Farm handover planned for April

Woodwynn staff layoffs loom after society signs agreement to sell

Cash-strapped Woodwynn Farms will be changing hands in April, provided conditions are lifted in a new sales agreement.

No information on the potential buyer and conditions are being released at this time, said Teri DuTemple, chairwoman of the board of the Creating Homefulness Society, which owns the property.

“We have made the very difficult decision to lay off staff at the end of March,” DuTemple said Tuesday.

“The [farm market] remains open until the end of March and any funds generated will be used to pay remaining salaries and care for the animals.”

The property, in the Mount Newton Valley in Central Saanich, has been farmed for more than a century.

The society bought it nine years ago as a location where Richard Leblanc could run a therapeutic treatment centre for people dealing with addictions and homelessness.

The operation ran into financial difficulties that have led to the sale.

No money was paid on the $4.6-million mortgage provided by unnamed philantropists, represented by 0852382 B.C. Ltd., of Richmond, to buy the land. The company started a foreclosure action in the Supreme Court of B.C. in January, seeking $5.3 million, which includes interest owed.

That’s when the society’s board decided to sell the 78-hectare property.

The plan is that sale revenue will clear off approximately $5.5 million in debt, with includes another $200,000 in money owed.

In late February, DuTemple said that two parties were interested in buying the property and running it as a farm and that the society was in negotiations.

The sales agreement signed Monday is subject to a number of conditions, as is common in real estate transactions.

If those conditions are removed, then the farm will change hands on April 18, DuTemple said.

One of the keys to making the farm financially viable was to build housing on the site and bring in revenue from residents living there for therapeutic reasons.

But the farm was not able to receive permission to build 40 units of housing from the municipality of Central Saanich or from B.C.’s Agricultural Land Commission.

By January, just three people were living on the farm under the program.

In December, eviction notices were posted on trailers by Central Saanich because of concerns over safety following a previous fire.

Leblanc argues that the farm’s program is needed now more than ever because of the opioid crisis that is claiming hundreds of lives.

Last year, 1,422 people died from overdoses in B.C., with 91 of those in Victoria.

Leblanc said that, in the past nine years, 54 participants passed through the program.

DuTemple said there was no money for followup to gauge the program’s outcomes.