The Government of Canada is giving $2 million to the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council (TASSC) so it can purchase and renovate a permanent office and community meeting space.
The Daniels Corporation also contributed $300,000 towards the partial construction costs and about $94,000 to reduce to the purchase price, with the City of Toronto shovelling in $650,000.
As an umbrella organization to more than 18 partners, TASSC lost its commercial space in 2020 during the pandemic and has been unable to fully operate and support those front line service organizations.
Plans are to relocate to the Regent Park neighbourhood where a prevalent Indigenous presence already exists. The space is envisioned to be Indigenous-owned and operated, with programs, meetings, events, ceremony, and other activities for TASSC member agencies and the community members they serve in the area.
“TASSC was built on the traditional concepts of friendship and collaboration. It is a collectivist mindset that brings us together,” said TASSC Executive Director Lindsay Kretschmer. “This space will offer us the opportunity to continue to collaborate in the spirit of friendship and unity; grounded in our ways of knowing, seeing, being and doing, now and for generations to come.”
Federal funding was administered through the urban component of the Indigenous Community Infrastructure Fund at Indigenous Services Canada. There are currently more than 32 urban Indigenous coalitions across the country.
