Toronto the Good: Native Peoples: $1.5 million for new clinic, traditional healing, modern medicine

Toronto Star (Aug30,2k11)
article by Mary Armsby, photo by Rick Eglinton / Toronto Star

Anishnawbe Health Toronto gets $1.5 million grant

The Toronto aboriginal health-care group that forfeited a prized downtown site for a new clinic over concerns the land may be a Roman Catholic graveyard is now one step closer to building its dream facility.

Anishnawbe Health Toronto received approval Tuesday for a $1,485,000 provincial planning and design grant to consolidate its three GTA clinics into a single, iconic aboriginal structure.

The funds came from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

“We look forward to creating a legacy for our people,’’ said AHT’s executive director, Joe Hester, who’s desperate to replace two cramped clinics off Sherbourne St. and another on Vaughan Rd. with a facility where traditional healing and modern medicine will be practised in tandem.

“For us, it will have to be a home, and home has to be a place of beauty. Home has to be inviting. It’s a place for rest, respite, and it represents you as a person.”

Once a new downtown site has been selected — negotiations for locations are underway — and design bids have been tendered, it’s expected construction capital will be quickly forthcoming from the province.

The project will get input from aboriginal elders before a final design bid is chosen.

Hester said the grant announcement, made at AHT’s clinic across from the Moss Park Arena, was one of the few bright moments in a decade-long quest to better serve the 85,000 aboriginal men, women and children living in the GTA. It’s a group whose overall health is two to three times lower than that of the general Canadian population.

“It’s been like a long battle and now, we’re starting to realize victory,” said Hester.

Hat Tip to Flannery Fielding

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