An Orléans community centre is expanding its location after 40 years in a move its backers say will create hundreds of jobs, spur economic growth and provide more space for local artists and other users. The Mouvement d’implication francophone d’Orléans (MIFO) marked the beginning of a new era in its more than four decades of […]
Already a Subscriber? Log in
Get Instant Access to This Article
Become an Ottawa Business Journal Insider and get immediate access to all of our Insider-only content and much more.
An Orléans community centre is expanding its location after 40 years in a move its backers say will create hundreds of jobs, spur economic growth and provide more space for local artists and other users.
The Mouvement d’implication francophone d’Orléans (MIFO) marked the beginning of a new era in its more than four decades of operation with the demolition of its location at 6600 Carrière St. on a rainy Monday morning.
The organization was formed in 1978 by a group of high school students at the nearby École secondaire catholique Garneau with the dream to build the area’s first francophone community space. The Carrière Street building has sat next to where its founders went to school since 1985 and has served as a space for music lessons, day camps, recreational activities and more.
Mélanie Routhier Boudreau, MIFO’s executive director, said a new space has been in the works for about a decade.
“We needed a new space, not only because the building needed major renovations, but also because it had become too small to meet our needs and service offerings. We've really been thinking about this project for about 10 years, which is by and for the community,” Routhier Boudreau told OBJ in French on Thursday.
The new MIFO building, slated to open to the public in summer 2027, will be about four times the size of its predecessor, measuring over 55,000 square feet across two storeys.
The building will include a larger gymnasium with a race track, a 300-seat venue space, meeting rooms, a café and soundproofed rooms for the music school.
This project was made possible through funding by various levels of government and community donations. Since the funding project began in 2019, the MIFO has amassed $1.2 million in donations from its members. Last May, the federal government announced it would allocate $36 million to the construction of the new building. The City of Ottawa contributed $1.5 million last June and about a month ago, the province confirmed it would put $15.75 million towards the project.
Carol Jolin, chairman of MIFO’s board of directors, said part of the reason why the provincial government finally made the decision to partially fund the project was due to the economic impact it will have on the area.
“With the Conservative provincial government, the economic aspect has always been important. We can boast that we’ll make an important contribution to the region. There aren’t many organizations like ours that can say that they’ll create hundreds of jobs. That’s the minimum of jobs that we’ll create with this new project. It’s a factor that we mentioned often in our conversations to seek funding,” Jolin told OBJ in French.
Routhier Boudreau said she sees the project as an economic driver with the construction of the new MIFO building creating about 200 jobs for the area, with 100 additional jobs being created once the building is open to the public.
“In the current economic climate with the tariff war, people want to go back to buying local,” Routhier Boudreau said. “The MIFO project is coming at the right time. We offer local services. We'll be working with local businesses and local people, whether it's caterers, photographers, the technical crew who'll be around for the different shows or the teachers who will be hired to run different workshops. The MIFO is at the heart of the local economy and a very important business community.”
While the MIFO serves primarily the francophone community, Routhier Boudreau said the whole city will reap the value from this new addition.
“With a community project of this calibre, everybody benefits. We’ll offer state-of-the-art facilities where the community can take the opportunity to discover what the MIFO has to offer. The francophone community is diversifying and we want to be as welcoming as possible,” she said.
Jolin added that with the jobs this project will create, all businesses will benefit, no matter what language their owners and customers speak.
The new building is poised to be an economic driver for the area, Routhier Boudreau added, helping the MIFO increase its yearly user traffic from 60,000 to 83,000 within the first year.
“A new host of people will have money in their pockets to spend throughout the community. It’s good for francophone businesses as much as for anglophone businesses. Money has no language,” Jolin said.
With a dedicated show venue, Jolin said the “smaller, professional-looking” space might attract more artists and sponsors to the area.
“It’s the size that I find important. At the Shenkman (Arts Centre), there’s space for 500 people but not every emerging artist is able to fill that kind of space. We’re an entry point for them,” he said.
Jolin said the new space will be able to better serve a community that has significantly grown since the organization’s inception 40 years ago.
“It's going to be quite an exceptional addition to meet a growing need. We know that the clientele has changed quite a bit in 40 years. It has grown and diversified. Our community mandate is to reach out to the entire French-speaking community and bring them all under the MIFO big top,” Jolin said.
As the organization considered its options for a new space, Routhier Boudreau said redeveloping the land at 6600 Carrière St. into “a francophone hub” was a no-brainer.
“We thought of all the possibilities, having led many studies on the subject … It was important to us to stay on Carrière Street. We have a reputation and a lot of history attached to it,” Routhier Boudreau said.
Construction will start in August and continue for the next two years. The MIFO has temporarily relocated to the second floor of Place d’Orléans Shopping Centre in the former location of the Hudson’s Bay.
“Our temporary move to Place d’Orléans is a win-win for both of us. The location is ideal for us and we bring quite a bit of people here … People will come here for us and stop by the pharmacy or clothing store on their way out. Our location here is having its own economic impact on the building’s businesses, too,” Jolin said.
Celebrating the success of the project thus far, Jolin said he hopes it sets a precedent for what community organizations are able to do and hopes others will be able to follow suit.
“I hope that the new MIFO will mean other communities will see its success and want to put things into motion,” he said.
-
A rendering of the gymnasium at the new MIFO building. -
The new MIFO building will have a 300-person show venue, helping give emerging artists a place to perform. -
The new MIFO building will have meeting rooms for its staff and some available for external rent.
