Minister gives green light for $32-million project

The construction project will include a new 10,000-square-metre science and health technologies centre as well as renovations to the existing buildings at the Ste. Anne de Bellevue college, which opened its doors in 1971.

The sale of undeveloped lots in Pointe Claire that were owned by the college will pay for the bulk of capital costs. While the college cleared about $24 million from the land sale, which took years to finalize due to legal wrangling over ownership, additional funds will be procured through donations, from JAC students to local corporate backers, said JAC director general Keith Henderson, adding he hopes to break ground in May or June next year.

"It'll make the most state of the art science and technology facility in the CEGEP network with the help of our community," he said.

One key local benefactor will likely be the Lorne Trottier Foundation.

Lorne Trottier, a West Islander and a JAC Foundation board member, co-founded Matrox Electronic Systems and is president of Matrox Graphics, located in Dorval along Highway 40. He was in attendance last Friday as Quebec Education Minister Michelle Courchesne gave the JAC project the official OK and also authorization for three new pharma-health related programs to be offered once the new facility is built, expected to be completed in spring 2010.

"Myself and my foundation are strong supporters of science education and this kind of project has a lot of value for the local community and so we're considering making a gift at some point in the future," Trottier told The Chronicle following the news conference. "Hopefully, it will be fairly soon."

Trottier said his two daughters attended JAC.

With a tie-in to the new health programs to be offered at the college, the West Island's significant pharmaceutical industry, also represented at the news conference, is expected to become supporters of the project as well.

Meetings with friends of the college have been underway for several years, with local mover and shakers joining the JAC Foundation board as well as volunteering their services on committees. However, the government's final OK is the key step required to turn interest into donations, Fournier said.

"It's something new for a CEGEP, to go and ask for philanthropic dollars – and we've had a very good response," she said. "It started with our students. They voted to donate $10 per student, per semester, over a five year period. So if you count that all, it's over half a million dollars."

She expects to announce contributions from corporate donors perhaps as early as next month.

"We can't do it on our own," she added. "To do all that, renovations and to make sure students have industry-grade equipment, we need help from the community."

Some programs may attract interest from specific industries, she said. "So there could be a link with the pharma program and the pharmaceutical industry. They may say we want to make sure the students in these programs have the type of equipment that would allow them to enter this industry with the knowledge they are using today," Fournier said.

Jacques-Cartier MNA Geoff Kelley said he expects West Islanders to come through for the college in terms of financial backing.

"It's part of the hallmark of the West Island that people do give back to our institutions, whether it's the hospital or the CEGEP. It's further proof of that great corporate commitment that we have on the West Island to our schools, education and young people."