On Wednesday October 26, the Ontario provincial government announced it’s commitment to support the idea of establishing post-secondary campuses in both Milton and Brampton.
Wilfrid Laurier University is planning to move forward with its ambition to develop campuses in Milton following this announcement.
This has been the latest development of a long collaboration which first began in 2008, when Laurier and the Town of Milton proposed the idea. Deborah Dubenofsky, vice-president of finance and operations, described the proposal as just an idea in the beginning.
“It was a concept. It wasn’t yet on any radar screen at the provincial government,” she said.
Further development came in 2014, when the proposal included a 150-acre campus placed within the Milton Education Village.
In May 2015, Laurier’s proposal was declined by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. According to Dubenofsky, the provincial government’s support is presented as an opportunity and not a confirmation that Laurier would be getting a new campus.
“What was announced was a process, not a winning bid and that’s an important distinction,” she said.
Dubenofsky also elaborated on the possibly complex, but overall rewarding procress ahead.
“That’s an important distinction. So, Laurier, like other universities, will have an opportunity to say to the town of Milton, ‘we’d like to partner with you.’ And we’d like to go forward to the province and say here’s how we could expand our offerings.”
The building and end result of the new campuses could be very beneficial to the larger Laurier community, as said by Dubenofsky.
“What we would be doing is trying to bring the same high quality academic excellence and student experience to the town of Milton and to the surrounding areas.”
Speaking about the future possibility of Laurier being chosen, Dubenofsky said one of the benefits of a Milton Laurier campus would be bringing the accomplishments of Waterloo and Brantford to the Halton Region.
“We’d like it to be us because that’s part of our service area. We see that Milton is right in the middle of that innovation corridor between Toronto and Waterloo. So, we really think it has a lot of opportunity for us. And that we could do a good job in Milton.”