An Inspiring Visit to One of Our Community Investments

It was supposed to rain all day, but the sun (literally and figuratively) came out as EIG members gathered in the roughly-plowed parking lot of Bâtiment 7 on Saturday, April 28, 2018 for a social event/tour of our group’s most recent community investment. 

I’d known in advance that our guide was going to be Kevin McMahon, the project’s financial director, but had imagined he would lead us through an empty building/construction site to show us how work on the group’s ambitious plans was going. Instead, we saw right away that the place was teeming with volunteers. More than a dozen were outside working on a large deck for the Bâtiment 7 businesses scheduled to open in early May. Dozens more were inside, busily bustling through all of the different spaces also slated to become available to Bâtiment 7 members and the public within the month. On the ground floor of the “Phase 1” part of the building, there is a grocery store, an artisanal brewery and a café-bar, as well as woodworking, bicycle-repair, auto-repair and other workshops, all of which will have educational, self-service and rental-service roles. And on the second floor, a youth-run arcade, a large hybrid art workshop, offices, a ceramics workshop and a metal-working workshop. The immediate- and longer-term objectives and visions for all of these areas was presented to us by our very informed and enthusiastic host, as were those of the three subsequent phases of the project, including a day care, birthing centre, community gardens and urban agriculture initiatives, among others. The visit itself was followed by a discussion period at a local restaurant. 

I’m sure it sounds cliché, but I really did leave Pointe-Saint-Charles that day with a spring in my step and a song in my heart, knowing that EIG’s community investment money is being used to help move this thoroughly inspiring and well-organized project forward.