The Ministry of Advanced Education announced today that $12 million in funding has been approved for construction of a new facility on the Chilliwack campus of the University College of the Fraser Valley.  

Plans for construction of a new building were postponed a year ago as part of a review of all capital construction projects by the provincial government. Today’s announcement will restart planning of a building to replace the “old motel” building. The original “temporary” building on the Chilliwack campus has been slated for demolition for a number of years because repair and maintenance requirements have been ongoing and steadily increasing.  

The new funding will be used to construct replacement and expansion space for the library, science laboratories, classrooms, and administrative areas.  

“This announcement comes at a very important time for UCFV,” said President Skip Bassford. “We are very short of space on all of our campuses, but replacement and expansion of facilities on the Chilliwack campus have been at the top of our list for many years and are badly needed.”  

“Our local MLAs and the Minister of Advanced Education have worked closely with us in recognizing that the needs of the Chilliwack community remained a high priority. Support given by the City of Chilliwack has also played an important part in this process. Given the cost-cutting measures that have been required within the Ministry of Advanced Education, we are especially gratified that funding will now be available to us. It will enable UCFV to build a new facility in Chilliwack, to develop even more ways to integrate our operation with the community, and to better meet the educational and training needs of the eastern Fraser Valley region.”  

A new review of the campus needs and building plans, which have been put on hold twice over the past 10 years, will take place over the next few weeks.