New Brunswick’s four universities are sharing $100-million from the provincial and federal governments to spend on upgrading and building new facilities.
“There’s definitely some major projects in terms of a brand new facility being constructed and so forth, so there’s a mixture of both” says N.B. Post-Secondary Education Minister Donald Aseneault. “However, at the end of the day, there’s a lot you can do for 98.6 million.”
Half of the money is coming from the feds, another $35-million is coming from the province. $14-million is the responsibility of the province’s four universities.
One older building on UNB’s wish list includes replacing the building which houses the university’s kinesiology program. It was offices and a gym, and is the home pool of the last Canadian female swimmer to win an Olympic medal before this year – Marianne Limpert.
“We put in for a kinesiology building on campus, and a refurbishment of a library in Saint John,” says president of UNB Eddy Campbell. “There was a green house and another project for engineering.”
“UNB in particular is quite old and anything that improves accessibility to our buildings on our campus or accessibility to infrastructure on campuses across the province is vital,” says Travis Daley, president of UNB’s Student Union.
Daley used to work out of the kinesiology building and says it definitely needs work.
“I was a lifeguard there for a number of years, and to see that improved would mean a lot for our students down there,” says Daley.
Minister Arseneault says he’ll be making the announcements as for who’s getting what, in the coming weeks and months.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown
