Former healthcare professional pushes through pandemic challenges, fills gaps for seniors’ housing in Canada’s North.
September 10, 2025
When Dale Matheson first heard about Aven Pavilion in Yellowknife, she was homeless.
It was February, minus 40 degrees. She had been evicted and had nowhere to go. She found shelter with someone who took her in for a few nights, and then at a friend’s parents’ place.
“I literally had nowhere to live,” she says. “So, getting a place here was like a gift from God.”
Now, she’s proud to call her apartment at the Pavilion home. As someone with visual impairment, Dale was offered an accessible unit, supporting her ability to age-in-place. It’s a space where she’s found security, safety and above all, community.
“To me, it was freedom,” she says.
Aven Pavilion—A Community for Seniors offers affordable, modern apartments, with services and amenities aimed at helping seniors age in place.
Located in the heart of Yellowknife the project is the culmination of years of effort, collaboration and determination, especially from AVENS president and CEO, Daryl Dolynny.
Daryl began his career in healthcare as a pharmacist and was then elected to the Territorial government as a member of the legislative assembly (MLA). He often found himself working with the seniors demographic, but never felt he could influence outcomes the way he wanted to.
So, when he joined the AVENS team to create the Pavilion he knew this couldn’t just be any seniors’ residence.
You never know when your life can change. AVENS is a safe place to be. And it’s my place.– Dale Matheson, resident, Aven Pavilion
The 10-acre AVENS campus already included Aven Court and Ridge, for independent living, and Aven Manor and Cottages, for long-term care. But the team needed to fill a gap — a facility for seniors who don’t need the full support of long-term care but do require some supportive living services to continue living independently.
“What we were building, we were breaking barriers that were never attempted here in the North — the concept of a community within a community,” says Daryl.
For him, that sense of community is the heart of the project.
The Pavilion adds 102 units of affordable housing for Yellowknife seniors. The building provides residents with their own space but is also designed to encourage socializing and working together in the common areas.
“Your home is not just the room that you reside in with your bed and your kitchen table,” Daryl says.
“Your home is the complete building, and everything you have as an extension of your personal space.”
It wasn’t an easy project. Construction of the Pavilion started just before the pandemic and faced challenge after challenge. From the skyrocketing costs of materials and supply chain shortages to the wildfires of 2023 and the evacuation of their workforce.
“It was a scary time… we had so much invested at that point,” says Daryl.
Despite setbacks, the Pavilion opened in late 2024 and is now at capacity. In a representation of the wider community, just under half of the residents are Indigenous, which Daryl says allows the housing to support 2 demographics at once.
Daryl credits a lot of the success of the project to consultations with the Yellowknife community. People submitted ideas for what they wanted in the community rooms. One popular request was a sewing room, something Daryl has a personal connection to.
His mother is an avid seamstress, and he asked her if she’d be able to teach people how to use the machines. He says much of the success of the room goes to her. “She has played a big role,” he says. “I couldn't have thought of a better person [to design the space].”
Your home is not just the room that you reside in with your bed and your kitchen table…Your home is the complete building, and everything you have as an extension of your personal space.– Daryl Dolynny, president and CEO, AVENS Seniors
This room is just one part of the wider building and campus, with social spaces, wellness areas, a food subscription program and soon-to-launch cleaning and laundry services.
Daryl says all of this will allow seniors to live in their place longer, with more respect and dignity, avoiding the need for them to prematurely go to long-term care.
For Dale, the move has opened up a whole new community. Just the other day, she cooked salmon and fed 4 others on her floor.
“I grew up in a big family, so I don’t know how to cook for one person,” she says. “It’s all about sharing, right?”
Coming from a family of 10 kids, the communal feeling suits her.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a big market, a small market, extreme remote Canada like we are here, you can still do projects… If you’ve got an idea, surround yourself with good people.– Daryl Dolynny, president and CEO, AVENS Seniors
“You meet people from all over… Just all the connections I’m making with people that I never would have met in a million years when you live on your own.”
Finding her place at the Pavilion is one of the better things that’s happened to her in a long time.
“You never know when your life can change. AVENS is a safe place to be. And it’s my place.”
Daryl hopes this place, this community, is something others will replicate.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a big market, a small market, extreme remote Canada like we are here, you can still do projects,” he says. “If you’ve got an idea, surround yourself with good people.”
In a nod to his seamstress mother he adds, “You need someone to take that sewing needle to sew them all together, so they’re all working on one fabric.”
Today, as he walks through the halls of the Pavilion, he still gets goosebumps from the “oohs” and “aahs” of new residents.
“It motivates me,” he says. “It tells me, ok, we did the right thing.”
