FIVE THINGS ABOUT NEW INDIGENOUS CENTRE IN OTTAWA

1 BUILDING FORMERLY SERVED AS U.S. EMBASSY

Ottawa announced Wednesday that the former U.S. Embassy will become a space dedicated for the use of indigenous people. “This is your space,” Justin Trudeau said Wednesday at an announcement outside the building. “We want you to decide how best to use it in order to serve your communities.”

2 VACANT FOR NEARLY TWO DECADES

The embassy was built in the 1930s and is located at 100 Wellington St. on prime real estate directly across the street from Parliament Hill. The federal government acquired it from the U.S. government in 1997. It has been vacant since 1998.

3 CRITICS SLAM CHOICE OF SITE

Indigenous architects called the building a “hand-me-down” and not “culturally appropriate space” for an indigenous centre. In a statement released a day before Trudeau’s announcement, the Indigenous Task Force of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) said it’s another example of indigenous communities being “forced into leftover spaces that fail to connect in any meaningful way to their cultures.”

4 OTTAWA PICKED TO RAISE CENTRE’S PROFILE

Trudeau said his government wanted the indigenous space to be in the country’s political centre, so that tourists and Canadians who visit the capital can be reminded of indigenous people’s key role in Canadian society. “No relationship is more important to this government than that with the indigenous peoples,” Trudeau said.

5 TASK FORCE MAKES PITCH FOR NEW BUILDING

Critical of the building’s classic revival architecture, RAIC indigenous task force chair and architect Patrick Stewart said Ottawa should pay for the construction of a building that Indigenous architects design.