Kingston - The federal and provincial governments have announced $58 million for a state-of-the-art building to house expanded teaching, research, administrative and student facilities, that are currently scattered in several buildings, some of which are a century old.

"Queen's welcomes this significant infrastructure investment by the Canadian and provincial governments," says Principal Tom Williams. "A new building for the medical school will create hundreds of construction jobs, stimulate the local economy and ensure sustained teaching and research excellence at Queen's for the long-term."

The new $77-million facility will be built at Stuart and Arch streets, across from the medical faculty's main teaching hospital, the Kingston General Hospital.

"We currently have 900 future physicians in the pipeline," says Dr. David Walker, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences. "These new facilities will allow us to educate future physicians in the best possible way, and allow us to grow yet further in future. They will serve as a regional asset for our teaching partners at hospitals in Belleville, Peterborough and Oshawa, and we will also enhance our long-distance teaching to students in remote areas of Ontario."

The building will allow for much needed upgrades to health care teaching labs and feature advanced simulation labs to keep students on the cutting edge of medical techniques.

"Before a student does anything in a clinical setting, we want them to have practiced and practiced," says Dean Walker. "The new simulation labs will provide our students with first-class facilities that will help us keep attracting the best and brightest doctors of tomorrow and faculty from around the world."

Queen's has already raised $11 million of its $19-million contribution. The $29 million in federal funding is part of the $2-billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program to support infrastructure at Canada's post-secondary institutions. The matching provincial funds come through the 2009 Provincial budget.

A formal announcement will be made at the university's Biosciences Complex on Friday.