Months after $16M deal, city may give away building tied to top bureaucrat
· Toronto Sun
The City of Toronto bought a five-storey building from an organization co-founded by a top bureaucrat – and it appears it may already be planning to give it away.
Just months after last year’s $16-million purchase of 720 Bathurst St., City Hall has indicated it may hand over the deed to a group that has signed on to run a homeless shelter, exclusively for indigenous men, out of that brick building.
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The building on Bathurst was bought from an organization, the Centre for Social Innovation, that was co-founded by Pat Tobin, who runs the city’s economic development and culture division.
The city told the Toronto Sun in a statement that all protocols were followed, “including conflict-of-interest safeguards for staff.”
Tobin, when asked for comment, pointed to the city’s statement and said he hasn’t had official involvement with the CSI in many years.
But the 720 Bathurst deal is one in a collection of under-reported or unreported transfers of land or money to either the Aboriginal Labour Force Development Circle, a non-profit that oversees a multimillion-dollar city housing fund, or one of the constellation of groups affiliated with its lobbying of Mayor Olivia Chow in 2023.
The ALFDC has been sent $39.4 million by City Hall since 2020 to distribute to various groups. City Council agreed to put 20% of Toronto’s housing and homelessness grant money into a funding stream overseen by the ALFDC – an organization that operates out of a building two hours east of town – a few months before Chow met with the group’s lobbyist.
Taking over 720 Bathurst is the Native Men’s Residence, better known as Na-Me-Res. Executive director Steve Teekens told the Sun that getting that land would make a real difference in lifting up “some of the most vulnerable people” in Toronto.
“We’re just grassroots folks here trying to help out,” he said, “and it’s appalling that there’s a disproportionate number of indigenous folks experiencing homelessness in this city.”
Chow’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did the Native Women’s Resource Centre, which is also set to get city land. Both gifts of land would be subject to City Council approval.
In a brief statement, the ALFDC said it administers funding for “indigenous-focused housing and homelessness projects” in Toronto, but they did not say if it is part of the deals involving city land.
Tonya Surman, the CSI’s CEO, said 720 Bathurst sold at “market value,” and her group has no “formal partnerships or official involvement” with any entity mentioned in this article relating to that sale.
Money movers
The city’s flow of cash to the ALFDC is laid out in a spreadsheet obtained by the Sun after a freedom-of-information request. While not an authoritative list of Toronto’s funding of indigenous-related groups, the spreadsheet shows $66.5 million has been paid out to several organizations since 2020.
The Sun had asked for all funding of organizations declared as indigenous, but City Hall refused, saying payments “are not tagged or categorized on the basis of being for First Nations, indigenous or other aboriginal groups” – despite the city’s special processes for procurement and its indigenous funding stream administered by the ALFDC.
Data was later provided for groups with specific words such as “First Nations” or “indigenous” in their names.
Groups that are funded through the stream – such as Na-Me-Res and the NWRC – can also get money from City Hall outside of that process. For example, the spreadsheet shows one funding stream recipient, New Frontiers Aboriginal Residential Corp., got $8.4 million directly from the city.
A 2022 document the city shared with the Sun shows the ALFDC gets a 15% cut to oversee funding, some of which comes from the federal and provincial governments. The amount sent to the ALFDC to oversee has grown dramatically since July 2023, with at least $29 million sent to the non-profit in that period.
The ALFDC got less than half a million dollars in 2020, but its take more than doubled in each of the next two years.
Mayor today, gone tomorrow
In 2023, the ALFDC was sent nearly $11.7 million in grant money, $7.3 million of it after a motion brought forward that June by Jennifer McKelvie. Now a Liberal MP representing Ajax, McKelvie was then serving as Toronto’s temporary mayor, following John Tory’s exit.
Just days before the byelection that saw Chow take the mayor’s chair, McKelvie’s motion was brought forward without notice, and it passed without debate . (Another motion that same day – June 15, 2023 – also led to something much bigger, as a “governance review” laid the seeds for the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square.)
Having secured oversight of 20% of City Hall’s housing funding, the ALFDC sought something else from the new boss.
A city registry shows that StrategyCorp, a lobbying firm, was repeatedly in contact with the mayor’s office in 2023 to seek “support and funding for housing for Toronto’s indigenous community” on the ALFDC’s behalf. StrategyCorp met with Chow on Oct. 17 of that year, then met twice more with a staffer that month. All told, StrategyCorp contacted her office on nine days in fall 2023.
“Other beneficiaries” of StrategyCorp’s lobbying, as listed in the registry, included Na-Me-Res and the NWRC. The ALFDC called these “prospective project partners” and said the meeting was not related to the new shelters those groups will operate.
In a statement, StrategyCorp said it advocated for the ALFDC and the Miziwe Biik Development Corporation to each “serve as administrators for federal indigenous housing funding in Ontario,” and all its work was properly registered. In its own statement, Miziwe Biik said it was “seeking the city’s support for federal funding” for housing projects.
Teekens said partnering with the lead groups opened a door that might’ve been closed to Na-Me-Res otherwise, and Chow met with them for about 45 minutes. While StrategyCorp said its work wasn’t related to homeless shelters, Teekens said subjects unique to homelessness, including the city’s Street Needs Assessment survey, were discussed.
More than a year later, in early 2025, Na-Me-Res applied to run a new shelter. Last September, they were told that application scored very well and was approved – a surprisingly fast turnaround, Teekens said.
At the end of last year, around the time the sale of the building was making its way into the press, Na-Me-Res was “delighted” to learn it would operate a shelter at 720 Bathurst, Teekens said.
Far from home
The ALFDC is based well outside of the city on a lonely stretch of Hwy. 49, about half an hour’s drive east of Belleville on Tyendinaga Mohawk land. In an article dated January 2023, the online publication Philanthropist Journal called it a “$35- to $40-million operation … run by nine people.”
While it is a non-profit, it isn’t a charity. In that article , Glenda Maracle, the executive director, suggested private funding isn’t “worth the hassle.”
“It’s just easier,” she reportedly said. “A lot of red tape is out there to register as a charity, and for what result?”
During a brief phone call, Maracle asked the Sun for a list of questions via email. Two weeks later, she provided a three-paragraph statement that did not explain the ALFDC’s ties to the groups in this article, its physical presence in the city or her remarks in Philanthropist Journal . The statement also did not specify how the City of Toronto benefits from the ALFDC’s work.
On the phone, Maracle did concede the ALFDC’s name implies no involvement in housing but said the company’s operations have branched out over 30 years.
The ALFDC website, however, suggests the company’s interest is primarily in employment. A brochure available on the site contains just two sentences about housing, and it says the group administrates one “homelessness agreement” for the City of Toronto.
In its brief statement, the ALFDC said it is “comprised of member First Nations communities” and is the city’s ”indigenous community entity.”
“As part of this work, ALFDC administers funding from the City of Toronto that is dedicated to indigenous-focused housing and homelessness projects across the city,” the statement added.
It’s unclear why Toronto needs a third party to disburse money for housing, given the city’s housing secretariat, an office with dozens of employees, already does that.
In 2023, McKelvie didn’t make public any rationale beyond her motion’s name : “Advancing truth, reconciliation and justice: Supporting indigenous housing partners right to self-determination.”
How to reconcile this
Multiple statements provided by City Hall also cited the municipality’s “commitment to reconciliation,” such as with the transfers of land.
“Indigenous people continue to be overrepresented among those experiencing homelessness,” one statement said.
City representatives said the NWRC will be given 68 Sheppard Ave. W, which was a parking lot until last month, to operate a shelter for indigenous women and children only. The shelters at 68 Sheppard and 720 Bathurst aren’t expected to open until at least 2028.
The Sun has been told that residents have already been informed about the transfer of 68 Sheppard at public consultation meetings. (The office of the local councillor, Lily Cheng, did not respond to a request for comment.)
Teekens said he sees the donation of 720 Bathurst not as a done deal, but “potentially a pipe dream.” He doubts there’s “political will” at City Hall right now to transfer the property.
“Council will shoot it down unequivocally,” Teekens said.
Acquiring the land would be no mere gesture: Ownership of the building would mean Na-Me-Res could tap into that equity to “leverage more housing opportunities in the future,” he said.
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In 2024, a year before City Hall bought that brick building on Bathurst, the CSI celebrated its 20th anniversary with an event that featured a roster of notable speakers, including Tobin, Chow, Councillor Dianne Saxe and three MPPs – two NDP, one Liberal. Photos on the group’s website show Chow even cut the cake.
In a statement, CSI CEO Surman did not name Tobin but said her group “occasionally” gets funding from his division at the city.
However, in a chain of internal emails sent to a Sun reporter along with the emailed statement, Surman did mention Tobin.
Replying to a staffer about the Sun ’s request for comment, Surman said it was “likely related to the right-wing conspiracy piece that was done suggesting that Pat Robin (sic) gave us a good deal.” (Surman told the Sun she was referencing a baseless social media post, but didn’t provide a link.)
The CSI continues to operate out of a building on Spadina, and Surman said it has no further involvement in 720 Bathurst.
City Hall would not confirm if it has plans to donate Toronto land as part of any other shelter deal.