New George Brown College waterfront campus to address Ontario’s skilled labour shortages

College’s third main Toronto campus will support growth of up to 4,000 new students per year, energize new lakefront development

Toronto (July 8, 2008) – George Brown College has received funding from the Provincial Government to proceed with a new state-of-the art campus in the heart of Waterfront Toronto’s new East Bayfront development. The new facility will help address skills shortages in a variety of industries and provide new opportunities for Ontarians looking for essential training and re-training.

The addition of a waterfront campus to its existing St. James and Casa Loma campuses will increase George Brown’s overall footprint in the city by 40 per cent and support growth of up to 4,000 new students per year. This growth will also help address the forecast shortage of more than 40,000 post-secondary education spaces in the GTA over the next two decades.

Expected to be completed by the Fall of 2011, the new George Brown site will sit lakeside on two blocks of land just south of its St. James campus, on Queen’s Quay between Lower Sherbourne and Lower Jarvis Streets. The two-building campus will face a park at the foot of Sherbourne Street to the East -- currently slated for completion in 2010 -- and the new Corus Entertainment building near Jarvis Street to the West. To accommodate the new development and activity in the area, the city plans to increase public transportation access east on Queen’s Quay, a project set to coincide with the new campus’ completion date in 2011.

The Provincial Government has agreed to provide $61.5 million of the funding required to fund the project and George Brown College has committed $15 million, with balance of construction costs to be supported by a fundraising campaign.

“George Brown College will bring the rejuvenated Toronto waterfront alive with a showpiece of postsecondary excellence and student energy,“ said Anne Sado, President of George Brown College. “This new campus is fundamental to helping us better support the career aspirations of students across the GTA and meet employers’ growing demand for workplace-ready graduates.”

Once built, the new campus will be a unifying new home for George Brown’s Centre for Health Sciences, bringing together its many programs currently spread across existing campuses. As a leader in interprofessional education, the Centre's expansion is aligned with HealthForce Ontario's Blueprint for Action on Interprofessional Care. It will enable the College to train more health science workers in response to critical skills shortages, and accommodate an additional 1,300 new students in the Centre for Health Sciences by 2015. Some of those students will be in our School of Nursing, helping to meet the Ontario government's commitment to hire 9,000 nurses and create nurse led clinics.

And while the new campus will focus on Health Sciences programs, it will also free up significant space on existing campuses for much-needed growth in other programs experiencing space shortages.  George Brown’s Centre for Construction and Engineering Technology for example, will now be in a position to expand its apprenticeship programs in areas such as carpentry, HVAC and industrial electrician. George Brown is also a leader in Construction Management Training, which will also be expanding based on industry demands.

The new campus will also feature the college’s first student residence - providing housing for up to 500 students - a recreation and fitness centre and underground parking. These $100M facilities are not included in the government funding, but will be self-sustaining.

The entire development will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified, an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. This certification will enable the college to realize reductions of up to 30 per cent in energy consumption, 40 per cent in water usage and up to 90 per cent in waste diversion.

Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of growth moves at George Brown College that will see several of its programs move to larger locations that give them the opportunity to take in more students. Most notably, the College’s renowned Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts is in the midst of an expansive 18,000 sq. ft. addition to the front of its facility on 300 Adelaide St. E., the addition of a new storefront restaurant and training facility at 215 King. St. E. and the redesign and reequipping of 20,000 sq. ft. of existing facilities.

Renovation of a new space in a low-rise building at 230 Richmond St. E., is scheduled to open this September, set to house the College’s Centre for Business, Arts and Design programs, its Institute Without Boundaries and a new Institute for Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation.

About George Brown College

With nine out of 10 graduates getting jobs within six months of graduation, Toronto’s George Brown College has established a reputation for equipping students with the skills, industry experience and credentials to pursue the careers of their choice. From its three main campuses located across the downtown core, George Brown offers more than 150 programs across a wide variety of professions. Students can earn diplomas, post-graduate certificates, industry accreditations, apprenticeships and four-year bachelor degrees. More than 20,000 students attend the College (full-time equivalent) with about 65,000 registered with the George Brown College School of Continuing Education. For more information, please visit www.georgebrown.ca. 

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