What has long been an empty lot in the heart of Vanier now promises a future space for recreation, gathering and community.
On May 12, the City of Ottawa signed an agreement to move forward on a new recreation centre to be built at 250 Montreal Rd. The space will be part of the eventual community centre in partnership with the Vanier Community Service Centre (CSC Vanier) and Regional Group.
“We’re really proud that the city made the official commitment toward exploring a new community hub ,” said Andrée-Anne Martel, executive director of CSC Vanier. “We’re really excited. It’s a first step toward the preliminary project.”
One of the services that CSC Vanier offers is after-school programming that invites youth to play a variety of sports, like soccer and basketball, Martel said. However, due to a lack of facilities they’ve been limited to renting spaces from school boards.
“We don’t have recreational space,” she said. “We don’t have that big, beautiful space that Vanier deserves.”
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante said the lack of spaces for sports in particular had been an ongoing gripe in the community.
“When I went door to door in 2022, that was probably the thing that people complained most about, a lack of basketball and soccer,” Plante said. “At the time, the one hockey complex was being used as a shelter. People really wanted to see investments in rec facilities.”
According to a statement on Plante’s website, the recreation centre is the “most significant city investment for new infrastructure in Vanier since amalgamation” in 2001.
Additionally, it noted that this project was a “direct result” of community feedback, including requests for community spaces reflecting Vanier’s “reality and diversity.” Plante said conversations with the community would be the key approach to achieving this.
“Children have never been consulted before in the development of a rec space. We will be consulting with the residents, even the ones who are small, as to what they want to see,” she said. “We want to make sure that the amenities that go in there reflect the community needs and the community wants.
“I hope to do their requests justice.”
Martel said “true community” was the core vision for the building. She said it would bring CSC Vanier’s services under one roof, which, aside from sports programs, also include employment and social counselling services as well as support directed toward families and newcomers.
“(It will be) a modern welcoming, multi-use service base where people can access a wide range of essential services,” she said.
Martel said the CSC Vanier developed a lookbook for the centre with Hobin Architecture, a local architectural firm. She added that they’d also been working with Prof. Benjamin Gianni and students from Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism for three years to bring the hub to life.
“The students were the first to have renders for this project,” Martel said. “We’re really excited to be working with these partners. From the get-go, we worked with the Vanier BIA and different partners that are already located in Vanier and really are as excited for this project as we are.”
Martel said the current goal was to keep moving forward.
“There’s a real momentum,” she said. “This project is a true reflection of collaboration.”
For Vanier resident Phil Genest, the project is about “filling in that space.”
“The community’s been always asking for investment in general,” said Genest, who’s been living in the neighbourhood for 17 years. “It’ll revitalize what we call Le Carré de la Francophonie, a francophone area that’s on the northwest side of that development.
“It’ll be nice to see that revamp and have some new life into it. Investments into the community are going to change the viewpoint that people have of Vanier.”
Longtime resident Heather Munro said the community centre would be just a five-minute walk from her house.
“Having been a resident for 10 years, there’s not a lot on Montreal Road where you can just go and have a coffee or pick up a loaf of fresh baked bread,” Munro said. “Every time you hear of a new business opening up in our end of town, it’s always on Beechwood, but there’s so much potential for development on Montreal Road.”
Munro said she was “super excited” to hear about the agreement to move forward on the recreation centre.
“I think it will give the community a gathering space, much needed community space,” she said. “Getting together builds that community. The more you see people, the more you get to know them.
“The more you know your neighbours, the safer you can make your neighbourhood.”
Plante said having gathering spaces in the community was especially important for youth.
“When children are engaged in constructive activities, especially after school, they’re least likely to get into trouble or fall into some sort of pipeline where they’re doing things they shouldn’t be doing,” she said.
Plante added that there was an increased vulnerability for the many youth in Vanier who lived in motels and didn’t have backyards.
“They live under the poverty line,” she said. “It’s even more imperative that we offer them stuff to do that doesn’t contribute to the cycle of poverty.”
Martel said the recreation centre would be “more than just a building project.”
“It’s really a recognition of the needs, the potential and the future of Vanier,” she said. “We want to make sure this new heart of Vanier reflects the entire community.”
For Martel, this project carries a key message to the neighbourhood: “Vanier is vibrant, it’s beautiful, it’s a great place to live.
“We deserve infrastructure that reflects the people that live in, work in and love Vanier.”
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