UTSC’s new $78-million Instructional Centre is the government’s first contribution to Canada’s “brain gain,” said Tony Clement, the federal industry minister, on his visit to the building on March 15.
The project, which will increase campus space by 25 per cent, was funded by a shared investment of $35 million each by the federal and provincial governments through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program.
Launched on 2009, KIP is a part of the Economic Action Plan, an infrastructure stimulus program that invests $2 billion on the growth of universities and colleges all over Canada.
“As [the country] continues to emerge from the global recession, I want you to know that we know, as a government, that investing in leading edge research labs, libraries and learning commons is essential in creating high-paying, highly-skilled jobs both now and in the future,” said Clement.
He believed that the Instructional Centre, the first to be completed out of all the KIP projects, is a step towards the country’s “brain gain.” UTSC Principal Franco Vaccarino agreed.
“Our ability to participate with the ‘brain gain’ was restricted by the university’s lack of space […] but this project has opened up the gates for us,” he said.
For the past decade, UTSC has experienced a rapid growth of its student body. It has gone beyond its enrolment capacity of 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
“The building will have a direct impact on the lives of our students, giving them much needed space to learn, study and work in cutting-edge environments,” said Vaccarino.
Another benefit of the Instructional Centre, he pointed out, was that UTSC has become a “destination of choice” for some of the world’s “top scholars.”
The building has allowed the university to hire 65 new members over the last three years, more than half of what was planned.
Clement said that the new federal budget which has since been released, prior to the government being defeated on a vote of non-confidence — would include more stimulus spending.
Apart from state-of-the-art lecture spaces, offices, and research labs, the Instructional Centre will include a street hub for co-op programs and a large audio-visual atrium.
The building will open on May 2011 and will house UTSC’s Management Department.
