Gursikh Sabha Canada (Scarborough Gurdwara Sahib) established in 1979. The first congregation held weekly Sunday diwans at York Mills Collegiate Institute on York Mills Road in North York before a church building for Gurdwara was bought on Momsh Road in Scarborough in October 1983. That old church building was burnt in July 1984 and was completely destroyed. The community was not that large in the East End at that time. Four founder members took charge at that time and handed it over to a team of new sewadars. Those sewadars had too many challenges ahead of them. They had to deal with the old property, regroup and organize the Sikh community of east region of Toronto, find a appropriate place to start weekly diwans, find a suitable property to build Gurdwara for the future use of the Sadh Sangat. Weekly diwans were started at Ellesmere Staton Public School (Ellesmere and Kennedy Road) and then moved to Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute on Sandhurst Circle. All that was tough but with the grace of Waheguru and cooperation and participation of the Sadh Sangat we were successful in achieving all those goals.
The piece of land on Morrish Road was not appropriate to meet the needs of our community in the future. A 2 acres parcel of land was bought on Middlefield Road (location of present building of Gurdwara Sahib) in April 1985. There was no income to the Gurdwara Sahib at that time. About 40 families shared the mortgage payments for the land, which was approximately $1444 per month. Those families became the pillars of this institution since then. We had to go through the rezoning process to build the Gurdwara building. This whole process took about 4 years but finally we won at Ontario Municipal Board. The construction of this building started in 1989 and it was not completed without problems with Contractors, sub contractors and financial hardship.
The opening ceremony of the present building took place in January 1991 and the whole Sikh community of this part of Ontario was proud of it. We know that as our community grows so does our needs, concerns and problems. Sewadars of this Gurdwara Sahib always kept on planning for the future needs of the Sikh community.
The corner lot, which is about 2 acres, was bought in 1997. Another parcel of 5.2 acres of land was bought in May 2002. This institution now owns enough land to plan for the next 30 to 40 years. The original Gurdwara building now was not big enough to fulfill the needs of our Sadh Sangat. Sewadars started working on a plan to extend this building. One of Canada's top Architects was retained to design a landmark and environment friendly building, and one of the top builders of Canada was hired to construct it. The new building was completed with a cost of about $8 million in February 2006. This building has 3 large halls and 2 small halls for Akhandpaths. It has special wing for Mata Sahib Kaur Khalsa School in the basement, a Multipupose hall and new residences for visiting Ragi Jathas. The credit goes to the Sadh Sangat and they are all proud of this beautiful place of worship. Since 1991 this institution has paid special attention towards our children and youth. As a result of that the Youth group of this Gurdwara formed Guru Gobind Singh Children's Foundation in 1999 to help poor and needy children. Mata Sahib Kaur Khalsa School is growing and the volunteers are working hard and are very committed to the School. Gursikh Sabha Canada has come a long way and let us pray that it keeps on moving on forward in the future. Let us all work together, help and support the sewadars, we will all be worthy of God's blessings and our children will be proud of us.
GURSIKH SABHA CANADA AT A GLANCE:
• 1979 - weekly Diwans were held at York Mills Collegiate.
• January 1983 - an old Church Building was purchased.
• July 1984 - a lightning strike burnt the building down to ground.
• April 1985 - two acres of land were bought at our current site – 905 Middlefield Road in Scarborough, ON.
• January 1989 - construction of Scarborough Gurdwara began.
• January 1991 - construction of Scarborough Gurdwara completed.
• 1997 - two more acres of adjoining land were bought (where current building expanded on to).
• May 2002 - 5.2 acres of land were bought (presently it is our Bhagat Puran Singh Park).
• January 2005 - Expansion project of the original building began.
• February 2006 – expansion project completed completed; total cost: $9 million.
• This is state of the art, eco friendly building that offers smooth flow of congregants during any large scale event.
• On the South side of this building is a beautiful garden and it is a landmark in the area.
• July 2012 - another 2.2 acres of land were purchased.
• October 2012 - a plan was announced to buy the two adjoining houses located on 1.1 acres of land.