By the end of Monday evening, some 350-thousand people will have passed through the gates of Ottawa’s Inspiration Village on York Street. The tourist attraction has occupied an entire block on York Street in Ottawa’s Byward Market since mid-May, with 40 shipping containers celebrating all that is Canada.  For some businesses that want the 92 lost parking spaces returned back to York Street, the closure of Inspiration Village is good news.

But for a group of men from the Ottawa Mission, these 110 days have been a particular inspiration for them. Long before the selfies, long before the mariachi band starts up, the mopping and the cleaning begins.A special team from the Ottawa Mission was hired over the course of Inspiration Village to keep it clean.  That opportunity inspired them.

George Dalton is originally from Newfoundland, living at the Ottawa Mission, “The Mission, when they came to tell us about this, they've given us a gift.  It hasn't been just a job; it's been an experience, an amazing, amazing experience.”

After a hard life on the streets, Pierre Ferron says this gave him a reason to get up in the morning.

“When I’m done here,” he says, “I will go back to school. I don't know how to read and write, so I’m going to go back to school and try to be somebody.”

Wenyin Gor moved from South Sudan in 2002 and lives at the Ottawa Mission, taking the custodial course there, along with several of the other men, “I'm looking forward to joining the workforce full time and using the same skills I learned here and apply them in future jobs.”

But fall is fast approaching and with that, the end of Inspiration Village.

While it had its critics, Inspiration Village still drew about 340,000 people, half of them tourists. Guy Laflamme is the Executive Director of Ottawa 2017, the group that helped propose the $2-million dollar installation of Inspiration Village, “Based on a random sample survey, we had an 87% satisfaction rate,” he says, a rate that improved once they took some of the initial criticisms and implemented some changes.

“We saw the increase in satisfaction rate as soon as we started making changes, so the bottom line is that it's a very successful operation.”

Not so satisfied were some of the businesses in the area who lost parking spots to shipping containers.  Jovan Morales is the bar manager for Kinki Lounge and Kitchen.

“We did lose a lot of our night business because when people parked here before, it was the quickest place but now that it's leaving, we're just as happy if not a bit more.”

“There will always be critics,” says Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who happened to be wandering through Inspiration Village this Labor Day Monday, “so you have to be bold to try new ideas and this is a new idea that worked really well.”

But it is an idea that's come to an end.  When Inspiration Village wraps up tonight, so, too, do the jobs for the five men from the Ottawa Mission. 

“It's sad to say it's closing,” says Ottawa Mission client Noah Tunnillie, from Cape Dorset, “but it's been one hell of a ride, a good ride.”

The clean-up crew has one more task before they are done for the season.  They are requested to attend city hall this Wednesday, meeting with the mayor and the councillor for the area who want to say thanks.