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‘Missed opportunity’: Indigenous org leaving library on bad terms

May 14, 2025

First Nations organization is expressing “severe disappointment” with the library at being pushed out after seven years tenancy and investing over $1 million in renovations.

However, the CEO of the Thunder Bay Public Library says his organization followed and abided by the terms of the leases the two parties signed over the years.

“The Thunder Bay Public Library is always committed to honouring our agreements, and that is exactly what we’ve done in this case,” said Richard Togman.

Anishinabek Employment and Training Services doesn’t agree. “They’re not complying to the spirit of reconciliation at all,” said Sharon Ostberg, a director on the board of the organization and senior councillor with Biigtigong Nishnaabeg.

In December 2024, said Ostberg, they were told they had to be out of the library in three months, although AETS and the library have since agreed to extend that until the end of May. The soon-to-be former AETS space at Waverley will be used for an expanded children’s section.

The termination of the lease, says AETS, is counter to a long-term agreement the organization had with the library — committing to work together in areas of reconciliation and making the space more welcoming to Indigenous people.

“In my view, this is a very, very missed opportunity for reconciliation with Indigenous people,” said Ostberg.

“To me, I think it’s really piss-poor treatment.”

On Tuesday, at Waverley, workers were continuing to dismantle the space and clear out remaining property.

In total, AETS said it’s put over $1 million into the library’s properties at Waverley and Brodie, and is now getting nothing back.

Those improvements, the organization said, included barrier-free and gender-neutral washrooms, a boardroom, a kitchen, an elders-in-residence space, electrical upgrades and ventilation upgrades that allowed for smudging.

Togman said the lease terms stipulated that any improvements would “stay property of the library upon their eventual exit and no remuneration would be considered at that time.”

AETS’s tenancy at the library has been governed by a series of leases. The two sides initially signed a three-year lease in 2018, with the parties agreeing to one-year leases through 2022 and 2023.

In 2021, AETS has the opportunity to sign on to a long-term lease of up to eight years but declined, said Togman. AETS executive director John DeGiacomo said the terms they were presented with at the time were not acceptable.

“We were never given an eight-year lease that had terms that were reasonable,” he said, necessitating the subsequent short-term renewals. AETS has been on a month-to-month tenancy, said Ostberg, since the second one-year lease expired.

Togman said all of the uncertainty around whether the Thunder Bay Public Library was going to get space at Intercity Shopping Centre (his central library proposal was eventually voted down by city council), necessitated the change to month-to-month agreements and, eventually, the library taking space back.

“If we had had more space in Intercity, or perhaps elsewhere in the city, we wouldn’t have had the types of pressures that resulted in this decision,” he said. “This is really coming from the library having a critical shortage of space.”

Although the lease was month-to-month, AETS leadership describe the situation as an early termination of the overall partnership agreement the two sides initially agreed to.

“The intention was to be in the library for years and years and years beyond what they’ve done,” DeGiacomo said. “So, certainly there’s been a period where it was month-to-month, because they delayed the renewal of being in a full lease that would make everybody comfortable.”

AETS is a partnership of, and represents, nine First Nations in the North Shore and Lake Nipigon areas north and east of Thunder Bay, including Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, where Ostberg sits on council.

For AETS, this all means now having to move its programming into new locations. Ostberg said they’ve got space secured at the former Dawson Court building that is now owned by Matawa, as well as at Goods & Co. Market.

“I’m not saying that because we don’t have the (library) space we’re going to do less — we’ll continue to do more because that’s the kind of people we are,” Ostberg said.

“We’re going continue to fight for our individuals and we’ll pick up and we’ll move on.” – snnewswatch.com

article website here

…Anishinabek Employment and Training Services doesn’t agree. “They’re not complying to the spirit of reconciliation at all,” said Sharon Ostberg, a director on the board of the organization and senior councillor with Biigtigong Nishnaabeg….

Now there is this…

First Nations training and employment organization has a new home

July17, 2025

Anishinabek Employment and Training Services held an open house on Thursday to announce the official opening of its new location in the city.

The employment agency now operates out of the third floor of the former Dawson Court building, owned by Matawa First Nations, after leaving the Thunder Bay Public Library’s Waverley branch on unfavourable terms earlier this year

“The transition of sites was necessary and we know that it’s a bigger space that we’re in,” said John DeGiacomo, AETS’s executive director.

“It’s a space that allows us to welcome those job seekers and have the wraparound supports that they need to be successful in the workplace.”

DeGiacomo explained that the agency also transitioned so that AETS could be able to offer more services and opportunities for clients.

“We’ve got a space not only here but at Goods and Co. So collectively we have over 10,000 square feet to serve the clients with over 20 staff,” he said.

AETS held its open house to help clients to become familiar with the space and acknowledge its partners when delivering programs.

The open house offered clients of the agency the chance to participate in a ceremonial tree planting, a barbecue lunch, office tours and all-age activities, including bouncy castles for children.

“The event today is to celebrate the fact that we are in a new space on Algoma and really to celebrate the fact that it is a revitalized space and we have a number of programs and services that we continue to deliver with the same great staff, just a different location,” said DeGiacomo.

“And then the second reason is really to acknowledge those that we serve, along with our partners. We wouldn’t be able to do this without the support of partners and those supports.”

In addition to the open house, AETS was also showcasing its construction craft worker and cement finisher training program.

“There’ll be partners such as unions that are here who help deliver our training programs, but also other partners that help with the wraparound supports to make sure when we have clients coming in from off reserve, they have the services that they need to be successful in their career choices,” said DeGiacomo.

With many clients AETS serves being parents, DeGiacomo added they were also there to acknowledge these clients and their children and get them familiar with the space.

“So, they feel welcome and they know where their parents are going and they’re either in an education program to help (with) getting a Grade 12 (diploma) or they’re in a training program towards a certain sector. So that the employers can welcome in Indigenous clients… (who) are looking for work and to be retained in the workplace,” said DeGiacomo.

AETS serves nine member First Nations in Robinson-Superior Treaty area. – snnewswatch.com

article website here

…“It’s a space that allows us to welcome those job seekers and have the wraparound supports that they need to be successful in the workplace.”

DeGiacomo explained that the agency also transitioned so that AETS could be able to offer more services and opportunities for clients….

Not a word from Sharon Ostberg.  Where was she?

Looks to me that the AETS has done very well, spirit of reconciliation or not.