Initiative to encourage Regent Park tenants who have a viable business plan

At noon on a sunny, late spring day, on the second floor of a red brick building in the heart of Regent Park, seven people sit around a large table as the grinding sound of dump trucks and bulldozers drifts through the open windows, evidence that the 12-year, billion-dollar revitalization of the area is well underway.

The plan is for a mixed-income community of 12,500 in a blend of apartments, townhouses and condos that would also include businesses. And, it's hoped, some of them will be started by tenants living in Regent Park.

At the head of the table, Yonit Fuhrmann is reviewing the aims of the Regent Park Economic Development Advisory Board, which is in the process of establishing a small business incubator program tied to local residents taking courses offered at Regent Park by the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Fuhrmann, a slender woman with long brown hair and chic, rectangular glasses, is deputy director of Pro Bono Law Ontario, a charitable organization that brokers relationships between public service agencies and law firms. She's leading an initiative to encourage entrepreneurial tenants in Regent Park who have a viable business plan. "I understand we're looking for businesses that would strengthen the economy here," she says. "Either by supporting residents who live in the area or people wanting to set up services here."

From the other end of the table, the Royal Bank's assistant general counsel, Stephen Monty, crisply dressed in a grey suit, white shirt and burgundy striped tie, asks: "Is the address a potential exclusion point?"

Turning to Fuhrmann, John Fox, general counsel for the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, adds: "Are we saying the business must be in Regent Park or you could be from Regent Park and doing business somewhere else?"

"I thought it could be either one," says Fuhrmann.

"Are we okay with that, or do we want to limit it to businesses in Regent Park?"

"You can't really say to a painter trying to start a business that he can only paint in Regent Park," says Fox.

Nodding thoughtfully, Fuhrmann says: "So, I think we're in agreement. I'd also like to say that I'm really excited about this project."

The meeting is being held in the offices of the Regent Park Neighbourhood Initiative (RPNI), a community organization created in 2002 to act as liaison between local tenants and the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, the city of Toronto, developer The Daniels Corporation and other players involved in the Regent Park revitalization.

In the past, virtually no businesses would locate here, but that is expected to change. The Royal Bank has already announced it will open a branch. And among the businesses, it is hoped at least one or two may be started up by Regent Park residents with the help of the small business incubator program.

Pro Bono Law Ontario entered into a partnership with RPNI four years ago and almost immediately matched it with the Bay Street law firm, McCarthy Tétrault, which has provided RPNI with legal services. For example, the firm's lawyers have helped RPNI to incorporate, participated in youth mentoring and employment initiatives and negotiated right-of-return agreements for tenants displaced while the old buildings are being demolished and new ones constructed.

Pro bono (from the Latin pro bono publico) means "for the public good." It's a form of volunteerism in which professionals, like lawyers, offer their traditionally pricey skills at no charge or sharply reduced rates to those unable to afford them. McCarthy Tétrault, for example, has a pro bono program that provides legal expertise in financial, business, labour and employment law as well as issues involving civil liberties and human rights. At one time it mainly operated on an ad hoc basis, so PBLO was created in 2002 to help match law firms with deserving clients.

Lynn Burns, executive director of PBLO, says that access to resources is the greatest benefit her organization provides. "In order to be successful, initiatives undertaken by agencies serving low-income communities require the same legal expertise as any other enterprise," she says. "So what we do matters a great deal to small, grassroots organizations like RPNI that don't have the resources to obtain the services of blue-chip firms like McCarthy and the Royal Bank."

Back at Regent Park, Fuhrmann summarizes the importance of PBLO's small business incubator program, which will give some tenants a chance to launch a business that might not otherwise have progressed beyond a dream.

"Employment and economic development are consistently identified as really high priorities for low income communities," she says. "They're ways to support the capacity of residents to access the workforce more fully. We're sort of the nuts and bolts, brokering the relationships. The experience we've had with other partners is that people really loved working on these kinds of projects. They feel like they're helping to create something positive."

David Hayes is an author and award-winning feature writer who has been a renter most of his life.