Vendors at the Ottawa Farmers' Market in Westboro are frustrated the city gave them a little more than a week's notice that the market will be shutting down for more than a month.

They were told Thursday that the city is asking them to leave Byron Linear Park to allow for six weeks of re-sodding work.

There will still be a market this Saturday, which was originally supposed to be the last one before the grass work.

Coun. Jeff Leiper's office said Friday that the market will be at the park for a couple more weeks while they try to find a temporary home.

Gerry Rochon, a produce farmer who sells at various city markets, said Thursday the city should have spoken to vendors at least as early as January.

"I'm very angry and really mad because you don't decide something like this at the last minute and expect people to stay home. It's half the season for the market. I have to lay off people," Rochon said.

He said it seems like the city doesn't understand or care for farmers. He's already paid to plant crops this season and could lose that money.

"It's all in the ground waiting to be harvested and now, all of a sudden, I can't sell it. Where do I sell it?"

'Very much betrayed'

Jill Davies, who operates Buzz Honey Products, is also a member of the board of the Ottawa Farmers' Market.

"That makes us feel very much betrayed, not thought of as being important to the social fabric of Westboro," Davies said Thursday.

Jill Davies, a member of the Ottawa Farmers' Market board, says it feels like the city has betrayed and abandoned vendors. (Robyn Miller/CBC)

The market in Byron Linear Park has helped her build relationships with clients for products she puts a lot of work into sourcing and making, she added.

"It's not like there's 27,000 other markets that could just pick us all up and we'll be as we were. In six weeks our customer base has the potential to go elsewhere."

Looking for temporary location

In a statement attributed to parks manager Dan Chenier, the city said Thursday it "understands the inconvenience this causes vendors and residents, and continues to work with the [market] to find an alternate location nearby."

Chenier said the city delayed repaving work in Byron Linear Park to late last fall in order to accommodate the market season, but that there wasn't enough time to replace the grass in the fall. That work was rescheduled to this spring, but delayed due to wet weather.

Coun. Jeff Leiper said Thursday, before news of the schedule change, that he supports the market but his office has received complaints about the erosion of the grass in the past.

"I'm disappointed to hear that they will have to move," he said.

"The damage that has been done to the sod over the years, particularly from the market, has been significant. It needs to be repaired."

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper says he is looking into the city's communication with the Ottawa Farmers' Market and wants to find a temporary location for the popular market. (Matthew Kupfer/CBC)

Leiper said his office is trying to look into other possible locations.

"It seems like very short notice that's going to be disruptive to the vendors," he said.

Leiper asked the city if the work could be moved to the fall and was told there were contractual and weather reasons it needed to go ahead now, he added.

He said the work to the park, including widening the paved path and a request that vendors stand on platforms instead of grass during the market, could help avoid disruptions in the future.