The construction is completed on the new technology building at Barrie’s Georgian College campus and now the innovation magic can begin inside the state-of-the-art facility.
The Peter B. Moore Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) officially opened today with a walk-through as college staff, students and local dignitaries took in all that the $30-million, three-storey, 56,000-square-foot facility has to offer.
Kevin Weaver, the college’s vice president of international work force development and partnerships, says the new building will change how innovation is done in Barrie and across the county.
“We’re using the word game-changer and we’re not alone as you’ve heard several people use it here today,” said Weaver. “I feel it’s because of the infrastructure that the facility provides to this region, which is focused on research innovation, commercialization and helping industry while driving economic development.”
Named after the founder and CEO of Moore Packaging, Peter Moore, who donated a significant amount of money to the project, the Peter B. Moore ATC features computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing and labs dedicated to geographic information systems while also housing an anechoic chamber and incubator.
The facility is the first of its kind in Central Ontario and Mayor Jeff Lehman told BarrieToday that the city he grew up in has just taken a giant leap into the future thanks to this venture..
“The way that a community charts its own course economically and the way we are our own economic centre where people can find careers here rather than having to commute is (thanks to) innovation," said Lehman.
"New products being developed and brought to market and companies growing and hiring with the local community is exactly how a city grows," said the mayor. "There is a lot of research that goes into these huge projects and the stats are there in that the communities that have done well are the ones where colleges and universities worked directly with advanced industry to develop new products and services."
Lehman said Barrie has now joined cities like Waterloo and Guelph as "innovation" cities.
More than 200 people from all areas of public office and business were at the grand opening today which was made possible by donations from all levels of government.
The City of Barrie and the County of Simcoe both contributed $5 million, $1.8 million came from the provincial government and $10.8 million was provided by the federal government’s Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund.
Georgian College’s president and CEO, Marylynn West-Moynes, was beaming with pride about the cooperative efforts.
“It is not very often that we see four levels of government in this country come together on one project,” said Moynes. “But that was the key to this new facility’s first step of success and now to continue the success, we hand it over to our amazing students to take it above and beyond what any of us dreamed.”
