Expansion announced at Okanagan College in spring of 2009
From the Penticton Herald’s 2009 archives
EDITOR’S NOTE: In recognition of Canada’s 150th anniversary, over the next 150 days, The Herald will be publishing historic stories from the South Okanagan. The following story ran in the Dec. 29, 2009 edition of The Herald.
A$28-million expansion of the Okanagan College campus in Penticton will increase its capacity by 800 students and is predicted to serve as the educational hub for the South Okanagan Similkameen region.
In April 2009, after hints of a major funding announcement at the Penticton campus on Duncan Avenue West, the construction of a new Centre for Excellence in Green Building Technology was announced amid hundreds of people, including students and various city and town council members from the South Okanagan.
Funding for the new facility is divided three ways, with $9.1 million coming from the province, $13.5 million from the federal government, and $5 million from the college.
By May, a fundraising campaign by the Okanagan College Foundation had been launched to come up with its $5-million portion. With no capital reserve funds to draw upon, the job of finding the money fell on members of the college’s Penticton fundraising committee.
At the ground-breaking ceremony for the centre in November, nearly $400,000 of the $5 million had been collected with a significant $2.5 million donation by billionaire Jim Pattison yet to be announced.
The project consists of a twostorey, 8,500 square metre multipurpose facility, approximately triple the size of the current campus. It will accommodate an additional 800 students, including 520 new students in programs such as geothermal, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, power lineman, life cycle site management, refrigeration mechanics, and electrical and plumbing apprenticeships.
As well, 20 spaces are expected for students in a new applied conservation technician program in association with the En’owkin Centre, 41 more students in the college’s human kinetics program and 22 in the special education assistant program, and room for 50 students in university transfer arts programs. The facility also makes room for 165 full-time students enrolled in trades training at other city locations leased by the college.
A gymnasium, fitness room and rooftop running track will compliment health courses and provide additional recreational opportunities in the city. There will also be a 200-seat cafeteria.
Other advantages of the new centre come in its reliance on alternative energy sources for heating and cooling, and that it can be featured for the use of B.C. forest industry products in green buildings, allow for expansion of the existing library and provide special space for its practical nursing and residential care aide programs.
A total of 304 jobs will be generated — 278 directly from the facility’s construction and 26 full-time positions upon completion, which is expected sometime in 2011.