AUCC welcomes extension of Knowledge Infrastructure Program

OTTAWA, Dec. 2 /CNW/ - Canada's universities welcome the announcement by the government of Canada to extend the completion deadline for the Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP) from March 31, 2011 to October 31, 2011.  

"The Knowledge Infrastructure Program is transforming campuses across the country, and improving the quality of the research and learning experience for Canadian students," said Paul Davidson, President of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.  

Through KIP, 79 Canadian universities have undertaken 183 infrastructure projects with a total value of $3.2 billion from federal, provincial and other sources. Canada's universities responded quickly to the government of Canada's Economic Action Plan, and working with the provinces this program has been an outstanding success. Construction has been completed in several KIP projects, and is well underway in the vast majority of other projects. A small number of projects have run into unexpected and unavoidable delays.  

Universities have been working hard to meet the March 31st deadline, and have been reporting regularly on the progress being made. Today's extension makes sense and will be welcomed by the thousands of men and women across Canada working to complete these projects.   

Examples of the new facilities being created can be found at www.aucc.ca/kip.   

AUCC is the national voice for Canada's universities. It represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities.

For further information:

Melanie Béchard
Communications Officer
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Tel.: [phone] x 306
[email protected]

For more information about the KIP extension, please read the government of Canada news release: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?category=1&featureId=6&pageId=26&id=3825