LETTER – Make Tranquille into a working farm for the homeless
(Image: Tranquille Farm Fresh)
Hello…..All I am hearing about lately are the problems on Columbia Street and all the issues with housing for the homeless in Kamloops. May I suggest what may be a partial solution.
The other day I was out at Tranquille Farms and was above the train tracks looking down on the area of the farm and noticed how huge this area is. I would suggest the city and provincial government look into refurbishing this lovely spot into a treatment centre.
Instead of the City spending all this money on homeless shelters why not spend the money on rebuilding Tranquille and have the homeless live out there? Make this into a working farm again thus giving men and women work and a purpose. This is where these people would be given a place to live and work and learn to develop a trade.
These people need to have a purpose in life and build their self worth. Instead of society giving to them let them earn and therefore be given a chance to turn their lives around and not feel hopeless. They would be given the chance to feel worthwhile.
From what I understand this place had a hospital, doctors, many suites for people to live in and also they also grew there own vegetables and did there own farming. This would help them help themselves. There would have to be much work done to the buildings but given the location and the tranquility this is a perfect place to be safe and rediscover life, purpose and a future!
I heartily agree that despite the cost the Tranquille property should be brought back to its original purpose. It can add great worth towards this purpose.
This is fantastic idea. Fruit and vegi in season and animals year round. Everybody able to work would require to work.They could run their own kitchen, maintenance, administration, security, shop to make something selleable … Great idea.
Tranquille is not now nor will it ever be a working farm. unless and until 2000 truckloads of growable soil (biosolids ??? ) are brought in. You see over the last 40 years of non use cropwise almost all of the topsoil has blown away. The heavy horse club was invited to have a ploughing match on site but (as I understand it ) there was no top soil to plough. The grounds may be brought back but only at huge expense
A new town site might be conceivable but equally expensive and would be environmentally damaging. This might have been a better place for all the baseball diamonds that now occupy the old Railiagh prison and amunition dump . The soil there ,while very silty is deep enough for ploughing and could be up graded to farm use.
Good intentions FG but un-doable. The Tranquille Farms is an isolated private property requiring immense capital to make it into a livable community. There is nothing wrong to have the “homeless” live near the rest of us. The need for more specialized help both social and medical can be delivered more effectively within the existing civic infrastructure.
But here is an off-shoot, somewhat related idea. One day in the future, our local political leadership will decide a bridge near the airport connecting to the West Trans-Canada highway above Domtar is a good idea. It would open up a large area to expand the city in that direction. And Tranquille will get developed.