Feds, province and city commit to funding playground upgrades; Bronson Centre and Carlington Community Health Centre to undergo renovations
The federal government is providing $3.5 million towards these projects, with the province committing $2.9 million. The City of Ottawa is offering up over $1.4 million for the park improvements.
Olivia Hnatyshyn, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Apr 27, 2021 • 35 minutes ago • 4 minute read
Thirty parks in Ottawa will receive upgrades to playground equipment and other improvements while the city’s Bronson Centre and Carlington Community Health Centre will be renovated and expanded thanks to new funding from the federal, provincial and municipal governments announced Tuesday.
The federal government is providing $3.5 million towards these projects, with the province committing $2.9 million. The City of Ottawa is offering up over $1.4 million for the park improvements, while the Bronson Centre and Carlington Community Health Centre will provide around $600,000 and $235,000 towards their renovations, respectively.
With the province currently under a six-week stay-at-home order but playgrounds still open, Mayor Jim Watson said it was the “perfect time to invest and expand, and improve and make accessible these parks in all parts of the city.”
“As a result of the stay-at-home order, kids need to get out for their own physical and mental health, to play and be kids,” he said at a joint virtual press conference alongside municipal, provincial and federal representatives.
Manotick’s Centennial Park will receive nearly $700,000 in upgrades and improvements, including a new skateboard park and two basketball courts, replacing the boards on its outdoor rink, improving landscaping and signage, and upgrading park furniture.
Progressive Conservative Carleton MPP Goldie Ghamari, whose provincial riding includes Centennial Park, praised the funding infusion, saying rural Ottawa residents lack the same access to infrastructure enjoyed by others in the city.
“I find people in rural Ottawa don’t necessarily have access to the same services that other people in other parts of Ottawa do, because of a lack of public transportation, or distance, or other things,” she said at the press conference.
Ghamari added that while she didn’t know when work would start on the park, she was looking “forward to seeing shovels in the ground as soon as possible.”
The other 29 parks, spread across all 23 of the city’s wards, will have non-accessible and end-of-life playground equipment replaced with new accessible benches, swings, play structures and pathways. Collectively, this will cost around $5 million. Eight upgrades are expected to begin this summer.
Tuesday’s funding announcement comes only weeks after Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government announced the closure of all playground amenities in the province to help stop the surge of COVID-19 cases. This policy, though, was quickly reversed amid outcry from residents.
Meanwhile, renovations have already begun at the Bronson Centre, according to executive director Corey Mayville. The Centretown facility provides affordable rental space to other non-profit organizations, charities, and cultural associations. The Bronson Centre is renovating its main, rear, and side entranceways to improve access, refurbish the façade’s stonework, replace over 75 per cent of the windows, and upgrade ten studio spaces and the theatre for creative arts use.
“As you know, mass gatherings have not been allowed for essentially the last year… and that has impacted our revenues fairly significantly. But thanks to government assistance and programs…everyone’s employed, everyone’s still working,” Mayville said at the press availability.
Thanks to these government funded upgrades, Mayville said “the sky is the limit” for how the Bronson Centre can improve and possibly expand services.
Renovations at the Carlington Community Health Centre will help the facility make its healthcare offerings more accessible, said executive director Cameron MacLeod. The health centre provides a variety of services to community residents, including primary healthcare, dental screenings, mental health counselling and childcare.
MacLeod said COVID-19 has forced the centre to reimagine its physical space, with the funding to be used to expand rooms, improve accessibility for client-facing services and to create an outdoor garden area to be used as programming space or a children’s play area. One of the health centre’s buildings that dates back to 1922 is being completely renovated, in part, to help accommodate the needs of people with mobility issues, he explained.
“We’re designing the ground floor so that it’s completely accessible with a main street design so that people can come in the building and not have to worry about stairs and elevators,” said MacLeod, adding that these renovations will also allow the centre to expand their community kitchen for their food security programming, as well as improve existing programs.
“It’s about enhancing, but it’s also about bringing stability to the programming that we already have.”
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...go-renovations
Prev
Linear Mode
