Queen’s is undergoing an extraordinary phase of physical transformation on campus. Consequently, we have all experienced considerable disruption to our normal campus experience—through the noise, difficulties of navigating between buildings, shortage of car parks, and short-term elimination of some facilities. It has been a difficult winter but I’m grateful for the tremendous patience everyone has exhibited.
Understandably, most of the attention on campus has focused on the Queen’s Centre project. The project resulted from many years of feedback from students indicating that our student life and athletic and recreation facilities were the worst features of the Queen’s experience. Planning for the Queen’s Centre began in 2002, and included widespread input, with more than 100 meetings with various student and campus groups, as well as several public meetings. The project is enormous in its scope, due to the unique situation in which we find ourselves, where our student life facilities, our athletic and recreation facilities and teaching and research facilities are all contained on the one site. In many respects, the Queen’s Centre project is really five construction projects spread across three phases of work taking eight years.
Even in the face of such a project, we have managed to protect the access to existing athletic facilities, with the exception of having the arena on campus. The 2007 agreement signed between the University and the City of Kingston guarantees us access to the Memorial Centre until the Jock Harty Arena space is replaced.
The financial scope of the Queen’s Centre project was, from the outset, ambitious. The final approved project budget was for a total cost of $230 million, with expected fundraising of $130 million, as well as estimated contributions from the student body for $30 million, debt financing of $62 million and a small level of other income. During the initial planning years from 2004 to 2006, substantial due diligence and advice was undertaken to ensure the University wasn’t taking an undue risk. Unfortunately, we have witnessed an unparalleled level of inflation in the construction industry, which has produced a high level of negative impact on the Queen’s Centre budget, now in the range of $38 million. This overrun is despite project savings of more than $20 million.
I’ve been asked whether department operating budgets will need to be reduced in order to cover the Queen’s Centre project costs. We’re not planning for any negative impact on department budgets as a consequence of the Queen’s Centre. We’re analyzing a range of strategies, including restructuring our present debt management and the use of unrestricted reserve funds (funds not already reserved for designated purposes), that together will provide protection for departmental budgets from the debt-servicing costs associated with the capital program, including principal and interest payments of any future loans for the project.
A significant misunderstanding has arisen regarding budget cuts faced by departments for the next fiscal year. There’s a projected imbalance between increased operating costs—which are mostly driven by salary increase—and operating revenue, which is mainly from government grants and tuition fees. Increased costs for the capital program are separate from the current budget cuts being planned, and as discussed earlier, mitigation strategies for capital costs are being developed. The final budget requirements for next year will be decided at the meeting of the Board of Trustees on May 3.
We have many other capital and infrastructure needs on campus. The government appears to be listening to these needs. In the past two months, the Ontario government has announced more than $26 million for Queen’s to assist in capital and renovation projects. We will be making further submissions to the government in coming months, seeking to obtain the support we need to go forward with critical developments on campus, such as the performing arts centre, the new medical school building, business school expansion and other facility renewal projects.
During this next year, we will be undertaking a comprehensive review of the needs of our existing buildings and infrastructure, in addition to the completion of a revised campus master plan. We need to attract the highest-calibre students and faculty; we need to continue to position Queen’s as one of the finest universities in Canada and the world—with leading teaching, research, athletic and cultural facilities. Through this expansion, we will be able to build on the heritage and excellence we inherited from the past 167 years and position Queen’s for greater successes in the next 100 years and beyond.
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Andrew Simpson is vice-principal (operations and finance).
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