Years of planning and a salmon dinner lead to major public funding commitment to future of Ralph Pickard Bell library
The Ralph Pickard Bell library just took a giant step closer to a renewal project that has been in the works for years. On Tuesday afternoon, dignitaries, media, and members of the Mount Allison community gathered for a joint announcement from the provincial and federal governments of a combined $36 million in funding to help make the renovation a reality.
MP for Beauséjour and federal minister of infrastructure Dominic Leblanc announced $26 million towards the project coming from the green infrastructure stream of the Canada-New Brunswick bilateral infrastructure agreement. “There were a number of hundreds of millions of dollars that had not been allocated in the existing Canada-New Brunswick agreement,” said Leblanc after the announcement on Tuesday. “This is one example of the decisions that we made with the government of New Brunswick to access that funding, to do important infrastructure projects around the province.”
Leblanc says the project fits under the green infrastructure stream since the renovations will make the Ralph Pickard Bell Library “world-leading in terms of its environmental footprint.”
Two of New Brunswick’s provincial ministers also attended Tuesday. Minister of Health and Mount Allision alumnus Bruce Fitch was there, along with Post-Secondary Education minister Trevor Holder, who announced New Brunswick’s contribution to the project.
“I’m incredibly proud to announce today a $10 million commitment from the provincial government to support the programming needs here at Mount Allison University,” said Holder, to applause from those gathered.… Continue