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With the protection and vibrancy of Calgary’s downtown within the highlight in current weeks, Alberta NDP Chief Rachel Notley reiterated her promise for a $200-million college campus in downtown Calgary to drive innovation and financial diversification.
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“This campus will assist the creation of an innovation district that brings collectively post-secondary college students, entrepreneurs, startups, enterprise incubators and accelerators to facilitate collaboration and innovation,” she stated.
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Notley stated it will assist tackle the 32 % emptiness charge in downtown places of work whereas bringing financial stimulus to the core.
The College of Calgary already has a downtown campus and Bow Valley Faculty’s primary campus can be within the core, whereas SAIT is simply north.
Challenge mild on particulars
The venture is mild on particulars. There are not any plans as to the place the campus may be and no indication of which post-secondary establishments may be concerned. Notley didn’t shut the door on out-of-province faculties connecting to the ability, however stated precedence can be given to colleges in Alberta.
Pupil housing can be prone to be included within the venture, which may embrace increasing current campuses and repurposing vacant workplace towers.
Notley referenced Concordia College of Edmonton’s $50 million growth and MacEwan College’s $190 million enterprise faculty venture for the way they developed a $200 million funds for the venture.
There isn’t any timeline for this to materialize if the NDP kinds authorities after the Could election. Notley stated planning will start inside months, and doable repurposing of workplace house may start within the fall.
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The provincial authorities launched the CORE report final 12 months which prioritized bringing post-secondary faculties into the interior metropolis.
Minister of Superior Schooling, Demetrios Nicolaides, stated the province is already speaking to native universities and schools. He stated nobody instructed them they needed or wanted a campus like this. He stated he has been working with the U of C to broaden its structure and planning program downtown, however added there may be already robust illustration there.
“I wish to take path from our universities and schools on what tasks needs to be funded, the place {dollars} ought to go and how much tasks needs to be supported, slightly than developing with my very own and making an attempt to power the colleges and schools to comply with it, ” he instructed Postmedia.
jaldrich@postmedia.com
Twitter: @JoshAldrich03
