Three Campuses Get $51.3 Million In Funding

Wednesday, April 08, 2009 11:40 AM

CNC President John Bowman, and Board of Governors Chair Bruce Sutherland say thanks for cash infusion from government ( click on photo for a brief video clip)

Prince George, B.C. -The Province and the Federal government have announced a $51.3 million dollar upgrades to UNBC and the College of New Caledonia’s Prince George and Quesnel campuses. The projects are expected to create 328 jobs.

At CNC, a combined total of $29.6 million will fund two campus capital upgrade projects, expected to generate up to 189 jobs. CNC's Prince George campus will received an investment of $19.75 million to renovate some spaces within the John A Brink Centre, and to replace an existing 48-year-old trades training building with a new technical education centre building with sustainable systems that lowers energy consumption and creates more room for trades trainees.Work on the John A Brink Centre in PrinceGeorge is scheduled to begin by May 30 this year, work on the Technical Education Centre in Prince George will begin in early summer,creating up to 126 jobs

The remaining $9.9 million will build Phase 2 of the North Cariboo Community Campus in Quesnel,accommodating increasing numbers of industry trainees at the Quesnel campus. The North Cariboo Community Campus opened in 2006 after the provincial government provided $11.6 million to build a joint facility for the College of New Caledonia and the University of Northern B.C. inQuesnel. Work on Phase 2 is scheduled to begin June 30 of this year, generating up to 63 jobs.

UNBC will received a $21.7 million investment to build a plant that will use waste wood as biofuel and upgrade the campus's heating and cooling equipment and machinery, creating over 139 jobs.

Construction of the $14.8 million wastewood gasification plant at UNBC's Prince George campus is expected to begin this month, which will take the bark, branches, sawdust and leftovers from nearby mills and convert it into biofuel. Aging heating, ventilation and cooling equipment and machinery in the university's buildings are scheduled to be replaced beginning June 1, 2009 at a cost of $6.9 million, creating up to 44 jobs.

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Posted on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 11:40 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lunarguy on April 9 2009 7:06 AM

Are people not getting the picture that UNBC will be now burning wood waste on site ? The amount of trucks going up the hill, through the poorly designed ring road and then the whole burning or gasification process. Then the pollution from it can easily disperse down the hill in any direction.

Posted by: gus on April 9 2009 10:05 AM

The City did not tell us the type of emissions and the amount that were projected to be put into the air.

This project seems to be following that same path.

I would assume that they are somehwere in the permitting stage with the MoEnvironment. Interestingly, UNBC has a modeller working with PGAir, so they may even have done some modelling already. I would think they would have a consultant working on a report to the MoE.

I cannot imagine that they would not use Best Available Control Technology to reduce the total amount of particulates, for instance, that would exit the stacks.

So, where is the inforamtion? When will we be getting to see it? Or is it a big secret?

Mr. van Adrichem, what is your communications roll out on this little thing going to look like from the point of view of air quality impact?

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"Aging heating, ventilation and cooling equipment and machinery in the university's buildings are scheduled to be replaced beginning June 1, 2009 at a cost of $6.9 million"

Wow!!!! 15 years is aging? Half of the space is not much older than 5 to 7 years.

What are they doing about the college? Some of that would be 35 years old and the vocational school part even older than that. I don't ever recall that size of retrofit being done at CNC in the mid to late 1980s.

Bad maintenance? Is that another area they thought they were saving money to stay afloat?

Posted by: dirtcheap on April 9 2009 11:00 AM

Most of the parts probably have been "Made in China".