Chapleau Hub located in St. John's Anglican Church introducing wide variety of projects with goal of preserving historical building

Victoria Rioux photo

The Chapleau Hub, located in the upstairs of historic St. John's Anglican Church, is in the process of becoming home for a wide variety of activities and projects, but the Anglican community also holds its services there.

Victoria Rioux provided an update on some of the activities pointing out that "Our main goal remains preserving this historical building and provide an affordable option for the Anglican congregation to remain in the building. The beautiful space upstairs is currently under-utilized. The building needs to be humming to keep the lights on".

As a matter of historical interest St. John's was established in Chapleau in 1885 with the first church building located on the site of the old tennis court beside the rectory. The first service in the present St, John's was held on March 29, 1908 when it was dedicated by Bishop George Holmes. For a time Bishop Holmes lived in Chapleau and St. John's was the Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Moosonee.

Bev Hamilton photo

Stonewalls restaurant is located downstairs which is now "humming along" according to Victoria.

Victoria advised that the Chapleau that the Chapleau Hub was started with support from "MSDSB (Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board) in the form of two summer students. After Canada Day, we trialed a few community activities just to see what appetite Chapleau has. One summer student Hannah Barlow has returned on her coop term so we have been able to maintain some consistency. She is absolutely integral to our mission."

Victoria Rioux photo

Her team is running weekly movie nights, and  hosted a Community Yard Sale in September which raised $400 for the Anglican church on the day, as well as stocking the second hand store with unsold items which they can sell in the store.

Right now the major event being planned is a Children's Halloween Event scheduled for October 27 and 28. It will include pumpkin decorating, candy toss, scavenger hunt and more. Sounds like fun. The Hub is planning a major activity each month.

There are other tenants including Yoga by Kathleen Bouchard and Boot Camp by Margo Beaudoin, while the EarlyON program was scheduled to join the Hub as I was working on this column. 

Victoria noted that the "BIGGEST" news is that they are installing the first wood heating system in Chapleau. It may now be completed.

She explained  this will make the building Carbon Free!: It is a wood pellet boiler that is high efficiency and fully automatic. It is completely hands off, no handling of pellets by hand, just like an oil or propane furnace. 

Victoria Rioux photp

She added: "Why? Reason #1: Unlike propane and oil, wood pellets are environmentally friendly because it's not a fossil fuel, it's carbon neutral (bc you regrow the trees).  Reason #2: Wood pellets are half the price of oil and propane, and 1/4 the price of heating with electricity.  Reason #3:  It supports Northern Ontario's economy.  Wood pellets are made in Northern Ontario, and all the money stays in Northern Ontario with the pellet facility owners and the forestry industry that supplies the wood.  Our wood pellets will initially be coming from the Thunder Bay and Atikokan region, delivered by a special delivery truck.

"Also, Jason(Rioux) believes there's a "sustainable future" here, one that is best for the environment and saving our plant from climate change, one that creates new economic growth and jobs for Northern Ontario, and one that is more affordable to homes and businesses. 

"Nordic countries have been doing this for over 30 years. But going first has proven to be tough, we need to install a large pellet storage bin at our site before the wood pellet delivery truck can come from Thunder Bay to fill us up.  Once we have the system fully installed, we will be inviting the community to come take a look and learn about the future.  Parts of Europe decided decades ago that wood pellet heating was the long term sustainable way to go, and Europe purchases almost all of the pellets we make in Canada!  It has proven to be economically viable for them to import all our pellets, it surely makes sense for us to be using them for our own heating needs."

My thanks to Victoria for providing an update on progress at the Chapleau Hub. Other projects and activities are in the works. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

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