Centre culturel La Ronde is about half way to its goal for a new building.
Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines Greg Rickford was in Timmins today to announce $1 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) for the cultural organization.
The cash is to build a new 12,000-square-foot building on the site of its former facility at the corner of Mountjoy and Algonquin Boulevard. The previous building suffered irreparable damage in a 2015 fire and was demolished in 2017.
The new modern facility will feature a hall, kitchen, workshop space, meeting rooms and office space.
“There’s just a whole different variety of things that you can do with that beautiful space that we’re creating,” said executive director Lisa Bertrand.
The overall fundraising goal for the project is $6.6 million.
Project leader Ludger Cloutier said the group has already raised $2 million.
They've been working for more than a year on grants for the project. While they can't comment on what's ahead, they said there are grants pending that look positive.
Cloutier said they've been meeting with JL Richards every couple of weeks to plan the new building.
For a timeline, he said they could start work in the spring of 2020 and the building will take eight to 10 months to build.
In Northern Ontario, Rickford said there are many cultures that have contributed to its vibrant towns and cities.
"But there’s no disputing that the Francophone community has played a special part in building many of our communities,” he said.
“These kinds of investments remind us of the important contributions that they’ve made historically and the ones that they’re going to make in the future.”
In applying for the funding, he did ask the group to do an inventory of existing buildings that could be repurposed for a centre.
“When some of these new builds occur, my practise is just to have a little pause and just make sure that we’ve exhausted any opportunities in the communities for existing buildings. Some of them have a lot of character and would make cool places to build," he said.
He said the plans La Ronde put together "were irresistible and after double checking in the community on their own...they came back and made a compelling case that a new build was appropriate. And the fact that it was going to be on the old site, it just made perfect sense."
