Campuses get $30 million in infrastructure funding
The University of Regina’s College Avenue campus renewal project has received a big financial boost.
The federal government committed $27.6 million to the $70-million renovation of the old campus, which will house the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and the new Canadian Institute for Science and Innovation Policy.
The government is also contributing $2.4 million to renovate the old lab building on the main U of R campus.
The investments are part of the federal Strategic Investment Fund — a commitment of $2 billion to post-secondary institutions nationwide for infrastructure relating to science and innovation.
Science is “one of the key building blocks for a bigger and stronger Canadian economy that will be more innovative, more productive, that will grow faster and generate more jobs,” said Ralph Goodale, Liberal MP for Regina Wascana.
U of R vice-president academic Thomas Chase said the new CISIP will enhance research in “areas like energy, digital analytics, bioscience and food security, water security and health.”
The upgrades to the lab building, one of the original buildings on the new U of R campus, are “long overdue,” said Goodale. “The College Avenue campus is 100 years old, but the lab building is 50 years old.”
The renovation will include new fire alarm and sprinkler systems, electrical and ventilation equipment, and a new roof.
Those improvements will save the university in terms of financial and environmental costs: Chase expects the retrofit will result in an annual cost savings of $140,000 and a 1,500-tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The investment in the College Avenue campus “goes a long, long way” to funding the project, said Chase.
“The $27.6 million is absolutely great. It takes us a long way toward the goal and we’re working very hard … to make sure we get the job done,” said Chase.