Will there be a farmers' market at the Bondar Marina next year?

City Council will be asked for permission to terminate the existing agreement between the city and Algoma Farmers' Market, located under the tarps in the parking lot at Bondar Pavilion at its meeting on Monday.

That's not news to Susan Wilding, Algoma Farmers' Market president, but the fact that City Councillors could be considering the option of not continuing to lease the space to the market at all came as a shock to Wilding and the other vendors at the market on Saturday.

Wilding's jaw literally dropped when SooToday asked her what the market would do if it didn't have this space anymore.

"I'm floored," she said. "Just floored."

As president of the Algoma Farmers' Market Association, she received a letter from Virginia McLeod, city manager of recreation and culture, on Wednesday.

That letter indicated that McLeod was preparing a report to give to council on Monday evening (September 28).

McLeod's report is on the agenda for City Council on Monday.

"The agreement was last updated in 2009," says McLeod in her report. "Since that time a number of changes have taken place in the operations and local market and therefore the terms of the existing agreement do not reflect the current state."

Wilding said the vendors at the market fully expected the agreement would be renegotiated.

"The tarps will need replacing soon, and we pay half that cost," she said. "We also have less tables to set up so we don't need as many summer students to set up and tear down on Saturdays and Wednesdays. We also pay half the costs for the students we need." 

Wilding said the fact that they've extended their hours will also have an impact on the agreement but there was never even a hint from McLeod that councillors will be asked to vote on a resolution to have staff look into the feasibility or appropriateness of renewing the agreement at all. 

"This isn't just a farmers' market," she said. "It's a heritage farmers' Market. It's been in continuous operation since 1901."

"My family has been coming here for about 80 years."

Algoma Farmers' Market has technically been called the New Algoma Farmers' Market and everyone just calls it Algoma Farmers' Market now. 

It's moved around a lot before settling in its present location.

"I am not sure of the exact date but they went from there [Dennis and Queen Streets] to the parking lot at station mall, Zellers entrance until 1986," said Jane Darlow, one of the vendors at the market. "From there they went to the parking lot at the old Memorial gardens until 1994 where they spent a year under the big tent and then they moved to their own tent where they are now"

It's unique in the city because it is the only place where shoppers are guaranteed that anything they buy will have been 100 percent grown, produced or crafted in the district of Algoma.

The only vendors who can sell their wares in Algoma Farmers' Market are local vendors, Wilding said.

Also, it's the only true farmers' market in Sault Ste. Marie because it is an association of farmers and local craft vendors rather than a business that rents space to people.  

The resolution Sault Ste. Marie City Councillors will be asked to vote on at Monday's meeting says, "Resolved that... Council direct the Community Services Department to provide The New Algoma Farmers’ Market with notice of the City’s intention to terminate the existing agreement between the City and The New Algoma Farmers’ Market; further that Council direct the Community Services Department to report back to it regarding an assessment of the appropriateness and/or feasibility of continuing to lease the space to the Algoma Farmers’ Market and the recommended terms and conditions for such a lease."

(PHOTO: Susan Wilding cradles Violet Moore, five-week-old granddaughter of Algoma Farmers Market vendors John and Megan Trudeau of J & M Farms during the Saturday, September 26, 2015 Algoma Farmers' Market. Carol Martin/SooToday.)