THUNDER BAY – Confederation College’s new $19-million Technology, Education and Collaboration Hub will be fully funded for construction to begin next April.
The federal minister of innovation was in the city to announce the government will be helping fund the construction of Confederation College’s new TEC Hub, which will be attached to the McIntyre Building.
Navdeep Bains said Ottawa's $9 million contribution is part of the government’s commitment to post-secondary education.
“The announcement that we made here speaks to our commitment of making significant investments in our colleges and institutions,” Bains said.
“It’s really about investing in our people, what we are trying to do is create an environment where we focus on the strengths of our local region.”
Bains said these investments are helping advance manufacturing in resource-sector development, creating quality jobs and providing meaningful opportunities for students to upgrade their skills.
“If you look at, for example, our growth agenda, which is about growing the economy and creating good quality jobs this (announcement) speaks to making significant investments that we talked about during the campaign,” he said.
“The announcements we’ve made here in Northern Ontario, for example, really speak to that commitment, and today’s announcement is about investing in infrastructure, and investing in people to create an environment where we can grow the economy and create jobs.
The province of Ontario is also contributing $9 million toward the project, with an additional $1.96 million will be contributed by Confederation College and other partners.
College services vice-president Ken Adams said construction could start as early as next spring.
“We’re in the process now of planning, and we should have a design in place by January,” Adams said. “With that construction will start early spring with a completion date of April 2018.”
The TEC Hub will connect to the McIntyre building, construction adding approximately 42,000 sq. ft. of space.
The hub will include three clusters: innovation incubation, advance manufacturing and skills development for industry.
“The building will allow students to have access to the most modern technology, and skill trades areas,” Adams said.
“The whole idea is to bring students here to be creative and using the facilities to develop prototypes and develop skills.”
