Permanent home for post-secondary schools in Milton still years away

Although two post-secondary institutions will be accepting students at three locations in September, it will still be several years before the Milton Education Village will be home to permanent campuses.

According to a report presented at Milton Town Council last night (Jan. 29) campuses from both Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College will transition their existing and future academic programming to the MEV location in 2028.

The plan for the MEV is, “a dynamic urban neighbourhood where innovation will meet nature. At full build out, the Town anticipates the MEV will be home to more than 12,000 residents and a range of employers offering 2,500 highly-skilled, knowledge-based jobs. In addition, the academic campus will host around 15,000 post secondary students and a further 2,300 jobs.”

Until then, both Conestoga College and Wilfrid Laurier University have secured interim spaces within the community to offer academic programming.

Conestoga College opened its 21,000 sq.-ft. Park Hill Campus location this month with approximately 700 students. This campus location has the capacity to support 2,000 students when full enrolment occurs.

It is also initiating leaseholder improvements at their Steeles Avenue location which will host their Centre of Excellence in Health starting in May. This campus will have the capacity to host 800 students at full enrollment.

Wilfrid Laurier University has begun demolition of the ground floor at 555 Industrial Avenue which will host the Milton Laurier Academic Campus and offer academic programming in September. This campus will have the capacity to host 300 students at full enrolment.

At the MEV site, current work includes an interim water and wastewater servicing strategy by Halton Region.

Also, Wilfrid Laurier University has begun work on their initial Milton One site. This currently entails raising the grading on the site through the installation of structural fill.

Schlegel Villages has broken ground on their land development and named their future site ‘The Village on Ridgeview Court’.

By the end of 2024 the Town can anticipate all three interim campus locations to be fully operational with an anticipated student population of approximately 3,000 students.

The planning for the MEV started in the early 1990s when the Town identified the need to attract post-secondary educational institutions to the community. In 2007, the Town began to access the potential of the MEV lands as a local post-secondary campus location with related and complimentary uses.