MILTON, ONT. — The Town of Milton has voted to transfer 150 acres of land valued at about $50 million to Wilfrid Laurier University, in support of a plan to build a new university campus in the community.
"This is a donation worth $50 million to Ontario’s post-secondary education system, not just to Wilfrid Laurier University," said Laurier President and Vice-Chancellor Max Blouw. "We greatly appreciate the vision and commitment shown by Milton’s civic leaders, who clearly value the transformational power of higher education."
Milton Town Council voted unanimously July 21 to endorse a proposal, which will transfer land to the university subject to approval from the Ontario government to build a campus in Milton.
The plan proposes a purpose-built campus which would initially support 2,500 students on 150 acres adjacent to the Niagara Escarpment. Eventually, the campus will expand to a capacity of about 15,000 students.
The Laurier campus will be located within a 400-acre Milton Education Village (MEV), which will be a fully integrated neighborhood of multi-level education, research, residential and commercial development.
A velodrome for the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am and Parapan American Games is under construction within the MEV and will be available as a shared sports and recreation facility to the future Laurier campus.
Laurier’s office of the president released a letter of intent in April 2014 that said the project can proceed to planning, design and program development phase as soon as provincial support is announced and start-up funding is provided. Capital investment will not be required for at least two years after the approval.
However, initial enrollment will begin in 2015 in temporary rental space.
According to a report submitted to council on July 21, the Town of Milton and Laurier signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in March 2008.
The Town has been working with Laurier on building a proposal that brings together all the work that has been done over the past six years to set the stage for provincial approval.
Laurier has developed a detailed campus proposal to submit to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities as part of the ministry’s Major Capacity Expansion Request for Proposals (RFP).
The deadline for submissions to the RFP is September 26, 2014.
Milton is expected to have a population of 228,000 by 2031, which will generate a need for local access to post-secondary education.
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