Canada and Ontario invest in post-secondary
infrastructure in Thunder Bay and region
Thunder Bay, Ontario – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
The Government of Canada values the role of post-secondary institutions as they help equip young Canadians with the education and training they need for future careers that will help them join a strong, healthy middle class. The $20.76-million investment in Confederation College and Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute will do just that by fostering the training needed for the well-paying middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow.
The funding was announced by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and by the Honourable Michael Gravelle, Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines, and the Honourable Bill Mauro, Ontario’s Minister of Municipal
Affairs.
The Government of Canada’s Innovation Agenda aims to make this country a global centre for innovation—one that creates jobs, drives growth across all industries and improves the lives of all Canadians. This investment exemplifies that vision in action.
Confederation College will receive $18 million for the construction of its new Technology Education and Collaboration Hub. The “TEC Hub” will include new workshop and lab space and will bring the college’s apprenticeship, trades and technology programs together in one building. The Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario are each contributing $9 million. Confederation College and other partners will provide an additional $1.96 million.
Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute will receive $2.7 million in federal funding for its Pathways to Prosperous Future project. This project will enable the Institute, through its Trades Training Mobile Lab, to provide specialized training for First Nations people in 49 communities across the Nishnawbe Aski Nation. The funding will also be used to upgrade the trades labs at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, which will help provide more training
opportunities for First Nations youth.
In total, universities and colleges throughout Ontario will receive more than $1.9 billion from the Government of Canada, the provincial government, the institutions themselves and private donors. Federal funding will be allocated through the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund, which will enhance and modernize research facilities on Canadian campuses and improve the environmental sustainability of these facilities.
As a result of these investments, students, professors and researchers will work in state-of-the-art facilities that advance the country’s best research. They will collaborate in specially designed spaces that support lifelong learning and skills training. They will work in close proximity with partners to turn discoveries into products or services. In the process, they will train for—and invent—the high-value jobs of the future. And their discoveries will plant the seeds for the next generation of innovators.
That is how the Strategic Investment Fund will jump-start a virtuous circle of innovation, creating the right conditions for long-term growth that will yield benefits for generations to come.
Ontario is making the largest investment in public infrastructure in the province’s history—about $160 billion over 12 years—which is supporting 110,000 jobs every year across the province with projects such as hospitals, schools, roads, bridges and transit. Since 2015, the Province has announced support for more than 475 projects that will keep people and goods moving, connect communities and improve quality of life. To learn more about infrastructure projects in your community,
go to Ontario.ca/BuildON.
