Across Canada, church congregations are dwindling and costs to maintain their buildings continue to rise. As a result, many of Canada's 27,000 faith spaces and buildings across Canada are in danger of closing. But potentially, many of those spaces could be reborn and repurposed as community hubs that everyone could use.

That's where Kendra Fry comes in. Fry has a long background in arts and theatre, including her latest role as the general manager of Stratford Summer Music. But her other job is to help communities of faith reimagine their spaces.

Today’s crisis around the church, residential schools and so many of Canada’s historic institutions presents both a challenge and opportunity for Canada’s granting foundations and charities.

For many Canadians, the church feels dangerous these days — even, toxic. A much needed conversation including Black Lives Matter, Me Too and the horrors of Residential Schools has been set on fire by the shocking discovery of the unmarked graves of beautiful, precious souls. Souls that deserve recognition in this life — and the next.

There are those that fall into ruin, those that are sold to the highest bidder, those few that still welcome their faithful, and then those that are burning these days. For every church that is reinvented, a dozen are demolished. Yet, in addition to being an important part of our heritage, our churches are above all a vast network of infrastructures at the service of their communities, located in the heart of each Quebec village. What if, in order to reshape Quebec, we made them an engine of economic and social development for our communities?

There are seemingly not enough social impact investment opportunities to quench investor appetite in Canada.

If we remove the opportunities to invest in green energy, and instead analyze opportunities to invest in communities, we see very little by way of investment. Considering this state of the social impact investment landscape, how can investors intent on having an impact, fund opportunities that create lasting social change while generating a fair return?

111-year-old building could be included in a residential or commercial project

Le hasard de la météo a voulu que les Autochtones de Montréal célèbrent leur journée nationale dans une église, comme un pied de nez à cette institution qui les a empêchés pendant si longtemps de vivre leur culture et de l’exprimer.

We face a parallel national challenge: how to “build back better” in the wake of a crippling pandemic that has exposed the myths of a Canadian society free of systemic racism and baked-in social inequality.