Exciting news for the College of New Caledonia (CNC) this morning. A brand new $15 million trades facility is coming to the Prince George campus.
The provincial and federal governments are each providing $6.9 million for the project with CNC contributing the remaining $2.2 million.
”I think it builds on CNC’s reputation for success especially in the skilled trades area,” says BC Jobs Minister Shirley Bond. “We know that having state of the art equipment and enough space is important when you’re trying to attract students.”
Attracting students likely won’t be an issue. The new building will house CNC’s heavy mechanic program, the most in demand program the school offers.
“The current waiting list is over 2 years so we’ll be able to meet that need much quicker,” says CNC President Henry Reiser. “We’re in a building that is incredible cramped and really not that safe. This will provide a very safe, bright working environment for our students and our staff.”
At 25,000 square feet, the new facility will replace currently leased facilities and be able to accommodate 251 existing full time students and an additional 48 full time students – an capacity increase of 19 percent.
Bond describes it as state-of-the-art.
“Most importantly, it’s going to be very functional, highly efficient. We’re going to see a LEED Gold Standard here, which is important from the environmental perspective. So a state of the art facility and good news Friday for Prince George.”
The project is expected not to increase the school’s net energy consumption or greenhouse gas emissions, helping it meet its goal of carbon-neutrality.
With the ability to train hundreds of new workers for the oil and gas, forestry and hydro-electric industries, Bond says the facility will play a big role in the province’s future workforce.
“We’re going to have a significant number of job openings – up to 1 million over the next decade and so we need to make sure we’re training the workforce for today and for tomorrow and CNC has an important role to play in that.“
The new building is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018.
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