An Aurora gala this month will help move a Francophone seniors community in York Region one step closer to reality.
Set for Sept. 29 at the Royal Venetian Mansion on Industrial Parkway South, the first benefit gala of the Communauté du Trille blanc will feature headliners The Chiclettes, young local talent, an auction, and, of course, a delicious meal.
“Before 2019, a group of friends who are also a mixture of business people, education, all kinds of areas of life, all of the age of retirement, started talking about, ‘Wouldn’t it be a dream if we could retire somewhere where it would be francophone and we could have a village in a sense where we would have the services to support the village?’ That’s how it started,” explains Lori-Ann Seward, executive director of Communauté du Trille blanc, stating the village concept would include long-term care, affordable housing, independent living and assisted living.
“It could be pretty self-sufficient: You go to the bakery in the morning, get your croissants, and it also would be multi-generational. It would have a daycare so it wouldn’t be just for seniors 55 and over.”
Since its conception, the idea has gained traction.
An anonymous donor has stepped up to cover administration costs, while the organization has received a $10-million interest-free loan to acquire land for the village.
Seward says securing the land is their biggest challenge but, once they find the ideal spot, they have applied to have 160 long-term care beds on site.
“I have been working very hard with the Town of Aurora and York Region to try and establish relationships in terms of affordable housing,” she says. “We have four permanent committees who work with political relationships and we work very closely with all levels of government. We hope to have the land in a very short while and then embark on a huge construction project that will bring long-term care and over 400 jobs to the area, and lots of construction money.
“A location has to be fairly central and close to a hospital. We have to have between 10 and 11 acres to be able to build the village and we’re looking at every area [in York Region]. We just want to be fairly close to a hospital, fairly close to transit – wherever we can find land where we can fit all these criteria is what we’re looking at.”
Following this month’s gala, Communauté du Trille blanc will embark on its first capital campaign of $25 million to take the vision to the next level.
For more information about the gala and the mission of Communauté du Trille blanc, visit www.communautedutrilleblanc.ca/gala.
Brock Weir is a federally funded Local Journalism Initiative reporter at The Auroran
