Item - 2022.GL30.17

The General Government and Licensing Committee:

1. In accordance with Section 195-8.4 of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 195 (Purchasing) authorized the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management to award Request for Tender Ariba Document Number 3275897747 to Buttcon Limited, for the supply of all materials, equipment, labour, and required supervision for the construction of the Nathan Phillips Square Indian Residential School Survivors Restoration of Identity Project, in the amount of $21,998,903 net of all applicable taxes and charges ($22,386,084 net of Harmonized Sales Tax recoveries).

The Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management gave an overview of the item and introduced Andrea Chrisjohn, Board Designate, Toronto Council Fire, who presented a video to the Committee.

The purpose of this report is to request authority for City Council to award a contract to Buttcon Limited, in the amount of $21,998,903, inclusive of allowances and contingencies, and net of all applicable taxes and charges ($22,386,084 net of Harmonized Sales Tax recoveries). Buttcon Limited was the successful proponent of Request for Tender Ariba Document Number 3275897747, issued for the supply of all materials, equipment, labour, and required supervision for the construction of the Indian Residential School Survivors Restoration of Identity Project and Legacy Sculpture (the "Project") on Nathan Phillips Square.

The Project is a key piece of Indigenous place keeping for the City, and is integral to truth, justice and reconciliation as it creates and nurtures space, in process and policy, for ceremony, teaching and community. It also strengthens Indigenous connections with lands and waters, and builds cultural competency and capacity for land-based Indigenous engagement.

The Project design consists of a turtle sculpture surrounded by a teaching, learning, sharing and healing space, called the Spirit Garden. The turtle sculpture represents Turtle Island, also referred to as Mother Earth, and will identify the names of the 17 residential schools that once operated in Ontario. The design of the Spirit Garden revolves around the turtle sculpture and will include elements representing First Nations, Inuit and Metis cultures, including a teaching lodge, amphitheatre, a Three Sisters teaching garden, a voyageur canoe and an Inuksuk. The Spirit Garden will also incorporate the White Pine, or Tree of Peace, a key element to the Kuswenta, also known as the Two Row Wampum, which lays the foundation for all relations.