Dominion Brook Park

This unique eleven acre heritage park on East Saanich Road, North Saanich, was created in 1913 as part of the federal government's Dominion Experimental Farms program as a horticultural demonstration garden and public amenity. It was masterfully landscaped with pathways, stonework, and ponds, together with exotic plantings from many parts of the world. Over the decades it was meticulously maintained by Experimental Farm staff gardeners and became an important focus for Peninsula and Greater Victoria social events, company picnics, and quiet family enjoyment. Victorians arrived via the B. C. Electric Interurban, whose railway tracks once bisected the experimental farm.

Beginning about twenty years ago the role of the Experimental Farm changed from one of agricultural support to a quarantine station for plants imported into Canada, and for laboratory research into plant diseases. In the 1990's it was renamed the Centre for Plant Health and is now part of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. With these changing priorities, together with severe government budget cuts in the 1980's, park maintenance was virtually abandoned and it fell into serious disrepair.

In the late 1990's a group of citizens began to organize local support for rehabilitating the old park. In 1999 a $60,000 capital grant from the Provincial Capital Commission, through its former Greenways Program, enabled the park to be fenced for public use. This in turn enabled the District of North Saanich to negotiate a management lease with the Federal Government to bring it under local control.

However because the District has neither the funds nor the horticultural expertise to rehabilitate such a large and complex park, the lease was contingent upon the actual rehabilitation work being done by citizen volunteers. The Friends of Dominion Brook Park Society was created in 2000 as a non-profit society to organize volunteers for park rehabilitation and to raise funds for operating and capital expenditures. It now has 179 member households in the Greater Victoria region, representing about 350 individuals. The Society works closely with the municipality under a Stewardship Agreement.

This unique cooperation between citizens, municipal, provincial, and federal governments has led to an extraordinary rebirth of the old park. Since fieldwork began in 2001 volunteers have contributed over 2000 hours of cleanup and rehabilitation work. Donations, fund raising activities, and funding grants have raised about $22,000. The efforts of the "Friends" society have been recognized by civic awards from the Hallmark Society of Greater Victoria, the B. C. Heritage Society, and the Provincial Capital Commission's former Greenways Program.

Now that cleanup and debris removal is well advanced, the restoration program is moving into rehabilitation and maintenance. To guide this, the Society has drawn up a five year plan calling for staged redevelopment of several key features of the park, focused initially on the sunken garden and entrance terrace in 2005, and on the watercourse (Dominion Brook) running through it, incorporating both the ravine and main pond in 2006 and 2007. These are ambitious undertakings and will require complex interdisciplinary planning and project management. In this respect experienced and energetic citizens are being sought as Board members to contribute their expertise and leadership in carrying this program forward over the next several years.