Invest in Colleges for Short-Term Jobs, Long-Term Economic Productivity, Says Colleges Association

Association of Canadian Community Colleges release list of ready-to-go infrastructure projects

Ottawa, January 22, 2009  — The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) today released a list of 120 “ready-to-go” college and institute expansion, upgrade and repair projects that could create thousands of jobs if financing is made available in the next federal budget.

“Investing in and expanding college capacity would create thousands of jobs today and support training for employment opportunities tomorrow. And it would support the economic recovery by building a more abundant talent pool for employers,” said ACCC president James Knight. “This snapshot of our college sector points to both a pressing need and an opportunity for the Government of Canada to partner with provinces and colleges to fix a system that is struggling to keep up with demand.”

The projects, totalling $2.12 billion, were identified through a recent survey of the Association’s 150 members. With environmental assessments and architectural and engineering designs completed, municipal approvals secured and in many cases partial funding already in place, the majority of the projects are ready to go this spring pending financing.

Projects range from retrofitting existing campus buildings, to extensions, enhanced safety and security measures, and new construction.

Each project reflects rapid growth in demand for new or extended advanced skills programs, such as emergency services, health, renewable energy, arctic research, aerospace, oil and gas technologies, power engineering, bio-pharmaceuticals, agriculture and horticulture, and trades.

The shortage of advanced skills has been identified as one of the major economic challenges facing Canada. The Conference Board of Canada has forecast a severe shortage of skills over the next decade and the Canadian Construction Association says its industry needs 300,000 people over the same period just to replace those retiring.

“The economic downturn has made an already difficult situation worse as thousands of displaced employees flock to many of our colleges for retraining only to be told that they will have to wait in line because of a lack of space,” said Knight. “Colleges are Canada’s prime trainers, investing in them now would be an investment in our present and future economic competitiveness and productivity.”

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For more information:

Lorna Malcolmson
Manager of Communications
Association of Canadian Community Colleges
(613) 746-2222 ext. 3123

(Download list of projects)

(Download PDF version)