6/4/2010 7:58:34 PM

June 4, 2010

Government partnership celebrates Scarborough Village Community Centre expansion

TORONTO, ON - The City of Toronto held an official ceremony today to celebrate the start of the expansion of the Scarborough Village Community Centre.

MP Lois Brown, on behalf of the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario; the Honourable Margarett Best, Ontario Minister of Health Promotion; and David Miller, Mayor of the City of Toronto, are pleased to see this important community infrastructure project get underway.

The new 225-square-metre space will include a multi-purpose room, a kitchen, a meeting room, an office, storage space and three washrooms. It will be used to address community-identified needs for services and programs and will serve as a hub for residents to meet, gather and strengthen their community.

The governments of Canada and Ontario have each committed up to $400,000 to the project, while the City of Toronto will contribute the balance of the total project cost of $1.68 million. Funding from the City of Toronto was made possible through the Partnership Opportunities Legacy Fund initiative of Mayor Miller.

“Through Canada’s Economic Action Plan, our government is investing in infrastructure projects like this to create jobs and stimulate economic activity in communities across the province,” said MP Brown. “This project will have a positive impact by providing Scarborough families and residents with a place to come together and participate in community activities.”

“The project we are celebrating today supports our government’s Open Ontario plan to stimulate the economy and create new opportunities for jobs and growth. In Scarborough it is supporting local trades and businesses while promoting a stronger, healthier community,” said Minister Best.

"Ensuring that all Toronto neighbourhoods have the advantage of safe places to live, work and play is a priority for the City of Toronto," said Mayor Miller. "The new community space and service hub will provide room for programming and community-directed activities for the residents of the Scarborough Village neighbourhood."

This project is one of more than 760 across the province that is moving forward thanks to a joint federal-provincial investment of more than $380 million under the Recreational Infrastructure Canada (RInC) Program in Ontario and the Ontario Recreation Program (Ontario REC). The governments of Canada and Ontario teamed up to support Ontario's communities and create jobs by improving recreational infrastructure, as these types of projects also encourage higher levels of participation in physical activity and community building. For more information about this initiative, please visit http://www.rinc-on.ca.