{"id":13317,"date":"2017-02-01T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=13317"},"modified":"2017-02-02T12:37:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T20:37:35","slug":"camosun-to-construct-48-5-million-building-at-interurban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/02\/01\/camosun-to-construct-48-5-million-building-at-interurban\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun to construct $48.5-million building at Interurban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun College is building a new Health and Science Centre at Interurban, thanks in large part to provincial and federal funding. The $48.5-million project is being funded with $12.5 million from the federal government and $31 million from the provincial government, with the college paying the rest.<\/p>\n

Camosun vice president of education John Boraas says dialogue has been bouncing back and forth between interested parties for three decades. Funding for the building, which Boraas says will begin construction within six weeks, didn\u2019t get the green light from the government until this past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s continued to be on our highest priority capital list,\u201d he says, \u201cand it\u2019s been overtaken by other provincial government priorities. But it\u2019s been our highest priority for a very long time now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An artist\u2019s representation of Camosun\u2019s new Health and Science Centre at the Interurban campus (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boraas says the $5 million of the funding that Camosun will contribute will come from community fundraising, an initiative the college began about four years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a massive community engagement on what people saw as the need for health education in the south island,\u201d he says. \u201cWe re-prioritized it as our first priority for the college, and government picked up on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boraas says the college has hired architects, contractors, and project managers to ensure that the building is completed by the spring of 2018, as per the provincial government\u2019s demands. However, Boraas says internal construction may continue past that deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep in mind there are two different funding pots,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have federal funding\u2014the strategic initiative funding\u2014and then regular provincial capital funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boraas says the federal funding is \u201cprimarily focused on the shell of the building,\u201d and he says that is what will be completed by spring 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of work will continue on the inside,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s necessary for us to have shovels in the ground, really, within about six weeks. You\u2019ll see construction beginning to occur almost immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

BC minister of advanced education Andrew Wilkinson says he is very happy with the progress Camosun is making in the area of health and sciences. He says <\/b>the federal program will fund construction until February 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put it forward as a priority project,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have to push the constructors to do it in a timely basis so that we can take full advantage of the federal funding. Gladly, the federal government agreed, because they don\u2019t always agree with our choice of projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkinson says this building will help Camosun students as they\u2019re taking courses at the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the faculty and students will have the benefits of a brand-new building,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich consolidates all of the teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new building will be adjacent to the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE). Wilkinson says the two facilities will serve one another in a positive way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students will have an entirely improved learning experience,\u201d says Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

Camosun College Student Society external executive Rachael Grant says that it\u2019s great to see the beginning stages of this building, but that it\u2019s troubling that Camosun has to cover any of the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit of a concern that the college itself has to take on some of the cost associated with it,\u201d says Grant, \u201cbecause that, by default, spreads the resources of the college more thin. Energy needs to be put into fundraising for this building rather than, say, fundraising for student bursaries and scholarships. It would be ideal for the government to pay for it in full; it would be of more benefit to students to approach it in that way, but it is positive to see this area being prioritized and expanded upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant also points out that although having one program all in the same building could \u201carguably enrich the learning process,\u201d she says that the student society would like to see the building placed closer to the Centre for Business and Access.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed location for this building is so far away from the rest of the buildings, which puts students who will be utilizing that building in a position to be more isolated from accessing transportation hubs and the rest of students on campus,\u201d she says. \u201cIdeally, the building would be built elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun College is building a new Health and Science Centre at Interurban, thanks in large part to provincial and federal funding. The $48.5-million project is being funded with $12.5 million from the federal government and $31 million from the provincial government, with the college paying the rest. Camosun vice president of education John Boraas says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-february-1-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13320,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13317\/revisions\/13320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}