In June, the provincial government announced that the North and William G. Davis buildings on campus are the beneficiaries of a $52.5-million investment. Only four schools—Wilfred Laurier University, York University, Georgian College, and the University of Toronto—were awarded a share of the available $183 million as part of the Government of Ontario initiative to lessen the demand placed on urban schools that are already hard-pressed to accommodate students with the proper amount of learning space. UTM was the only U of T campus to receive funding.
In the Davis Building, physical science, biology, and chemistry students can expect the quality of their education to improve due to the addition of brand new laboratories and improved equipment.
As for the North Building, the renovation project seeks to provide students with improved study and common space.
This renovation project is yet another step in the right direction for the rapidly expanding UTM campus. Deep Saini, UTM’s principal, made it clear how substantial this investment is when he commented, “[The project] allows us to start breathing. We have students sitting on the stairs, in the corridors, everywhere. This was a very big issue for us, and the government has stepped up.”
Under the leadership of premier Dalton McGuinty, the Ontario government has invested over $3 billion in Ontario colleges and universities since 2003. In the 2011 provincial budget lies a plan for operating sup- port to add space to accommodate 60,000 more students in colleges and universities across the province by 2015.
The renovations of the Davis and North buildings will amount to $75 million, with the provincial government providing $52.5 million and U of T covering the remaining costs.
The McGuinty government has coined the name “Putting Students First” for the initiative.
