More money for post-secondary institutions expected in tomorrow's provincial budget

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By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff

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Post-secondary education will benefit from provisions in tomorrow's provincial budget, Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Labour and Training Donald Arseneault says.

"For the third year in a row, we will fund a tuition freeze for universities," Arseneault says.

The key word, the minister says, is "fund," because universities will receive $6.1 million in provincial funding that they otherwise would have gained from hiking tuitions, while students will pay the same amount they've paid for the past three years.

Universities' operational grants will increase three per cent as well, adding another $6 million, for a total of $12.1 million, that universities can expect from the province.

Meanwhile, tuition rates at New Brunswick Community Colleges will remain frozen for a fifth year, Arseneault says.

The budget will also free the rest of the approximately $100 million in money for capital projects at the province's community colleges that was announced last year.

Funding for those projects this year will include $11 million to finish the new wing on the Moncton campus on Mountain Road, where courses in allied health, trades, applied arts, IT and technologies will be delivered in a 4,080-square-metre (43,900-square-foot) addition, located behind the existing structure.

Another $3 million will be allocated to the work now going on at the Bathurst campus's multi-trades facility, which is a new 1,170 square metre (13,000 square foot) multi-purpose workshop being added to the current trades space. Courses there will focus on plumbing, pipefitting, and other construction trades.

The additional space will make it possible to accommodate 100 more students on the Bathurst campus, bringing its total capacity up to 1,000 seats.

A further $9.6 million will be used for the construction of the new Fredericton campus, Arseneault says.

The 4,552-square-metre (49,000-square-foot) facility will deliver programs in health, business administration, information technology, engineering technology and social services. The wireless building is positioned to respond to training needs by working in collaboration with universities, industry and stakeholders to ensure that all expanded new seats meet the needs of Fredericton and the province, the department says.

A new campus being constructed in Edmundston next to the Université de Moncton will receive $22 million in tomorrow's budget, the minister says.

And the new Centre of Excellence for Energy and Construction, located on the Saint John NBCC campus, will see $11.7 million in funding.

The 7,500-square-metre (80,700-square-foot) building will include a mix of high-tech classrooms and labs. It will house engineering technology programs in industrial control technology, power engineering technology, mechanical engineering technology, civil engineering technology, process control technician, process piping drafting and design as well as energy systems technology.