Centre St-Pierre helps meet community needs with the creation of Carrefour St-Pierre
MONTRÉAL, March 7, 2024 /CNW/ - The Carrefour St-Pierre expansion and renovation project will offer quality, accessible and affordable rental spaces to organizations committed to help marginalized people thanks to an investment of more than $7.9 million from the federal government.
Announced by the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, this project will meet the needs of the neighbourhood and people in the community by providing modern premises to community and social economy organizations that provide direct services to people in need, including food security, psychosocial support and defense of rights or to organizations offering housing assistance services. These community organizations struggle to find accommodation in this housing context.
After establishing itself at 1212 Panet Street more than 50 years ago as Cité des ondes populaires to meet the priority needs of service organizations and vulnerable populations, Centre St-Pierre is resolutely turned towards the future and is doubling its surface area. Carrefour St-Pierre, which includes the Centre St-Pierre and the new Maison St-Pierre, aims to become a place of meeting, exchange, sharing and influence for organizations engaged in popular education, justice, social transformation and ecological transition.
The funding will be used, among other things, to upgrade the Maison St-Pierre by carrying out necessary repair work to add modern spaces for organizations, as well as increasing energy performance and improving the quality and functionality of the building, including its universal accessibility. The work includes replacing the existing windows by more efficient windows and renovating roofs of the building. Green spaces will also be created outside of the Carrefour St-Pierre to reduce heat islands and runoff water.
A thriving economy needs strategic investments in green and inclusive community infrastructure to build a sustainable future for Canadians, with access to good jobs, while limiting impacts on the environment.
By continuing to work closely with its partners across Canada, the federal government is ensuring that Canadians are supported by infrastructure that can connect them to jobs, services, amenities, and their communities at large.
Quotes
"By investing in our green infrastructure, we are investing in the future of our communities. I am pleased to announce funding from the federal government for the Centre St-Pierre's Carrefour St-Pierre project. In addition to protecting Montreal's heritage, and supporting our local organisations, this project will contribute to the ecological transition by increasing the energy efficiency of Carrefour St-Pierre buildings and by reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Member of Parliament for Laurier—Sainte-Marie, on behalf of the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
"It is driven by the firm conviction of responding appropriately to the urgent needs of community organizations struggling to find affordable housing that we are restoring Maison St-Pierre into a community building that is green, inclusive and universally accessible. The St-Pierre Center, a community organization anchored in its community for 50 years, will thus contribute to positive and necessary change in a neighborhood undergoing profound transformation. We thank the Honorable Steven Guilbeault for this investment in a neighborhood that is in dire need of structuring investment to maintain the social and community fabric in the Centre-Sud and the Gay Village."
Louise St-Jacques, President of the board of directors, Centre St-Pierre
Quick Facts
The federal government is investing $7,950,000 to this project through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program.
These enhancements are expected to reduce the facility's fuel consumption by an estimated 54,1% and greenhouse gas emissions by 74,4 tonnes annually.
The GICB program aims to improve the places Canadians work, learn, play, live and come together by cutting pollution, reducing costs, and supporting thousands of good jobs. Through green and other upgrades to existing public community buildings and new builds in underserved communities, the GICB program helps ensure community facilities are inclusive, accessible, and have a long service life, while also helping Canada move towards its net-zero objectives by 2050.
At least 10 percent of funding is allocated to projects serving First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, including Indigenous populations in urban centres.
The GICB program was created in support of Canada's Strengthened Climate Plan: A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy. It is supporting the Plan's first pillar through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the increase of energy efficiency, and helping develop higher resilience to climate change.
The program is providing $1.5 billion over five years towards green and accessible retrofits, repairs or upgrades.
The application period for the GICB Program is now closed.
Associated Links
Green and Inclusive Community Buildings
https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/gicb-bcvi/index-eng.html
Strengthened Climate Plan
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/climate-plan-overview.html
Federal infrastructure investments in Quebec
https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/prog-proj-qc-eng.html
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
Web: Infrastructure Canada
SOURCE Infrastructure Canada
View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2024/07/c8587.html
