Saskatoon Farmers’ Market finalizing search for relocation

The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative Ltd. is ready to move.

After 12 years at a former electrical garage in River Landing owned by the City of Saskatoon, the co-operative is set to finalize its relocation by the fall.

Where they are going is yet to be determined, but president Adi Ramachandran knows it’s unlikely they stay at their current facility beyond the fall.

“We don’t care who moves and where,” he said. “What we want is a permanent location for the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative, and it doesn’t have to be at this location.”

Numerous negotiations between the city and the co-operative hit a standstill in recent months as the city continues its efforts to the keep River Landing site animated for six days a week. Currently, the farmers’ market is open on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays.

The co-operative first tried renewing its lease. The city rejected that proposal.

Then the city issued a request for proposals for a new farmers’ market.

The co-operative proposed keeping the site active open for partners including the Saskatoon Open Door Society and SaskMade, while operating the farmers’ market on weekends, similar to a timeshare.

In February, the city cancelled tendering after discovering the building needed roof repairs. Ramachadran said the co-operative told the city multiple times that the roof needed repairs prior to that discovery.

Those repairs will close the building down for three months beginning in January. The farmers’ market’s lease expires at the end of this year.

Ramachandran said they did not receive any comments or feedback on their second proposal.

“We don’t have a clear idea of what the city wants. What we have submitted so far obviously wasn’t sufficient, so we needed more clarity about exactly what they wanted. Since we didn’t have that clarity, we had no choice but to leave the building,” Ramachandran said.

A compromise promised by the farmers’ market to relocate was met with “a fairly lukewarm reception,” Ramachandran said.

“I feel like the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative has become the victim of its own successes,” Ramachandran said. “It has animated this neighbourhood, revitalized this neighbourhood, and now we’re being asked to provide something that doesn’t really fit with our mandate.”

While Ramachandran thinks the city’s position is fine, he said the least the city could do is relocate them elsewhere.

A group representing the nearly 100 vendors that make up the co-operative began searching for a new location in April. So far, 10 locations have been scouted. Ramachandran wouldn’t say where they were, just that a decision should be finalized in the next two or three months.

“Plan A is to find a building. We’re still evaluating different buildings, taking into account rent, parking and location. Plan B is to set up a street market downtown like we used to before we moved into this building,” he said.

A temporary facility would be used for the winter months. Ramachandran added that the Downtown Business Improvement District has been very receptive to the idea of a street market.

Time is expiring for a mutually agreeable solution, but an authentic farmers’ market operating six days each week is unprecedented in Canada.

“All our vendors make it, bake it (and) grow it. All the markets like us all over Canada operate one or two days a week,” Ramachandran said. “There is no farmers’ market that operates six days a week.”