Creating a New Legacy of Truth, Understanding and Reconciliation

This guest blog post is written by Rev. Elaine Poproski, pastor at the Walmer Road Baptist Church.

TAS and the church are partners in the redevelopment of 38 Walmer Road. Plans for future project include the adaptive reuse of the existing sanctuary, to include a new space for the church, a community cultural hub as well as a new condo building.

Do you know what a Legacy Space is? Maybe you already do. I’d never heard about them until this year, but I’m excited about what I’m learning and even more excited that I get to be part of creating one where I work.

I live and work on land that is part of Treaty 13, also known as the Toronto Purchase, the roots of which go back to the late 1700s. It’s a Treaty that was ill-defined, repeatedly broken and that evidences the colonizers’ disdain for the Indigenous people of the area. I get to live and work in this city I love in part because of those colonizers’ bad faith. But this legacy does not have to continue to define relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. We can help create a new legacy – a legacy of truth, understanding and reconciliation. That is what Legacy Spaces aim to do.

The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund exists “to build cultural understanding and to create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.”1 One of the ways they do this is by partnering with others to create Legacy Spaces, which are “safe, welcoming places dedicated to providing education and spreading awareness about Indigenous history and our journey of reconciliation.”2 As the pastor of Walmer Road Baptist Church, I am excited to be part of introducing a new Legacy Space, in partnership with TAS and the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, in front of the church. This outdoor space was launched on June 17 and will be a permanent fixture, including art installations by Indigenous artists, conversations about Indigenous history and all sorts of opportunities to learn about and from the Indigenous people we live and work alongside in this city.

The stunning installation was produced by Dani Kastelein, Métis artist and architectural designer.

A couple of years ago, I, alongside countless other Canadians, was horrified by the news of hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of residential schools across the country. I’m still horrified. And I’m ashamed.
I’m ashamed that I had no idea about any of this. I’m ashamed that for most of my life, I lived less than an hour from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario, but knew nothing about its history – nothing about Indigenous history at all. I had heard about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and knew that Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people throughout our history was contemptible. I think I knew that residential schools were part of that contemptible history, but I had no understanding of the scope of the atrocities.

I don’t know if I’ll ever fully comprehend the genocide. But I am, and expect I will always be, thankful that the men and women for whom this history was a lived hell have not stayed silent. I am thankful that these men and women have continued to push for the truth to be known. I am thankful that my ignorance doesn’t have to be the last word – that I can learn, and that in that learning, I can, perhaps, become part of making the truth known.

Where I live and work, in the Annex in Toronto, Indigenous people have lived and traded for thousands of years. The land upon which this city was built was a meeting place where many different languages were spoken, alliances were made and cultures intermingled. The people who gathered here included those of the Anishinaabeg nations, which includes the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Huron-Wendat nation.

It has been said that there can be no reconciliation without truth. This new Legacy Space will be a place for truth. It will be a place for understanding. In time, I hope it will be a place of reconciliation.

1 https://downiewenjack.ca/
2 https://downiewenjack.ca/our-work/legacy-spaces-program/

Niagara – Wellington Laneway Renaming

The laneway south of Niagara that runs from Wellington to Tecumseth needs a new name (it’s currently called Lane W Niagara S Wellington).

This laneway will be the address for one of the residential buildings at our 2 Tecumseth Street project and continue to provide car access into the site and properties to the north of the lane.

Place naming is an intentional act of acknowledging the memory of people, places, events and ideas. It can include positive and honorific celebrations of the past and present, as well as acknowledgements of controversial and shameful dimensions of history and culture.

Public commemorations – like the naming of a laneway – are one way communities demonstrate what they believe is important to remember.

TAS is helping to facilitate this renaming initiative. Have a look at the Process and Timeline below for more details.

Indigenous & Natural History

  • 2 Tecumseth Street is on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabeg, the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Huron-Wendat peoples. It is covered by The Toronto Purchase (Treaty 13) which was signed in 1805 by the Mississaugas of the Credit.
  • The landscape topography of this area echoes the Garrison Creek that once flowed through it. The creek’s beginnings stretch back around 12,000 years, when the Wisconsinan Glacier melted off the St. Clair West lands to form the original Lake Ontario shoreline and corresponding marshes.
  • Garrison Creek was a stream that ran from its source near Vaughn Road, all the way south through Trinity Bellwoods and Stanley parks, along part of Niagara Street and had its mouth at Lake Ontario –just east of Fort York where the military garrison was stationed. It is said that at that time, the mouth of the creek was suitable for mooring a few small boats.
  • During the 12,000 years of the creek’s existence, forests of pine, oak and locust covered the area. Indigenous peoples hunted here and travelled along this river corridor.
  • Niagara Street was laid down as a flowing curve that lined the banks of the now buried Garrison Creek.
Fort York, 1804

Fort York & the Shawnee Chief

  • When the Fort York military garrison was established by John Graves Simcoe for the fledgling Town of York in 1793, the Niagara neighborhood began to take shape around it.
  • In 1813, Fort York was attacked by a force of 2,700 American soldiers on 14 ships. In addition to the British soldiers stationed at the fort, a force of Anishinaabe warriors helped in the defensive effort.
  • Many of the street names in the Niagara neighbourhood are reminders of its military past:
    • Niagara Street is named after the former military capital of Upper Canada
    • Tecumseth Street is named for the great warrior chief of the Shawnee, who allied with the British in the war of 1812
Railway lands looking west, 1920

Industrialization, Residential Development & Immigration

  • By the 1800s, the city’s ravines and the Garrison Creek were overflowing with excess urban waste. The resulting pollution caused a public health emergency and, as a result, the creek was diverted into a below-grade sewer system and fully buried.
  • The defensive importance of Fort York also declined and with the increasing prominence of rail transportation in the 1850s, Toronto’s shoreline around Fort York began to be filled in to make way for railways.
  • In the 1850s, Niagara emerged as a prominent industrial centre. The factories and mills created a demand for workers housing which led ultimately to the residential development of the neighbourhood in the mid to late 1800s.
  • Many of the immigrants to this area were Irish Catholic. Toronto’s first Catholic Church built to serve the western part of the city was in this neighbourhood: St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church at Bathurst and Adelaide. Local school records also give evidence of early Irish, Jewish and other Eastern European influences.
Wellington Destructor

The Abattoir & Wellington Destructor

  • In 1875, a cattle market was established on the 2 Tecumseth Street site and in 1914, a Municipal Abattoir was opened on-site in response to concerns about the monopolization of the meat packing industry.
  • In 1960, the Municipal Abattoir was sold to Quality Meat Packers. One of the country’s last abattoirs located in a major urban centre, the plant closed its doors in April 2014 due to the escalating pork prices. At the time of its closure, Quality Meat Packers accounted for approximately 25% of Ontario’s total pork production.
  • This site also wraps around the iconic Wellington Destructor, a garbage incinerator built in the 1920s. Waste policies changed in the 1970s and the Destructor became a transfer station until it closed in the 1990s.
  • Niagara Street row houses constructed between 1884 and 1890 were separated from the cattle market by Chamberlin Avenue, which by 1903 had been removed but is echoed by the configuration of the present laneway.
Quality Meat Packers

Niagara Today

  • The Niagara neighbourhood is comprised of historic row houses and cozy one-storey cottages. In recent years, it has seen an explosion of new condominium and row house development.
  • There are changes happening in the public realm as well – improvements like the revitalization of Stanley Park and the Garrison Crossing, and the introduction of the Bentway.
  • Some of the important local landmarks include: Stanley Park, Niagara Street Junior Public School originally built in 1874, the Old York Tavern, Edulis (a Michelin star restaurant) and the Fu Sien Tong Buddhist Temple.
  • The small Niagara Street Community Center, public pool and tennis courts at Stanley Park are important community assets.
  • There is a strong sense of community, with community events throughout the year and lots of communication on various citizen-run blogs and Facebook Groups.

Great Laneway Names: Inspiration from Across Toronto

The Jewish Folk Choir Lane
The Jewish Folk Choir, which began in 1925, became on the most popular choirs in Toronto in the 1940s and 50s under conductor Emil Gartner. Emil and his wife Feygl Freeman, the accompanist for the choir, lived on Palmerston Avenue. Their home became a hub for choir activities which continued after Gartner passed away in 1960. Their daughter Esther eventually became the principal cellist for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Louie Laki Lane
Louie Laki worked in a foundry and enjoyed a glass of homemade wine. He was kind, had a motorcycle and crushed his grapes in the backyard. He would cut your grass or fix your fence and invite you over to relax under the vines. He washed his wine casks in the lane. 133 of his neighbours got together and signed a letter asking the City to name an alley south of Harbord St. after him. At the unveiling in 2010, his daughter dug out a few bottles of her dad’s wine to share. It was still good.

Magic Lane
Magic Lane in Cabbagetown is named for Doug Henning, a Toronto-trained illusionist who was an 8-time Emmy award nominee and winner for NBC’s Doug Henning’s World of Magic program. Henning also had top-billing on several Broadway musicals, including The Magic Show and Merlin. In later life, the magician lived at 94 Winchester Street and became active in politics. He was the Senior Vice President of the Natural Law Party of Canada, a party based on the principles of transcendental meditation, and ran in the federal riding of Rosedale – now Toronto Centre – in 1993. He died in 2000.

Boys of Major Lane
The boys of Major Street – Chucky, Porky, Solly, Harold, Red and Joe – were honoured with four others in the name of a laneway off Harbord Street in 2013. The six teenage friends fought at the same time in the second world war, but only two came home. Joe Greenberg, known locally as Dr. Joe, was one of those who returned. The other was his cousin, Red. Major Street was home to a disproportionate number of young men killed in combat.

Niagara Street Public School, originally built in 1874

What other stories are important to this neighbourhood?

Desk research can only reveal a tiny slice of a neighbourhood’s history. Help us uncover the untold stories about the people, places and events that shaped this neighbourhood.

You can share your stories and ideas for what to name the laneway by filling out our survey.

City of Toronto Commemorative Naming Guiding Principles

Laneway names must meet the City of Toronto’s Guiding Principles for Commemoration:

1. Be informed by historical research, traditional knowledge and community insights.
2. Be supported by communities through meaningful engagement.
3. Honour Indigenous ways of knowing and being (note: This principle is specific to commemorations of significance to Indigenous Peoples).
4. Prioritize commemorations significant to Indigenous Peoples, Black communities and equity-deserving groups.
5. Connect to Toronto, Ontario or Canada’s histories and cultures.
6. Share knowledge and stories behind commemorations.

Process & Timeline

  • TAS is helping to facilitate this naming initiative but ultimately, it’s a community decision (acceptable laneway names must be proved to have “general public support”)
  • Early in the summer, we were gathering ideas from local neighbours and key community groups through this survey.
  • TAS will compile the ideas from the survey and created a short list which we will share back with the community.
  • The feedback we receive on the shortlist will be used to help make a final recommendation on a new name for the laneway.
  • We will then submit the proposal to the City and it will go through a Technical Review and Guiding Principles Review, conducted by City staff. We’re aiming to send in the proposal in Fall 2023.
  • Council will consider the staff’s assessment and public comments and make a decision on the proposed laneway name.
  • Once approved, signage will be installed by the City.

Walmer Legacy Space

“Reconciliation is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in this country. In order for that to happen, there has to be awareness of the past, an acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted, atonement for the causes, and action to change behaviour.” – Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada  

The Walmer Road Legacy Space is a dedicated space in front of the Walmer Road Baptist Church where conversations about Indigenous history and our collective journey towards reconciliation are encouraged and supported. It temporarily exists on the steps of the church and will be incorporated into the future development being led by TAS and the Walmer Road Baptist Church.  

Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund Legacy Spaces Program

Inspired by the story of Chanie Wenjack and Gord Downie’s call to action to build a better Canada, the Gord Downie & Chanie WenjackFund (DWF) aims to build cultural understanding and create a path towards reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Through the Legacy Schools program, DWF provides access to education on the true history of Canada and the lasting impact of residential schools through tools and training to 6,000+ schools and clubs and 7,000+ educators to reach over 150,000 students. 

DWF’s Legacy Spaces program provides an opportunity for corporations, governments, and organizations to play an important role in their communities. Legacy Spaces are safe, welcoming places dedicated to providing education and spreading awareness about Indigenous history and the journey of reconciliation. They serve as symbols and reminders of the important work each of us needs to undertake to fulfill the promises of the country and the TRC Calls to Action. 

Earlier this year, TAS partnered with the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund (DWF) to create a Legacy Space at 38 Walmer Road. As a participant in the 5-year program, TAS is now a DWF Legacy Spaces partner committed to taking reconciliACTION, both in the workplace and in the community.

Walmer Road Legacy Space

Since the early stages of the 38 Walmer Road project, TAS has been committed to learning about the Indigenous history of the site and exploring our role in truth and reconciliation. As a starting point, in 2021 we organized a community walking tour with Indigenous leader, Trina Bell, and participated in cultural competency training with the Walmer Road Baptist Church. 

Creating the Legacy Space at Walmer provides an opportunity to continue honouring the Indigenous history of the site and to integrate Indigenous stories and partnership into the development. 

While Legacy Spaces are typically located in private corporate settings, the Walmer Legacy Space is the first public-facing outdoor Legacy Space. We are excited about the opportunity to share it with the broader community and explore our collective role in truth and reconciliation. 

The Legacy Space will also be incorporated into the future development of the site once it is complete.

Indigenous Mural and Gardens

As part of the Legacy Space at Walmer Road, TAS commissioned a new indigenous art work for the church doors and integrated indigenous plants into the urban crate farm in front of the church.

The artwork on the doors of the church was produced by Métis artist Dani Kastelein from the Brook McIlroy Indigenous Design Studio. It represents the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Air is represented by the clouds that bring rain to the 3 sisters. This scene transitions to the Water which supports the sturgeon swimming through while being sung to by frogs. Then there is Fire, where all are gathered for a feast and a moment of storytelling. Aki, the Earth, our mother, is depicted in all three
sections.

The urban crate farm, located in front of the mural, includes many Indigenous plants and
medicinal herbs, such as tobacco and sweetgrass. The garden is meant to provide opportunities for teaching about Indigenous culture.

TAS & Truth & Reconciliation

The lands upon which TAS operates are the traditional territories, treaty lands, and homelands of the respective First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nations who are the long-time stewards of these lands. As a developer in a settler colonial country, advancing  reconciliation is a moral imperative.  

We are at the beginning of our truth and reconciliation journey and know that we have a long way to go. We believe the most important thing we’re doing right now is taking the time to build relationships with people, to learn from them, and to establish partnerships grounded in trust.  

These relationships, along with the capacity-building and professional development we’re undertaking, are helping us develop a greater understanding of where TAS can meaningfully contribute to truth and reconciliation. We have committed to developing a Reconciliation Action Plan by the end of 2023. 

Community Celebration

On June 17th, we are hosting a community event to celebrate the launch of the Walmer Road Legacy Space. To learn more and to RSVP visit: http://walmer-legacy-space.eventbrite.ca.

Tenant Spotlight: Just Be Woodsy

What happens to a tree in downtown Toronto that needs to come down?

Usually, it is ground up into wood chips for landscaping mulch. But in 2016, Robert Jarvis and Sinéad Wills saw the opportunity to both reduce the CO2 emissions of that process and celebrate the beauty of urban trees by transforming them into functional furniture and beautiful objects.

After winning a bid with the City of Toronto to salvage trees downtown, Jarvis and Wills connected with us at TAS to set up shop at our 2 Tecumseth Street site.  For five years, their company Just Be Woodsy milled, kiln-dried and handcrafted these felled trees at the former abattoir.

“We are incredibly grateful for our time at 2 Tecumseth. We felt part of a historical place and did our best to honour it by making use of the old infrastructure, salvaging useful resources and re-animating it for the community. Our favourite saying was Hogtown to Logtown. It truly provided us a foundation to build a company,” said Robert Jarvis, co-founder of Just Be Woodsy.

Today, Just Be Woodsy has a 7-person team. Its furniture can be found all over Toronto and it has major contracts with the 1 Hotel and the University of Toronto. A signature of its work is the engraved coordinates of the tree’s place of origin, connecting buyers to the urban forest around us.

Beyond giving these trees a second life, this process also sequesters carbon. Wood is about 50% carbon and when that wood becomes a table or tray, the carbon is secure. According to Just Be Woodsy, the team has salvaged over a million kilograms of CO2, which is the equivalent to planting over 15,000 seedlings and watching them grow for 10 years.

At TAS, we are determined to activate our sites while we work through the research, engagement, design and municipal approval processes. Our partnership with Just Be Woodsy is a perfect match. Our two companies are aligned in our mission to create beautiful designs while reducing emissions and harm to the planet. We’ve been proud to incubate and watch their business grow over the past 7 years.

In late-2022, Just Be Woodsy moved to a new home at 772 Warden Avenue, a building in TAS’s Commercial Community Hub portfolio. Learn more about their impact story at justbewoodsy.com and come visit their new showroom to see the projects for yourself!

Benefits and Pensions Monitor: What is Impact Investing?

This article first appeared in the December 2022 issue of Benefits and Pensions Monitor.

The need to mobilize capital to address the consequences of climate change, global health challenges, and social inequality has never been greater.

Most people are now familiar with the term ESG (environmental, social, and gov­ernance) and many investment firms are pitching ESG investing strategies. How­ever, ESG is not truly an investing strat­egy; rather, it is a framework for assessing a company’s practices and past performance around sustainability and how those prac­tices may help or hinder a company in gen­erating financial returns to investors. In addition, the work that the newly-created International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is doing to set IFRS (Inter­national Financial Reporting Standards) Sustainability Disclosure Standards will help harmonize reporting standards. How­ever, additional reporting will not by itself help address the challenges facing us today.

That’s where impact investing comes in. Impact investments are made with the intention to generate positive and mea­surable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Impact invest­ing is a tool that can help us tackle some of the most complex issues facing society today. It is a forward-looking mandate to generate risk-adjusted market returns while avoiding or restoring environmental damage and generating positive outcomes for society. Intractable challenges, seen through an impact lens, become solvable; opportunities are pursued with social and environmental systems in balance.

TAS is proud to be at the forefront of real estate investors and developers focusing on impact investing.

What Does A Good Impact Strategy Entail?

There is growing recognition that the singular focus of businesses and investors on generating financial profits and share­holder returns in the short run is damag­ing in the long run. Historically, businesses and investors have failed to internalize so­cial and environmental costs. By contrast, when we take a systems view, we no longer see business’ so-called externalities as im­material. Successful, sustainable businesses create long-term value, operating in a way that addresses social equity and functions within the carrying capacity of the earth while generating financial return.

While an impact investment strategy may be thematic – think tackling climate change; finding ways for tenants to share in the value created by having them in a building; funding female and minority-owned businesses – a good strategy should be comprehensive and look beyond the narrow focus of the core positive impact of a business model, product, or service. The concept of double materiality should be applied; consider risks and opportuni­ties to the investment and the negative and positive impact the investment can have on society and the planet.

The Impact Management Platform, a collaboration between leading providers of public good standards and guidance for managing sustainability impacts, provides practical tools to contextualize impact across five dimensions (what, who, how much, contribution, and risk). The Global Impact Investor Network (GIIN), a global membership-based organization champi­oning impact investing, hosts the IRIS+ catalogue of impact indicators, helping to standardize impact measurement wherever practicable.

Impact measurement should be based on a clear theory of change for each stra­tegic priority using the lens of double ma­teriality and needs to be integrated into a day-to-day approach of a business. Output indicators quantify efforts across opera­tional and product/service delivery, while the five dimensions of the impact manage­ment platform can be used to contextualize the impact achieved. Impact performance data should be operationally relevant, pro­viding insight into how to better integrate impact into the value proposition of the business.

What Value Does Impact Investing Bring?

Applying the impact lens to an invest­ment strategy ushers in a systems view of the world ‒ one that identifies risks and opportunities for value creation. It shifts capital to align with the needs of society and to work within the carrying capacity of our planet. More importantly, capital deployed with this lens can reverse course on the destruction of the environment and address structure inequities that limit the potential of millions of people.

This shift delivers triple bottom-line returns. In fact, evidence has shown that impact investment portfolios are provid­ing competitive risk-adjusted returns. In the last GIIN Impact Investor Survey, 88 per cent of impact investing respondents reported meeting or exceeding their fi­nancial expectations and over two-thirds of respondents (67 per cent) sought risk-adjusted, market-rate returns for their as­sets. This confirms that while some impact investors, particularly those seeking to de­ploy philanthropic assets, may do so as an efficient way to achieve impact objectives, most investors applying an impact lens do not tradeoff between impact and financial performance and instead seek and achieve risk-adjusted market-rate returns along­side measurable positive impact. Simply stated, impact investing is an evolved lens on solid business fundamentals.

At TAS, we are optimists. While we see the challenge ahead of us, we also see great possibilities. In October 2022, the GIIN estimated the size of the worldwide impact investing market was US$1.164 trillion, marking the first time that the estimate has topped the US$1 trillion mark. While positive, we need to mobilize trillions more to address the world’s pressing challenges posed by growing inequality and the nu­merous environmental crises ‒ from cli­mate change to habitat destruction. Set against a backdrop of ongoing pandemic disruptions, geopolitical tensions, and un­steady world financial markets, the need has never been greater to shift the power of capital towards solving these global chal­lenges.

Impact investing is catalyzing that shift and showing the power of combining pur­pose and profit.

Written by Mazyar Mortazavi, President & CEO
and Kate Murray, Director, Impact Strategy & Measurement

Creating impact through engagement at 38 Walmer Road

Phase 2 of our community engagement work at 38 Walmer Road.

The Walmer Road Baptist Church has served as a welcoming, expansive place where diverse communities have connected since 1889. The striking landmark stands in the heart of the Annex, one of Toronto’s most dynamic and storied neighbourhoods.

Along with our partner, the Walmer Road Baptist Church, TAS has been working with a team of designers, heritage experts and planners to develop a bold new vision for this site that also celebrates the rich history of the church, and the Annex community. Over the course of 2 years, more than 300 local residents have participated.

Phase 1: Our Listen First Approach

At TAS, we take a ‘listen first” approach to community engagement. We started engaging with the community in 2020, with the commitment to learn and incorporate a diversity of perspectives into the design and programming of the site.

Last year, we challenged ourselves to come up with new ideas and activities, and to dig deeper and honour histories and peoples that predate the church. We hosted a multimedia art installation on site in partnership with Ophira Calof and their team, the ReelAbilities Film Festival and ArtworxTO. We also hosted three guided story tours that explored the site’s past and present and created a platform for dialogue about its future: one hosted by Ophira focused on accessibility; the second focused on Indigenous histories, experiences and Truth and Reconciliation hosted by First Story guides Trina Moyan and Jill Carter; and the last was hosted by the Walmer Church Congregation.

Watch the recap of that engagement work here: 2021 Walmer Road Baptist Church engagement

Phase 2: Testing and Implementing Through Engagement

In 2022, we began testing and implementing what we heard from the community. Our goal was to provide opportunities for people to gather and engage with each other – because that is how we envision the future of this site. 

  • The Bowery Project

The Urban Crate Farm, run by Bowery Project, included 500 crates of herbs, flowers and vegetables grown along the steps of the church. Bowery Project managed weekly programming and volunteers to care for the gardens and harvest the crops. The greens were collected by residents, as well as donated to the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and Native Women’s Resource Centre.

  • The Fall Festival

The Fall Festival brought together members of the community and the church congregation for food, music and activities. It was an opportunity to build on community-identified priorities like creating welcoming, vibrant public spaces, as well as TAS and our neighbours to get to know each other a bit better.

  • Jon Blak: Sanctuary Doors

As part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Wedge Curatorial Projects presented their inaugural public art installation on the sanctuary doors featuring photographs from Toronto-based photographer Jon Blak. His work redefines inclusive spaces to celebrate merging identities and styles that reflect the multiplicity of Toronto’s Black community. This installation reflects what we heard from the community about the need for diverse stories and perspectives to be represented on this site.

  • Community Fridge

Community Fridges TOronto is a mutual aid project that provides 24/7 access to free food for community members facing food insecurity. This fridge was installed in early 2022.

Why do we do this?

At TAS, we understand that every neighbourhood is unique, and so how and what we design, program and build also needs to be different every time. That’s why we invest time listening, learning and exchanging ideas with the people who live, work or spend time in the neighbourhood. 

These initiatives are as much about the projects as they are about the relations between people. Because when communities are empowered to shape their neighbourhood, and they have opportunities to engage with each other, it creates a unique sense of place.

Our engagement process is ongoing. We continue to look for meaningful ways to engage the community and honour the site’s Indigenous history.

TAS is excited to be part of the Annex. We hope that through our engagement work, we are able to create something truly unique that provides real value for the community.