Kitchener - The Regional Municipality of Waterloo has approved an $8.1-million grant for Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, in support of Conestoga’s growth plan related to its new campus in Cambridge and the expansion of its School of Health and Life Sciences at the Doon campus in Kitchener.

This expansion of the School of Health and Life Sciences will be a key development. Financial support from the Region will go towards an enhanced footprint for interdisciplinary health skills training - from the current 45,000 sq.ft. to 100,000. Given this new state-of-the-art facility, within seven years enrolment in the School of Health and Life Sciences will double from the current 1,400 full-time students to 2,800. Conestoga will introduce 18 new programs to serve the Region’s growing population better and will assume a leadership role in the field of health informatics.

The project will create a total of 51 person-years of work and result in an investment of $23 million, creating $26 million in direct construction impacts.

Along with the proposed expansion of the Waterloo and Guelph campuses and establishment of the new Cambridge campus, Conestoga’s growth plan amounts to a total investment of $127 million and creation of a minimum of 360 person-years of work. From April 2009-March 2011, the projects will result in $152 million in direct construction impacts.

The rationale for this growth is the projected increase of Conestoga’s current full-time student population of 6,530 to 12,950 by academic year 2014-2015.

“Our intention is to grow to a size proportionate with the needs of this community, and reflective of its economic diversity,” says Dr. John Tibbits, President of Conestoga. “We will be a leader of economic transformation and progress, developing programs that will move us into the new economy, where opportunities await in the fields of health informatics, advanced manufacturing, food processing, information technology and engineering, as well as skilled trades - all to support the growth of our province.”

The grant from the Region consists of: ● $5.7 million for expansion of health and life sciences education at the Doon campus, ● $1.7 million for road improvements associated with the new Cambridge campus and ● $742,000 towards construction of a new Region of Waterloo Emergency Medical Services (EMS) station on the Doon campus, better to service this part of the Region while at the same time provide an applied training environment both for the Region and for Conestoga students in paramedic and emergency services programs.