On Saturday afternoon, the Toronto Estonian House, located at 958 Broadview Avenue, hosted An Estonian Christmas, known in Estonian as Rahvajõulupuu, complete with children's choirs, folk dancing and Estonian Christmas fare. Not for the last time — yet. But beginning in 2021, the Toronto Estonian community's largest holiday celebration will be held in a new space — the new International Estonian Centre in Toronto's downtown Annex neighbourhood, which is expected to open that May.
"It is a praiseworthy initiative," Minister of Finance Toomas Tõniste (Pro Patria) said at a meeting late last month with Ellen Valter, chairperson of the International Estonian Centre Steering Committee. "The construction of such a centre would support the promotion of Estonian interests."
"The International Estonian Centre is a proactive step for our future, and it instills a sense of pride that Estonians' enterprising spirit is bringing this undertaking to fruition," added Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance Veiko Tali.
Valter met with the minister and secretary general in Tallinn to discuss Estonia's support of the new centre in Toronto. The goal of the new facility, as reflected in its new name, is to act as not just a centre for the local community, as its predecessor, the Estonian House in Toronto Ltd. (TEM), has done for nearly 60 years, but also as a bridge between the diaspora Estonian community and Estonia itself, and as a calling card for Estonia not just in the city of Toronto, but the rest of North America as well.
The construction of the new Estonian Centre at 9 and 11 Madison Avenue will close a gap of nearly 4.5km that currently exists between the Estonian House on Broadview and Tartu College, a building located on Bloor Street West at the corner of Madison Avenue which operates university residences providing housing primarily for University of Toronto students but also houses rooms and an event hall utilised by a variety of diaspora Estonian organisations.
Gallery: Ratas meets with Estonian diaspora community in Toronto
New centre dependent on sale of oldAfter two unsuccessful efforts by TEM over many years to redevelop the existing building, a year and a half ago, in April 2017, shareholders of the TEM at a special shareholder meeting voted 67% in favour of the Madison Avenue project. The resolution presented to the shareholders involved a proposal by the boards of three major community organisations — the Estonian (Toronto) Credit Union (ECU), the Estonian Foundation of Canada (EFC) and Tartu College (TC) — to develop a new Estonian cultural centre adjacent to the existing Tartu College on Madison Avenue, thus providing a new, centralised home for the Estonian community in Toronto.
The resolution stressed, however, that the project would only be viable with the sale of the current Estonian House and adjacent properties on Broadview Avenue, owned by EFC, but before doing so, the Madison Avenue proposal had to be deemed economically viable, which was to be determined in an upcoming due diligence process. If due diligence proved the project viable, the TEM would be sold.
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