Niagara Falls mayor spends two hours talking with Minister Glen Murray at weekend Liberal conference By BRETT CLARKSON Niagara Falls Review Updated 5 hours ago
Mayor Jim Diodati spent close to two hours talking with universities and colleges minister Glen Murray at this weekend's Liberal convention in an effort to sell Niagara Falls as a suitable place for a post-secondary campus.
"The meeting went great," Diodati said. "Right now we're more discussing broad strokes and approaches and what the government is looking for, so we can design our proposal according to what they're looking for."
After the provincial government committed in the Speech from the Throne last week to opening three undergraduate campuses in Ontario, both Diodati and MPP Kim Craitor said they want to see a post-secondary campus in Niagara Falls.
But Diodati said that local efforts to bring a university campus to the Falls are also focused on post-graduate studies because he doesn't want a Falls institution competing with the post-secondary programs already available in Niagara.
"We're not looking to duplicate what's already here, we've already got Brock University and Niagara College — two outstanding institutions," Diodati said. "We're looking to add to what's not already available or being offered. That's our objective. We're not limited to undergrad either. We're also looking at post-graduate."
Asked what post-graduate program he was referring to, Diodati said he couldn't say more.
"I'm limited to what I can say because I can't tip my hand, but we have been having discussions in this regard because we don't want to compete with what's already here," the mayor said.
Reports have suggested that Milton, Barrie, and Brampton would be the three sites for the campuses referred to in the government's throne speech. Asked about this, Murray said nothing is set in stone yet.
"We have not finalized any location yet," the former Winnipeg mayor said.
Murray, the province's Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, said after his meeting with Diodati on Saturday that the provincial government will soon release its satellite campus policy paper. That policy will outline what the government will be looking for when it decides where the campuses will be located, he said.
Earlier this year, the province announced that Queen's Park would take control of where, if, and when satellite campuses of existing post-secondary institutions would be opened in the province, taking that decision away from the institutions themselves. The government's rationale is that it wants to ensure an even distribution of colleges and universities across the province.
"There'll be something called the satellite campus policy, the contents of which are not finalized," Murray said, adding that "we'll be looking for people who can bring in proposals that are aligned with that campus policy."
Despite indicating no decisions have been made, Murray acknowledged the efforts in the communities that have been reported as being likely sites of new post-secondary campuses.
"There is a lot work being done in communities like Barrie right now, (and) the government's very respectful of those efforts, but no, there's no final decision and there's lots of opportunities to hear from interested communities," he said.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment