Peggy Revell
After years of anticipation, Confederation College celebrated the opening of its new multi-million dollar, 40,000 square foot Regional Education Alliance for Community Health (REACH) building Thursday morning in Thunder Bay.
“This is the true embodiment, I believe, of our vision which is to enrich lives through learning, and also our commitment to be deeply connected to all our communities across this vast region and to provide support and leadership to this region,” stated Marilyn Gouthro, chair of the Confederation College Board of Governors—at the press conference which was broadcast across region to Confederation’s various campuses.
The new facility will serve as a centre for academic, laboratory, simulation and clinical/fieldwork education for those enrolled in Confederation’s School of Health and Community Services programs.
While the new REACH building is located in Thunder Bay, it has many benefits for students, said local campus director Anne Renaud.
The new centre has all of the technology needed to “link” up the classrooms so students here can attend classes with professors teaching in Thunder Bay, alongside students from all across the region, she explained.
As well, the investment brings to the local campus a number of different pieces of equipment for use in the health-related programs like paramedic, nursing, and personal support.
These include new simulators that are now in the program’s lab at the hospital and which can be used to simulate real-life situations, Renaud explained.
“So [students] can listen to the heart, they can listen to the breath sounds,” she noted. “We even have a simulator that gives birth to a child, so the students can experience that with those simulators.”
This sort of equipment will help students practice even more scenarios to enhance their learning, she said.
Other equipment includes “stair chairs” to practice lifting a new dummy up and down stairs, stretchers, backboards—even lifelike looking arms so that students can practice injecting veins.
“They’re going to be able to do a lot more practicing and hands on work then they would have without all this equipment,” said Renaud, noting that there isn’t even enough room to store it—and they’ve had to rearrange a filing cabinet room for all the new equipment.
“It’s really going to help,” she said.
“I know that the students will take pride in their surroundings and that they’ll have at their hands the means to provide top notch care to the people within the Northern Regions and the city once they have graduated,” stated Naomi Abotosaway, president of Confederation College’s Student Union.
Abotosaway thanked all those who donated their effort, time and money towards the construction of the REACH building, adding that without their support over the past few years “we would not be here today.”
“I’m very proud to be here today,” said Bill Mauro, Liberal MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan, praising the beauty of the space.
“The impact Confederation College is much broader than [education]. It serves a broader mandate to all of Northwestern Ontario,” he said, stressing the role of the college in economic impact the facility has on Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario.
“This is a remarkable project,” lauded Michael Gravelle, Liberal MPP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, and Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. “And obviously it’s a beautiful, beautiful building.”
“I’m pretty excited about the tremendous use of woodwork in here,” he added, noting that facility has also been designated an official demonstration project by the Canadian Wood Council due to how wood has been used in the building’s design.
“The opportunity to be here today culminates a wonderful 11 years of the helm,” said former Confederation College President, Pat Lang, who retired this past year‚ while sending well wishes to the new president—Jim Madder.
Lang also took time to highlight the many other donations which came in from the community to make the REACH centre possible—including one from TBayTel, and a $500,000 donation from the student union.
The REACH facility came from an investment of $6.23 million in funding from the Government of Canada investment through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP), alongside $15.23 million in funding from the Ontario government so combined with a combined contribution of $15.23 million from the Ontario government’s 2009 budget and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
