By Joe Johnson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 16, 2011
Last week, the University held its Open Doors – Open Knowledge event to demonstrate the new ‘town hall’ building being built on the Canada Education Park campus in Chilliwack. The event itself was a show of appreciation put forth by all post-secondary institutions who have received federal funding as an investment in their educational facilities.
Emceed by SUS President Carlos Vidal, the event began in the Trades and Technology Centre’s Rivers Dining Room, where UFV President Mark Evered and dignitaries such as BC Liberal’s Minister of Advanced Education Naomi Yamamoto, MLA Barry Penner and Conservative MP Mark Strahl were in attendance to have words on the new building.
Strahl, who spoke first, stated, “As we’ll see here today, this money has been well spent. The Canada Education Park campus has resulted in jobs for engineers, architects, construction workers, and many others when they were needed most.” Yamamoto followed by touching on UFV’s top ranking among other similar-sized schools.
This event also offered an opportunity to promote the Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP) funding provided by the federal government under Canada’s Economic Action Plan, of which UFV received $3,086,850 from the total $2 billion-dollar program. Strahl explained that the KIP is “an economic stimulus plan that is helping to renew, modernize, and improve facilities at campuses across the country.”
“I’m proud to say that investments under the program have created and maintained jobs across Canada and made a difference to many Canadians and their families,” he continued.
The KIP has been a source of funding for 79 post-secondary institutions across the country, creating 183 projects. According to Strahl, the move “will help us protect and create more jobs for Canadians and ensure we that we are well positioned for future economic prosperity.”
Yamamoto was at the event, as UFV has received a larger $10-million dollar injection from the provincial government in addition to the federal funding. This contribution was made to address the $40-million cost of the campus development. Yamamoto stated, “the event today is just to celebrate this incredible new facility that’s going to be… integrating five existing buildings for the University of the Fraser Valley’s expansion of the campus.”
After the events at the dining room wrapped up, the group left the Trades and Technology Centre for a behind-the-scenes look at the construction site. When completed in May 2012, the building will have a facility designed for various uses, as well as a place for aboriginal gatherings, classrooms, labs and offices.
Standing at the construction site, Yamamoto praised the building-in-progress. “So you saw the incredible use of wood and technology to ensure that they minimize the use of energy,” she said, “[and] it sounds like they’re incorporating solar panels to capture solar energy, and using green technology to ensure that the reduction of the greenhouse gases follows through with the province’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.”
After the event, Yamamoto left Chilliwack for the Abbotsford campus to have a few words with students and share ideas. Yamamoto and Penner agreed to speak with The Cascade on the issues raised by NDP MLA and Advanced Education Critic Michelle Mungall when she visited AfterMath last week. Mungall had brought up the provincial Bill 18 and the fact that it potentially enables student-elected representatives to be voted off the board by government-appointed board members. Yamamoto responded, “I believe she doesn’t have the whole story there… what we’re doing is ensuring that if there is a conflict of interest with a board member, then we can deal with it. And that is, that the board has the opportunity by a two-thirds vote to remove a member.”
Yamamoto responded to a question about the student issue of transportation in and out of the Fraser Valley, and how perhaps the provincial government could get the ball rolling – her position was that it’s a municipal issue. Penner noted that the province of BC “did announce a couple of years ago, as part of the Gateway project, that there will be a rapid bus service extending as far as Chilliwack, up and down highway one, to head into the Lower Mainland. So that’ll be an important addition.”
