Tungasuvvingat Inuit celebrates move to new home in Ottawa

A large crowd came out Thursday to celebrate the official opening of Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s new headquarters in the Vanier neighbourhood of Ottawa’s east end.

“For 35 years, T.I. has been a lifeline for Inuit living in urban Ontario,” Chris Cousins, the acting executive director, told the approximately 200 people gathered to hear a speech welcoming “community members, partners, funders, elders and staff.”

A crowd lines up for food during the grand opening of Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s new building in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood on Thursday. (Photo by Jorge Antunes)

“Today, we open the doors to more than just a building. We open the doors to healing, belonging and hope.”

Tungasuvvingat Inuit provides services for Ottawa Inuit including childcare, youth programming, legal support, substance abuse treatment, employment training, housing guidance and other supports. A food truck and Inuit vendors were on hand at the opening event.

Staff and programs have been in the process of moving to the new facility, located at 282 Dupuis St., since November.

Cousins called the move the result of years of “planning, dreaming and advocacy.”

“As our Inuit population in urban centres continues to grow, so too does the need for culturally affirming spaces,” he said.

And Tungasuvvingat Inuit has grown a lot in the last 35 years, he said in an interview later in the day.

Cousins was born and raised in Iqaluit, but has spent the past 13 years in Ottawa. He described coming to Ottawa on vacation as 10-year-old and said the Inuit population was just a handful of people then.

He is 57 now and the population is more than 1,200, according to the 2021 census.

“Some of those people need services and we are here to provide services,” Cousins said.

For decades, the organization has offered varied services at multiple locations in the city.

The organization’s head office was far from Vanier, where many Inuit in Ottawa live. Cousins said it could take someone 90 minutes one way by transit just get to their old office, located west of downtown at 1071 Richmond Rd.

Now all but one of the five primary programs offered are housed at the same location in the heart of the Ottawa’s Inuit population centre.

The old headquarters on Richmond Road has been converted into a residential addiction treatment centre called the Mamisarvik Healing Centre.

The new location, Cousins said, will offer a “wrap-around service.”

Wrap-around service means multiple programs are provided and accessible in one location. Someone using the food bank can go upstairs and speak to a counsellor for a legal issue, or go to another floor and discuss Inuktitut language classes for their child.

“It’s easier for clients to access — whether it’s housing or food security or justice or anti-human trafficking, it just makes it much easier for them,” Cousins said.

The six-floor building includes a food bank, kitchen, justice and legal services, family, community and employment services, counselling and therapy, and other programs.

While some floors had more extensive renovations, others, like the executive level on which administration resides, was left pretty much untouched.

In all, the organization budgeted $1 million for the retrofit, which is a relatively low cost for such a large building, said Fahad Sami, Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s director of finance.

“The Inuit community deserves good things,” Sami said.

“This is why we felt it was important to invest in this. I think my colleagues would agree, we want this to be a community hub.”