Manitoba Government announces $1 million in funding for North Hill Campus

The Manitoba Government is providing $1 million to advance planning on the next steps of development at the ACC's North Hill Campus while seeking new learning opportunities for high school students at the college's Victoria Avenue East Campus, Education and Advanced Learning Minister Peter Bjornson announced earlier this afternoon.

“This project will enable Assiniboine Community College to move forward to seek out design and financial expertise that is critical to the successful development of this project so that it meets the needs of students,” said Minister Bjornson. “In addition, we see great opportunities for the Brandon School Division to use vocational facilities to help prepare students for careers in the trades.”

“This investment by the Manitoba government will allow us to develop our concept for a Centre for Health, Energy and Environment and assess the feasibility for adaptive reuse of the Parkland building on our North Hill Campus,” said Mark Frison, president, ACC. “We want to make sure our programming supports economic growth for Manitoba. Ultimately, new space will be required to allow us to add and expand our offerings.

The funding will produce:

• detailed conceptual design and functional space plans,
• detailed information on the cost and scope of the full construction project, and
• anticipated costs and engineering challenges of the heritage preservation and development of the facilities on the North Hill Campus site, and
• a detailed assessment of the potential for elementary and secondary school programming at the college’s Victoria Campus in collaboration with the Brandon School Division.

The funding is the result of multiple consultations, including with the Brandon School Division, who today responded with optimism that additional classroom space may soon be a reality.

“The opportunity for our Grade 7 and 8 students to explore electives in the vacant space at ACC has been a topic of conversation for some time,” said Mark Sefton, chair, board of trustees, Brandon School Division. “This would also help to alleviate the pressures we are encountering in the search for adequate classroom space. In June, the board requested that a feasibility study be conducted to examine the potential for programming at the college’s Victoria Campus. We are very pleased that funding for the study is being announced to begin this process.”

“The Assiniboine Community College North Hill Campus is an important institution for the city of Brandon and western Manitoba,” said Municipal Government Minister Drew Caldwell. “Finding ways to expand the campus will allow people in this region of Manitoba more opportunity to get a top notch education closer to home.”

Minister Bjornson said the proposed new centre would have the potential to accommodate students from programs in key skill areas such as agribusiness, power engineering, civil engineering technician, environmental technologies, communications engineering technology, instrumentation and civil/municipal engineering technologies, practical nursing, comprehensive health-care aide and oil field training.

The funding announcement was held inside the Parkland Building at the college's North Hill Campus in Brandon. [L to R] Minister Peter Bjornson, ACC Board of Governors Chair Martijn Van Luijn, ACC President Mark Frison, Minister Drew Caldwell.