Giant ammunition dump to be built on farm originally expropriated for JTF2
The installation could have as many as 26 buildings, but the scope of the project is still being worked out by National Defence.
David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Published Apr 25, 2023 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 4 minute read
The Canadian military will build a large-scale ammunition dump on the farm expropriated years ago for its Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorism unit.
Frank Meyers had his Trenton-area farm expropriated in 2012 for what was supposed to be a new base for JTF2. The farmer had tried for years to fight the expropriation of the 90 hectares that had been in his family for 200 years.
Meyers, who died in 2019 at the age of 91, had argued that JTF2 didn’t need his farm as the military already had significant portions of land in the area that they could relocate the counter-terrorism unit to from its base in Ottawa.
Defence Minister Anita Anand announced in March that JTF2 was not only staying in Ottawa, but that the government would finance a $1.4 billion modernization of the unit’s installation at Dwyer Hill.
The Meyers’ farmland will now be turned into a giant ammunition storage facility. The installation could have as many as 26 buildings, but the scope of the project is still being worked out by National Defence.
“The current ammunition depot at CFB Trenton is simply too small to meet the full storage requirements, and access can be difficult,” National Defence spokesperson Jessica Lamirande told this newspaper. “As such, we will be building a new ammunition compound.”
“We expect to be able to discuss more about this project, including timelines and cost, in the coming year,” she added.
In addition to the ammunition storage complex, some of the former Meyers farm will also be used for development of modern training facilities for the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit or CJIRU, Lamirande said.
CJIRU, a special forces unit, responds to chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological threats. That $415 million project is currently in the design phase with construction to begin in summer 2024. Construction is expected to be finished in 2029, according to National Defence.
Four new buildings will provide CJIRU with purpose-built office areas, meeting rooms, training facilities, wash bays and warehouse space.
In trying to convince the then-Conservative government not to seize his property, Meyers argued that farmland was precious and was needed to feed the country’s population. Besides, the military already had plenty of land in the Trenton area, particularly near Mountain View, Meyers told this newspaper in a 2014 interview.
In signing the expropriation order to take over the farmland for a new JTF2 base, then-Public Works minister Rona Ambrose stated she was of the opinion the decision was “absolutely essential for the safety and security of Canada.”
Meyers refused the federal government’s payment for his property, even after it expropriated his farm. When he died in 2019, he still hadn’t accepted the payment, an amount that remains confidential.
“The last comment that he would have said to the government that would be printable and more than four letters long would be that they should have put the base expansion at Mountain View … instead of destroying prime agricultural land and disrupting our family farm life,” his son, John Meyers, told the Ontario Farmer newspaper shortly after his father died.
To the end of his life, Meyers continued to demand that his land be returned. Both the Conservative and Liberal governments declined his requests.
The Department of National Defence said it handled the expropriation with sensitivity. Meyers was allowed to keep the original farmhouse in which he was born, his current house across the road and some acreage, it noted.
Meyers’ decision to speak out wasn’t welcomed by many in the Trenton area who expected a major economic boost when hundreds of military families associated with JTF2 were expected to move into the region.
Comments in a local newspaper portrayed the farmer as a millionaire money-grubber standing in the way of progress and jobs for the community. The Belleville Intelligencer accused him of deception. Others portrayed Meyers as a dupe of leftists intent on discrediting the then-Conservative government.
“They say I’m holding up progress, but progress of what?” Meyers said in 2014. “Starving the people? What are you going to do when you run out of farmland? I guess we’ll buy our food from China.”
Meyers was told to vacate his farm by mid-2012, but he defiantly continued to hang on for another year, planting his final crop in 2013. But he was not allowed by the government to harvest that crop.
Construction work on the new JTF2 buildings and expanded installation in Ottawa will begin in May. The 10-year construction project will meet JTF2’s long-term growth, training and high-readiness operational needs, according to the Canadian Forces.
Work includes replacing 89 aging and temporary structures with 23 new facilities; renovating seven buildings; and upgrading the site’s utilities.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/...on-farm-originally-expropriated-for-jtf2
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