The University of Guelph is getting $31 million from the Federal and provincial governments to update six of its aging buildings.
The Feds are kicking in $26.2 million and the province $4.7 million. The U of G will be contributing another $35.7 million for a total investment of $66.6 million.
Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield, MPP Liz Sandals and U of G representatives made the announcement Wednesday.
"The most important part we have to remember here is that we are investing in people," said Tony Vanelli, Dean of the College of Physical and Engineering Science and School of Engineering.
"It's so important to have current infrastructure, for students and for business," Longfield said.
Wednesday's announcement came in the MacNaughton Building, one of six buildings that will see infrastructure improvements ranging from plumbing to new spaces designed and built for very specific tasks and research.
The MacNaughton Building is also named after Sandals' father Earl MacNaughton, who was the founding Dean of the U of G's Department of Physics.
"It's middle aged," Liz said of the MacNaughton building, which was built in the 1970s.
"Keeping buildings up to speed in terms of what's going on in the labs is a challenge for universities," Sandals said., adding that updating infrastructure is "horrendously expensive."
"This will provide students, faculty and researchers with access to the latest in technology, learning and research environments," Sandals said.
Other buildings benefiting from the funding are the research and collaborative spaces for computer science and engineering, the Bio-Carbon Innovation and Commercialization program, McLaughlin Library, production animal research isolation unit and the Food Innovation Centre.
Wednesday's major funding announcement was the third one in the last 18 months, following $23 million from the province for the Ontario Veterinary College and $12 million for a new Turfgrass Institute.
