The Ottawa Tool Library is unexpectedly vacating its home base at the City Centre building near Bayview Station after being evicted by its property management company.
The OTL is not publicly funded, relying instead on a membership system that gives participants unlimited access to 2,500 tools and devices and the workshop space needed to work on DIY projects. The library also provide guidance to members in their projects — until now.
The sudden eviction has placed the OTL in a difficult position. Managers are scrambling have all currently borrowed tools returned and then pack up thousands of items and clear out of the building near LeBreton Flats.
The OTL sublet its space at the City Centre through Makerspace North, a property management company that rents space in the warehouse-like building as community workplaces for creative and industrial…
