Twenty years ago, Lynn and Ed Gilliard made a promise: to keep a patch of green space — with chickens, sheep, pastures, and a large community garden — safe from development. 

The couple, now in their 70s, are asking for help from the City of Prince George to fulfil that promise and protect the farm for generations to come. 

The couple is working with a team of organizers calling themselves the Queensway Five, after the road that borders the Gilliards' farm. The group is asking the city to purchase a five-acre parcel of their land and turn it into a community hub where people can reconnect to their food production.

"For children that were raised in the city, it's important they know that there's magic in even just one little tiny seed," said Lynn, sitting at the big farmhouse kitchen table in her home, which was built by Russian immigrants almost 100 years ago. 

The Gilliards' farm is tucked between the Hudson's Bay Slough, a rich wetland, and the Lombardy Trailer Park in the Veterans Land Act (VLA). It's a community knitted together by a sense of camaraderie, a collection of stucco and wood-panelled buildings mostly built in the 1950s to house vets returning home from the Second World War. The farm often has children visiting from nearby schools in the inner city.  

Now, household incomes in the VLA are among the lowest in Prince George. Many Indigenous people, young families, and elders struggling on fixed incomes live there. For those outside the neighbourhood, it is synonymous with crime and visible poverty.

"Every time I come here, it's like going through a portal into another world," said Karl Domes, who rents a plot in the Gilliards' community garden to grow peppers, peas and sunflowers. "It's a pretty powerful place" 

Domes is part of the Queensway Five, and says he's hoping the city of Prince George will see the potential in the land to help create food security. 

"The future is uncertain, climate change is here … We've already had examples where our supply of food has been cut off," said Domes.

"It's only going to increase in the future."

Food as social justice

Over the past three years, reliable access to food in northern B.C. has been threatened by floods further south, fires, highway closures, and pandemic supply chain disruptions. 

But even before the unprecedented events of the past few years, northern B.C. was considered vulnerable.

According to research conducted at the University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George could run out of food in two days if there were major disruptions to the supply chain. 

And, in Prince George's poorest neighbourhood, access to fresh produce is threatened by rising food costs and a growing food desert. There is only one grocery store nearby, and it's set to close this year. 

"Food is one of our most absolute fundamental needs. Everybody needs nutritious food … and everybody needs to be able to afford that, too," Domes said.

"Spaces like community gardens provide access to that food."

A storied past

Ed and Lynn Gilliard said it all started with the previous owner of the property, Valentina Goodwin. Her parents acquired the land in the 1920s, before the city grew up around them.

"Val was a beautiful, little woman — tiny and feisty … She had the belief that it was her responsibility to do right by this place." 

The Gilliards said it took them more than a year to convince the 77-year old to sell to them before she finally relented in 2000.

Long after they signed the paperwork, Goodwin stayed tied to the land, stopping by the Gilliards' house regularly, often unannounced, to offer her opinions. She died in 2010 in a care home, maintaining throughout her dementia that she would one day return to her farm. 

Lynn said, much like them, Goodwin could have sold the land, already zoned for residential development for a profit. But, she didn't. 

That's why they are hopeful the city will accept the proposal to purchase the land and turn it into a community space, a proposal they made to city council in June and which is currently being reviewed by city staff.

The city wasn't able to provide any further details. 

Walking through the pastures, Ed Gilliard said he's "never been big on change." 

 "It's sad to let it go," he admits reflecting on closing this chapter, "but hopefully, you are happy with how you closed it."