City of Edmonton Issues Foundation and Footings Permit for the Edmonton Blue Mosque

Turkish Canadian Society has reached its biggest milestone and got permission from the City of Edmonton to lay the foundation for the Edmonton Blue Mosque on August 30, 2019.

On a day Turkish Canadians celebrate “Zafer Bayramı” (i.e Victory Day), the permit issued by the City of Edmonton, was welcomed by the TCS Board of Directors as a small “victory” after almost 3 years of planning and design work by numerous volunteers.

The permit was the hard part, but another challenge awaits us next. So far all the costs incurred for the project for permit applications and any engineering etc. work we couldn’t find volunteers for ha e been paid for by the Turkish Canadian Society. However, the financial resources of the Society are nowhere near the level required to successfully complete this mosque. We need the help of all muslims around the world to make this project come true. Visit the “How can I help” page to find out how you can donate to our Mosque.

Met with CoE Safety Codes Officers to Discuss TCS Building Permit Application

On July 24, TCS volunteer Project Consultant Suat Demirer, Project Coordinator Sinem Senol, Mosque Construction Committee Member Berk Ulusoy and representative from our architectural company, Camred Architects met with the City of Edmonton safety codes officers to discuss and finalize solutions for fire safety issues related to our proposed building.

Building a new religious assembly building in a mature neighbourhood is no easy task, but building it next to an old school building that was built in 1948 (when safety codes were much different) is even a bigger challenge.

It's not one we can not overcome, though. TCS architect and project consultant were able to offer solutions accepted by the Safety Codes officers during this meeting.

We now will need to resubmit the revised plans and will be inching closer to our building permit approval.

Representative from CoE's Urban Forestry Department on Site to Evaluate Two Avenue Trees

We are usually excited to post updates about our project. This is the one occasion we are posting with a bit of sorrow.

In order to line up the entrance to our parking lot with 155 Street and to preserve the safety of the traffic crossing, our project requires the removal of two avenue trees (pictured on the left) from 105 Avenue.

Today our project coordinator Sinem Senol met with a representative from the City of Edmonton's Urban Forestry Division, who took measurements of the trees and noted their conditions.

The older, larger tree seems to be a little unhealthy. Although we are sad to remove two beautiful trees from 105 Avenue, we are happy to reassure everyone living in the Canora neighbourhood and the Turkish Canadian Community that the landscaping plans we submitted to the City involve the planting of many more trees than we are cutting.

Once the project is complete we will even have a few fruit trees, and a small community garden for the community to benefit from. We don't have 3D renderings of the landscaping plan but we are definitely very excited about it.

The tree removal process is now in place. If you live in the Canora Community and have any concerns about the removal of these trees or would like to see our landscaping plans, feel free to get in touch with us at turkishcanadians.edmonton@gmail.com.

Servicing Agreement Signed with CoE, Building Permit Review Set to Proceed

It's not easy to get a $1.5 million religous assembly building constructed in a mature, established neighbourhood... especially when we are trying to do all the project coordination with volunteers. Still, we are making steady progress.

Another condition on our development permit was to sign a Servicing Agreement with the City of Edmonton for the construction of a commercial access to our planned mosque site, the removal of 2 avenue trees, and the aligning of the catch basin with 155 Street.

Our Treasurer, and Mosque Project Coordinator Sinem Senol started the Servicing Agreement application in early April, a servicing request was created by CoE on April 18th, and as of May 29 the signed agreement has been in place.

This means that we have officially met all the conditions outlined in our development permit application. Our Building Permit application has now been released for review. It's the busiest time of the year for CoE and we anticipate many meetings and revisions in the process but we are slowly getting there.

Building Permit Application Submitted for the TCS Mosque

After almost two years of very hard work, TCS volunteer project consultant Suat Demirer and President Ahmet Topal submitted the building permit application for the TCS Mosque on May 10, 2019.

It wasn't a cheap endeavor, either. For an estimated project budget of $1.5 million, our permit fee was a little over $20K.

This permit application fee was paid as an expense previously authorized by the TCS Board of Directors, but we an definitely use your donations to help us make this project come true.

Please visit the How Can You Help? page on our website and consider making a donation for our project.

Cross-Lot Access Easement Agreement Signed with EPSB and CoE

After months of negotiations with the City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Public School Board, TCS President Ahmet Topal and our Secretary Musa Ersoy signed the Cross-Lot Access Easement Agreement on March 20th per the authority granted to them through the TCS Bylaws.

The Agreement was signed and approved by the CoE and EPSB on April 8th. We have therefore cleared the most important condition on our development permit, and secured approximately 75 square meters of land to access the parking lot of our planned mosque.

The contract negotiations were primarily coordinated by our Treasures Sinem Senol. Naturally, Turkish Canadian Society Board of Directors have saught the advice of its legal counsel throughout the process, who reviewed and made recommendations about the agreement.

The contract was secured with no cost to TCS, just a minimal amount of lien was agreed upon between the parties to ensure that TCS undertakes any maintenance or repairs to the piece of land in a timely fashion.

Project Design Meetings Held Behind the Stage as we get close to the Building Permit Application

Just because we haven't posted an update for a while doesn't mean our TCS Mosque Project isn't going full speed ahead.

Our volunteer project designer Suat Demirer has been meeting with our project engineers and consultants behind the scenes for the past few months to finalize the electrical, mechanical, structural and architectural drawings required for the building permit application.

It's not an easy process. The results of the soil test and geotechnical analysis resulted in some minor changes to the elevation of the building.

 As a result, project drawings need to be updated. Mr. Demirer has spent at least a few thousand hours making all these updates since the inception of the project. Our architectural firm, Camred Architects has been graciously hosting all the engineering meetings.

Whenever he can, our President Ahmet Topal has been attending these project meetings to get updates on where we are standing with the project, so that he can share these developments with the very excited and anxious Turkish community.

We thank all our volunteer engineers and designers for their dedication and support for our project.

Contract Negotiations Under Way with EPSB and CoE for the Easement Agreement

One of the conditions of the Development Permit we received from the City of Edmonton was to sign an Easement Agreement with the Edmonton Public School Board so that TCS can use 75 squaremetres of EPSB property in perpetuity to access the parking lot of our proposed Mosque Project.

Our Treasurer and External Relations Coordinator Sim Senol has been leading these negotiations for TCS. Thanks to CoE lawyers who helped us draft the agreement we are getting close to an agreement.

TCS Board has agreed to hire a lawyer recently to deal with a variety of legal matters. We will have our lawyer review the agreement before it's signed by TCS Executives.

TCS Board Presented Mosque Project to Mr. Yakup Sekmen, Religious Affairs Attache for the Turkish Republic

Exactly two years after we presented the initial conceptual designs of our dream project to then Religious Affairs Attache Mr. Mahmut Demir, we had the privilege and honour to host the newly appointed Religious Affairs Attache of the Turkish Republic at the Turkish Canadian Society on November 25, 2019.


Mr. Yakup Sekmen came to Edmonton to meet with the Turkish Canadian community in the city and participate in an event organized to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammed (s.a.v.).

During his visit, Turkish Canadian Society President Ahmet Topal, and Board Members Sinem Senol, Yusuf Akca, Mustafa Kamil Demir, Musa Ersoy and Efe Aksoy gave him an update about our mosque project.

Drilling for Soil Tests Completed for the TCS Mosque

On September 4, Project Consultant Suat Demirer, Diyanet Imam Mustafa Kuyuk, and TCS Treasurer Sim Senol met with the drilling team from Alpha Adroit at our planned consruction site.

Soil samples were taken from the site and sent for testing. Once we receive the results, our volunteer Professional Engineer will write the required geotechnical report which will then be used for developing the structural and architectural plans for our project.

As a non-profit society we don't have the luxury of spending thousands of dollars for the project before the building permit is approved. It slows down our progress a little but we are surely getting closer to the building permit application.

Project Development and Construction Committee selects Alpha Adroit for Drilling and Soil Tests

TCS Mosque Project Development and Construction Comittee members spent the summer months securing a volunteer professional engineer for our geotechnical report and then getting quotes from companies to complete the drilling and soil tests required for our building permit application. After obtaining quotes from multiple companies Alpha Adroit Engineering Ltd. was selected as our service provider on July 26.

Diyanet Edmonton Religious Society established to oversee fundraising for TCS Mosque

Building a $1.5 million Mosque is no easy task and TCS Board of Directors need all the help they can get to raise the necessary funds first and later to run the Mosque successfully.

In an attempt to set up an independent and transparent Mosque fundraising and administration process members from the Turkish Canadian community met in May and came up with the tentative name of "Diyanet Edmonton Religious Society".

A separate non-profit organization will be established. Serkan Sahin is elected as its founding President, along with Tugba Pastutmaz as Treasurer, and Selma Topal Ersoy as Secretary. Adnan Ozturk, and Nesrin Dundar will be the other Board Members for this newly established Society. Diyanet representative (currently our imam Mustafa Kuyuk) will also serve in the Board. DERS will take the necessary steps to apply for charitable status through the CRA as soon as possible.

The DERS team will take over the Ramadan event planning for 2018 and will kick off the official fundraising activities for the Mosque this summer.

TCS Mosque now has a Development Permit And a New Address

We reached a major milestone for the TCS Mosque Project on April 19. Our Development Permit Application has been officially approved by the City of Edmonton.

We now have an address for the planned mosque officially, which will be 15460 105 Ave. NW.

We thank planner, Samantha Buccino and all the other City of Edmonton staff who reviewed the traffic, fire safety, landscaping etc. plans and given us the green light for building this mosque in a mature neighbourhood.

Our work is not done yet. Our development permit has a few conditions we have to meet before we can submit the building permit application. Our project team will be working hard in the next few months to pass those remaining hurdles. Also, the plans submitted at the Development Permit stage are just the beginning. Our Project Consultant Suat Demirer will have to work with our volunteer engineers and hired architectural firm to complete many many pages of electrical, structural, mechanical, and architectural projects in the coming months.

TCS Presents Mosque Project during Canora Community League AGM

On March 18, TCS Treasurer and External Relations Coordinator Sim Senol attended the Canora Community League's Annual General Meeting to present our plans for our mosque project to the community league members.

Our plans were met with great enthusiasm by the community members as a way to revitalize the community. Councillor Andrew Knack was also in attendance and shared his support for our project shortly after the event. We thank him for his continuous support for our project.

It should be noted that there are efforts for many other volunteers that help move our project forward. For this presentation our resident baklava expert in Edmonton, Ercan Kaya, made his wonderful delicacies to share with the Canora Community League members. Needless to say, they were a culinary hit!

This presentation was made as a part of our community engagement plan. We will continue to reach out to the community members to seek their feedback for our project. We hope that this website will also serve as a venue for all interested parties to share their comments with us.

Small Fundraising and Promotional Tour for TCS Mosque at Pakistani Association Event

We continued our efforts to promote our Mosque Project with a small fundraising activity thanks to the Pakistani Canadian Assocation of Edmonton's Women's Day Event.

On March 11, 2018 TCS External Relations Coordinator Sim Senol was joined by our President Ahmet Topal and his generous wife Sevgi Topal at the PCAE Hall.

Sevgi donated hand made scarves and shawls and Sinem made some home made Turkish food to sell at the event. Though the funds raised were just a drop in the bucket for this $1.5 million project, we were still able to make great connections within the Edmonton Muslim community.

Development Permit Application Submitted!

 After receiving feedback and direction from the CoE Planning team, TCS Project Consultant Suat Demirer went to work and finalized the drawings for the TCS Mosque with our architecture firm, Camred Architects, Inc. They have finally completed all the necessary plans required for the development permit in early March. On March 9 2018 our President Ahmet Topal, Vice-President and Project Consultant Suat Demirer, and Treasurer Sim Senol submitted the development permit application to the City of Edmonton.

Now the waiting begins.... We should hear back from the City in a month or so about whether we have formal approval to build our religious assembly building in this mature neighbourhood.

Parallel with the development permit application we are also launching our community engagement plan to present our project to the Canora Community Members, so that we can get their feedback and support.

TurCanora Phase I - Project Presentation meetings held this week

The plans and documentation for our development permit application are ready, so we are taking them on a tour!Turkish Canadian Society Board Members were busy making presentations about our TurCanora Phase I - Mosque Project this week as a part of our community engagement plan.

On Tuesday, February 27th we first presented the finalized conceptual designs and site plan to the Turkish Canadian community.
On February 28th, several community members that live in close proximity to our Cultural Centre joined us for a project presentation at the TCS Gym. Our Treasurer and External Relations Coordinator Sim Senol gave a brief presentation about the Society's plans and the projected timeline of the project.

A similar presentation was made after the Friday Prayer service by Project Consultant Suat Demirer.

Overall the community has been very supportive of the project. No objections were raised. Through these presentations we have informed the community members that we'd be using the www.turcanora.ca website for project updates and for collecting feedback.

Camred Architecture Inc. Selected as Project Partner

After reaching out to several architecture firms and receiving quotes from 4 companies TCS Mosque Project Development and Construction Committee (Ahmet Topal, Suat Demirer, and Sedat Çıplak) selected Camred Architecture Inc., as the design company for our project.

Camred agreed to work with our volunteer designer Suat Demirer as a project consultant. Mr. Demirer continued to do all the CAD drawings of the project as a volunteer.

With the addition of Camred to the project team, project started moving faster towards formal Development Permit application.

TCS Received Written Confirmation from AGLC About the TCS Mosque Addition

At a special membership meeting held on December 10, shortly after the pre-application meeting we attended at the City of Edmonton, a few of our members who had also raised objections to the Mosque Project in the November 2016 meeting raised the issue that AGLC might not approve the building of a mosque at the current TCS property.

Our Externatal Relations Coordinator Sim Senol submitted a formal message to the AGLC to get their approval, explaining to them that TCS has no intention to use any gaming funds during the construction of the mosque project. Today, we received confirmation from the AGLC that no prior approval is required for such a building project, provided that we do not use any gaming funds. This is yet another hurdle that was presented to the TCS Board by a few dissenting voices among the Turkish Canadian community. We were able to clarify the regulations and put everyone's minds at ease within the Turkish community. Despite past failed efforts, we are hopeful that a mosque can be built in this location. 

Successful Pre-Application Meeting on second try!

Our volunteer designer and Board Director Suat Demirer returned from a visit to his ailing mother in Turkey with new ideas to make the mosque plans work. After many hours of hard work, preparing new drawings, TCS Board Members Sinem Senol and Suat Demirer met with the City of Edmonton planners for a second time on November 22, 2017 to get feedback on our development plans. With most, if not all, the major issues identified in the February 2017 pre-application meeting addressed, the City of Edmonton gave TCS the green light to finalize and submit our Development Permit application.



The planning officers confirm that we will need to hire a licensed architect to move forward with the project.

This was a possibility previously presented to and approved by the TCS members at a general meeting, so TCS President Ahmet Topal instructed our volunteer designer Suat Demirer and Treasurer Sinem Senol to search and get quotes from local architects to join the design team.