Waterloo Regional Council has unanimously approved an $8.1 million grant for Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. These funds will support Conestoga's expansion of its School of Health and Life Sciences at the Doon campus in Kitchener, as well as regional infrastructure work related to the new Cambridge campus.
This expansion of the School of Health and Life Sciences will be a key development in the future of health care delivery in Waterloo Region. Financial support from Waterloo Region will go towards an enhanced footprint for interdisciplinary health skills training, from the current 45,000 to 100,000 square feet. Given this new state-of-the-art facility enrolment in the School of Health and Life Sciences is projected to double from the current 1,400 to 2,800 full-time students. In partnership with its local post-secondary education partners, Conestoga will introduce 18 new programs to better serve the Region's growing population and will assume a leadership role in the field of health informatics.
This project will create a total of 51 person-years of work and result in an investment of $23 million, creating $26 million in direct construction impacts.
Along with the proposed expansion of the Waterloo and Guelph campuses and establishment of the new Cambridge campus, Conestoga's growth plan amounts to a total investment of $127 million in Waterloo Region and the creation of a minimum of 360 person-years of work. From April 2009 to March 2011 these projects will result in $152 million in direct construction impacts. The rationale for growth is the projected increase of Conestoga's current full-time student population from 6,530 to 10,456 by the 2014-2015 academic year.
"Our intention is to grow to a size proportionate with the needs of this community, and reflective of its economic diversity," says Dr. John Tibbits, President of Conestoga. "We will be a leader of economic transformation and progress, developing programs that will move us into the new economy, where opportunities for our students await in the fields of health informatics, advanced manufacturing, food processing, information technology, engineering, and skilled trades - all to support the future growth of our province."
This grant from Waterloo Region consists of:
$5.7 million for the expansion of health and life sciences education at the Doon campus,
$1.7 million for road improvements associated with the new Cambridge campus, and
$742,000 towards construction of a new Region of Waterloo Emergency Medical Services (EMS) station at the Doon campus, to better serve residents in this part of the Region, while providing an applied training environment both for the Region and Conestoga students in paramedic and emergency services programs.
For additional information, please contact:
Andre Beaudry,
Vice President, Development and Alumni
519-748-3543, ext. 2235
abeaudry@conestogac.on.ca