New use for Indigenous Services building

As of April, the library is expected to have a new home in the White House building across from the hospital, the same building workers with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) were ordered to evacuate in October to make way for urgent repairs to its structure.

The building across from the hospital is but a temporary fix, said Onerahtókha Marquis, executive officer at the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK).

The library has been granted a one-year lease on it, meaning they’ll still need to find a permanent location.

It’s “safe and up to code,” she said, however it’s not a building that was designed to hold the weight of a library’s entire collection of books, she admitted.

“The library is aware that they need to look at exploring long-term solutions for the storage of all their books, and that’s something that they’re looking into with their existing funding agencies,” she said. “I’ve let the library know that if they ever need to have any discussions about their needs, or support navigating the different processes, that we could help them do that.”

The White House remained closed until December to make way for restoration work needed to reinforce the strength of its structure. Prior to then, the entire upstairs portion of the building had been condemned, with workers restricted from entering.

According to a press release issued in October, that work centered around reinforcing the building’s structural integrity.

“We received a report that the upstairs floor is abnormally soft in some places, the ceiling beams are warped, and, above all, cracks have appeared in some places,” a source from ISC was quoted as saying in the release.

The Eastern Door requested to speak with someone involved in the most recent inspection of the building ahead of the decision to grant a one-year lease to the library, but wasn’t able to speak with someone before deadline.

Marquis assured that it’s safe for use, saying their asset management team has inspected and that “it’s suitable for people to be working out of.”

After seeing how long the library has been closed, she’s relieved to see a solution has been found, even if it’s only short-term.

“We’ve been working for the past couple of months to try to identify and secure a location for the library to operate in since we condemned the old building late last summer,” she said. “It’s been challenging, just given the lack of office space in the community, but most recently we were able to come up with a solution.”

The Skawenni:io Tsi Iewennahnotáhkhwa library will have the building to itself as no other MCK units will be housed there. Their former building is expected to be demolished by the spring or summer, Marquis said.

“The books will remain in the condemned building until it’s demolished, and we’re still working on the timeline to do that,” she said.

The aging structure on Old Malone Highway is at risk of collapse and has been shuttered since mid-July. Staff were abruptly evacuated then, which came as a surprise, considering it had just reopened last March following a two-month closure for construction.

That work involved reinforcing the building’s structure through the addition of new columns in its basement and a steel beam in the lobby’s ceiling. A heavy rainfall just before its shuttering set it back, however. New cracks appeared in its walls, and its floors became slanted again, just as they had been prior to the restoration work.

The services currently being offered at the ISC office operating in the building will cease as of this Monday, March 10. Those who need to renew their band cards or obtain other services will have to travel to its new office in downtown Montreal, expected to open soon in the Guy Favreau complex by Place des Arts metro. There is currently no date set for its opening.

In the meantime, library staff have been working out of a space they’re sharing with the Kahnawake Labour Office (KLO).

The library’s former building next to the United Church dates back to the 1920s. The library began occupying it in 2009.

It’s still uncertain when the library will officially reopen its doors to the community. The Eastern Door reached out to library staff for comment but had yet to hear back by deadline.

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