Booming Markham will get Ontario’s next university campus
Site selection disappoints bitter rival bidders in Barrie and Waterloo Region
Get ready for Markham U.
In a highly anticipated move, the province announced a plan for the creation of a new York University campus in Markham Wednesday, in partnership with Seneca College.
Markham’s proposal to build a state-of-the-art university campus for 4,000 students near Hwy. 407, between Kennedy Rd. and Warden Ave., received top marks from an evaluation panel and had widespread support from the community and York Region.
“Until this morning, York Region was North America’s largest municipality without a university,” said Wayne Emmerson, chairman and CEO of the York Region.
The province said “funding details will be finalized following a full review of procurement options and estimated costs.” York Region is expected to put forward $25 million to the university, with the city of Markham donating two hectares of land in downtown Markham for the project.
“We have one of the most diverse communities from all of Canada . . . people have come from every country in the world, and education for their kids is a priority,” a beaming Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti told a news conference Wednesday.
Provincial officials said the new university/college partnership is a response to the rapid demographic growth in the area, particularly of the university-aged population. Scarpitti said there are currently 60,000 18- to 21-year-olds in the region, a number that is expected to grow to 71,000 in the next decade.
“At the end of the day, why are we doing this? Because we believe in you. We believe in the young people in this community. You speak to our future. You speak to our economic prosperity. You speak to our competitiveness on the global stage. You speak to a sustainable community,” said Scarpitti.
In a news release, York University said it will now begin working on a detailed planning and implementation phase for the new campus, and will make use of the city’s accessibility to transit, major employers and the Markham Pan Am Centre.
In March 2014, the province released a competitive call for proposals to universities for new projects where future demand would be strong and there were accessibility gaps.
The province received 13 submissions, and a panel of deputy ministers unanimously chose the Mark- ham bid, said Reza Moridi, minister of training, colleges and universities.
“A lot of municipalities are eager to have a university, and I see that as a good thing,” said Moridi.
He said he personally called all the universities on Tuesday to give them the news, and offered them a chance to meet with ministry staff for further clarification on why they were not selected.
The city of Barrie had put forward two bids, one from Sudbury-based Laurentian University and one from Lakehead and Georgian College.
“That access problem is not being fixed for students in Barrie,” said Laurentian chief of staff Chris Mercer, who says 88 per cent of students have to leave Barrie to get access to university. “Was there really an access problem in Markham?”
Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo also expressed “profound disappointment for the university and for the community partners with whom we have worked very hard over the past seven years,” said Max Blouw, president and vice-chancellor.
The university had proposed a 60hectare university campus situated within the 162-hectare Milton Education Village, adjacent to the protected Niagara Escarpment greenbelt.
That idea still may have a chance. In the spring of 2016, the province will issue a new call for proposals for a post-secondary facility, targeted specifically to Peel and Halton regions, which follow York Region as the province’s fastest-growing areas.