LILLEY: Costs spike for downtown women's shelter with no opening in sight
· Toronto Sun
A sweetheart deal with the Kielburger clan to rent a building for a women’s shelter has seen millions spent but no shelter being opened yet in Cabbagetown.
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The building at 233 Carlton St., the first headquarters for Free the Children and WE Charity, has been under city control since Jan. 1, 2020. Despite spending $11 million on renovations — with millions more to go — and $2.2 million in rent to the Kielburgers, the shelter still isn’t open and isn’t expected to be open until the end of this year.
That will be seven years into a 10-year lease, with an optional five-year extension, without ever providing any of the social services that taxpayers were told they would be supporting. There are also millions of dollars in unpaid bills for the renovations and potentially more costs over the coming 10 months before a single woman is helped.
Concerned citizens expose out-of-control costs
The information about this disaster comes from a freedom of information request filed by local resident Andrew Haisley of the Winchester Park Residents Association and reporting by Andre Bermon, the publisher of The Bridge community newspaper.
The process that led to this debacle started in 2018 when the city decided to replace the 24/7 women’s drop-in centre in the city-owned property at 67 Adelaide St. E. The current centre provides drop-in services including meals, support groups, access to showers and laundry services as well as referrals to other social services.
According to city documents, staff worked with Lennard Commercial Realty Brokerage to identify potential properties that could replace 67 Adelaide. After reviewing 11 properties, though they won’t say which ones, the city landed on 233 Carlton after a referral from Lennard.
Lease generous to Kielburgers
The property at 233 Carlton is owned by Fred and Theresa Kielburger, the parents of WE Charity founders Marc and Craig Kielburger.
In the middle of the WE Charity scandal that rocked the Justin Trudeau government in the summer of 2020, then-councillors Kristyn Wong-Tam and Mike Layton moved a motion asking staff to examine “who from the WE-related organizations communicated with the senior city officials that may have affected final delegated decision-making on site location and financial terms.”
The city report issued in September 2020 said that while negotiations took place with Marc Kielburger, “limited communication with Mr. Marc Kielburger did not impact decision-making regarding the site location or the financial terms of the agreement.”
The terms of that lease required the city to pay $27,633.67 per month in rent for the property starting in 2020, which rises to $34,499.57 by 2029. The lease also stated that the tenant, meaning the city, was responsible for all leasehold improvements.
“All improvements shall be deemed to belong to the landlord upon installation,” the lease says .
The lease says that the planned renovations would include “a new elevator for accessibility requirements, kitchen, showers, programming areas and a rooftop patio.”
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Costs have risen by almost $10 million
So far, those improvements have included $9,349,980 in construction costs, $1,522,607 in design and construction costs, $53,448 for professional services, $198,228 for furniture, fixtures and equipment, $667,456 in project management fees, $1,550,000 in project contingency and $234,814 in non-recoverable HST payments.
As of October 2025, the grand total was $13,576,533, of which $11,039,464 had been paid at the time. The original estimate for renovation costs was $3.7 million .
The city had to fire the original subcontractor that was to install the elevator and bring in a new one to complete the task. Barring any further delays, the city hopes that the elevator will be installed by May and that most of the renovations will be completed by August, meaning an opening of this facility sometime in the fall.
By then, the city will have spent at least another $224,311 in rent and who knows how much else on renovations without a single offer of assistance to the women this centre is supposed to help.
All of this was able to happen without oversight from council because staff claimed the whole project would cost less than $10 million, meaning they had delegated authority to act . If it weren’t for a concerned citizen in Haisley and the local reporting of The Bridge ‘s Bermon, this incompetence would have gone undetected.
Once again, though, the rot and incompetence at Toronto City Hall is on full display for all to see.