Over the last few months, the team of design consultants (Henry Tsang Architect, MoDA, Create Construction, Archineers) has been focusing our efforts on helping the CJCA put together a grant application to help finance the new Legacy Project. We submitted a grant proposal for the Green and Inclusive Community Building Grant offered by Infrastructure Canada in July 2021. “The Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program aims to build more community buildings and improve existing ones – in particular in areas with populations experiencing higher needs – while also making the buildings more energy efficient, lower carbon, more resilient, and higher performing. This five-year $1.5 billion program will support green and accessible retrofits, repairs or upgrades of existing public community buildings and the construction of new publicly-accessible community buildings that serve high-needs, underserved communities across Canada.” Our grant proposal has made the final shortlist and was requested for additional information in October 2021.We expect the results to
be released by the end of the year. The amount of the grant requested is $4.2 million from the federal government, which represents 60% of the current $7 million budget estimate of the
project. To meet the requirements of the GICB, the building needed to demonstrate highest possible green building energy efficiency, specifically meeting Zero Carbon Building standards, as well as accessibility barrier-free performance meeting the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification. The specs of the building were therefore improved for this purpose, which explains the increase of the cost estimate that we had originally ballparked at around $5
million when we first presented this at our previous town hall meeting last year on November 5, 2020. It is to note that prices of construction materials have also risen quite a bit since the pandemic due to supply chains, especially with steel and lumber, but we are expecting to see things to start stabilizing a little bit soon.
What’s next?
- Fundraising Campaign: Recommendation was made to the Board to start a fundraising campaign. I recently worked on a Government of Japan MOFA grant application with board
director Tomo Honda, and we were successful in securing funds to revamp the association’s website. The new website, due to open at the end of the year, will boost the visibility of the Legacy Project and also include a donation feature. A special committee will also be formed to lead the Legacy Project Fundraising campaign.
- Other Grants: We will be looking for other grants at the provincial and municipal levels.
- Land Use Re-Designation Process: The CJCA and the four-plex currently sit on two separate lots. In our feasibility study, we identified that it would be advantageous for the CJCA to apply
for a land use redesignation to merge both lots into one large one. By doing so, we would be able to build on a larger area of the land, and have less restrictive setback lines. Upon the
approval of the Board, this will be one of the first steps moving forward.
- Legacy Project Committee: As we move forward, we will need more and more input from the CJCA to decide on design and construction issues of the building, as well as coordinating the
temporary move during the construction phase. Anyone interested to join this committee is invited to contact Roger.