The unified campus of UQO in the process of becoming a reality

The Minister confirmed that the financial plan to repatriate the university’s teaching and research activities to a single site — the Alexandre-Taché Pavilion campus — has been completed. This, she says, was made possible thanks to new sums from the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) 2022-2032.

The unification project is a long-term project that has been in the pipeline for fifteen years. It provides for the addition of two wings to the Alexandre-Taché building and the expansion of the library. The work could be completed by 2028, McCann said.

Initially, the government set aside $60.5 million for the unification project to see the light of day, but rising construction costs drove up the bill, and until recently the minister refused to say whether his government would pay the difference.

The minister says that the new sums will allow the project to follow its course. She maintains that the opportunity file can be completed and submitted to the government for approval.

I’m always happy to come and make great announcements in regions like this, because I know it makes a difference.launched Minister McCann with a smile to the assembly, composed for this occasion of almost all the political gratin in Outaouais.

” This is a long-awaited project that has not been forgotten by our government. For us, the Outaouais region is very important in many respects. »

The Minister specified that the expansion and reunification project of the campus of theUQO will accommodate more than 6,000 students and at the same time create an even more dynamic student life on campus.

It will boost the vitality of the city — I think that’s what happens when you have such a dynamic university district — and of the region, in addition to increasing the attractiveness ofUQOshe said.

The rector of theUQOMurielle Laberge, was very emotional when she came to the microphone to thank the Minister. It’s a wonderful day for higher educationshe said. We finally have the assurance that this structuring project will finally materialize.

The consolidation of the unified campus in Gatineau is not just a brick and mortar project, she recalled. It is a strategic and development project on which the university team has been working for 25 years.

A new civil law program

Minister Danielle McCann also took advantage of her visit to the Outaouais to announce the creation of a brand new Bachelor of Civil Law program at theUQO. The program will be offered in the fall of 2023.

For the minister responsible for the Outaouais region, Mathieu Lacombe, the symbolic significance of this announcement is not to be taken lightly.

There is a university which is very good on the other side of the river [l’Université d’Ottawa]but in its law program, it’s quite special: you have Quebec professors, who teach Quebec law to Quebecers on Ontario soilhe pointed out ironically. Me, I think that was our best argument [de vente]. We are able to do things at home!

The Minister recalled that the creation of this new baccalaureate is a question of pride and autonomynot to mention that it will be offered according to the Quebec tuition fee schedulemade a point of specifying the rector of theUQOMurielle Laberge.

Three new programs at Cégep de l’Outaouais

Finally, Minister McCann will leave the Outaouais region having also promised the implementation of three new study programs at the Cégep de l’Outaouais: Social Work Techniques, Radiodiagnostic Technology and Management and Intervention Techniques. in leisure.

The Cégep will offer some of these programs starting in January 2023. The new courses should accommodate 210 students.

Two of these new courses had been the subject of an official request from the Cégep, in March. Even if he did not get everything he asked for, the director general of the Cégep de l’Outaouais, Steve Brabant, was visibly delighted by the announcements made by the minister on Monday.

The announcement […] is really a first step forward to make up for the significant deficit in infrastructure and college programming which, for years, has disadvantaged the Outaouais, but also its only French-speaking CEGEPdid he declare.

The announcement comes in response to a serious crisis. The fire has been burning in medical imaging for years and, today, there are about fifty technologists who are missing to produce the necessary diagnoses that doctors need and the delays continue to skyrocket.

This is [aussi] more manpower for our organizations, our municipalities working in the world of sport, recreation and culturehe added.

” More students will stay in the Outaouais to train to work, to live in their region, and to contribute to the development of their region’s vitality. »

The implementation of these new programs is accompanied by financial support of nearly three million dollars. These sums of money should enable Cégep officials to create the necessary space on the Gabrielle-Roy and Félix-Leclerc campuses to accommodate these new programs.

With information from Nathalie Tremblay