Sault lands $18 million Eastern Canada reconciliation centre

The east wing of Algoma University's Sault campus will be dramatically altered by an $18 million federal infrastructure announcement to be made Thursday morning, SooToday has learned.

Scheduled to participate in the 9 a.m. virtual announcement are Catherine McKenna, federal minister of infrastructure and communities; Sault MP Terry Sheehan; and Sault MPP Ross Romano, who is Ontario's minister of colleges and universities.

Also speaking will be Algoma University president Asima Vezina, with Jay Jones and Irene Barbeau from the Shingwauk Alumni Association.

The university's east wing, including its classrooms and the Doc Brown Lounge, will be taken over by an $18 million Indigenous cultural centre that will effectively function as a reconciliation centre for Eastern Canada.

The construction project is expected to significantly transform the view of Algoma University from Queen Street.

The extensive archival collections of the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre will be a major feature of the new centre which will be known as the Mukqua Waakaa'igan.

A campus master plan completed by the university last year was critical of existing space in the east wing and called for a multi-storey, 1,300 gross-square-metre addition as a short-term improvement.

A second announcement Thursday will signal that Algoma University has finally achieved full degree-granting authority.