Reconciliation Garden Construction

The Government of Alberta invites Landscape Contractors to submit a Request for Proposal for the Reconciliation Garden honouring victims and survivors of the Residential School system. The Reconciliation Garden will be planted in the southeast area of the Alberta Legislature grounds. Landscape Contractors may propose construction contracts based on the attached design. Construction will include removal of concrete, benches, a half circle concrete wall, and three spotlights; stump grinding and root ball removal; and excavation of additional shrub bed area. A concrete path will go through the garden, which will include a smooth finish and a heavy sandblast finish. The pathway will also include children’s footprints stamped into the concrete path. The garden will include flagstone for the medicine wheel, seating boulders, rock benches, metal in-ground signs for the plants, monument concrete base and piles, and the offering logs with base and piles. Landscaping will include topsoil for new shrub bed areas, perennial planting, Indigenous planting and signage for the medicine wheel, and willow tree. The contractor will also provide engineering specifications for the concrete base and pilings to support the monument and support the artist in the installation of the monument. Indigenous gardens are traditionally considered sacred spaces and this Reconciliation Garden will be a place intended for people to meet, share, reflect, and connect. Additionally, the Reconciliation Garden will: • include plants and medicines indigenous to the area that Indigenous peoples often use in food and for healing, ceremony, and ornamentation; • include the shape of a medicine wheel, a symbol that honours all four directions, medicines, cycles of life, and animals; • be integrated with the Residential School Memorial to ensure the continuity of the space; • be fully accessible, which will require new sidewalks.