Terrace campus for Coast Mountain College to see 4.4 million dollar library investment

The Province of BC is making yet more investments in the Terrace
campus of Coast Mountain College
(photo from CMTN facebook page)

The good news for students, staff and faculty at Coast Mountain College in Terrace continues to roll in, with the Provincial government spending once again for capital projects at the flagship campus in the Northwest.

In an announcement today, the province has announced that it will be spending 4.4 million dollars towards a library renewal project at the Terrace campus.

As she has a few times now, Melanie Mark, the Minister of Advanced, Education, Skills and Training once again delivered the good news for the Terrace area, making the announcement which also hailed the volume work for the Skeena Valley that will be available  for tradesmen and women who will have opportunity to work on the project.

“In these challenging times, our government is working to ensure that we are doing everything possible to support British Columbians in every part of the province.

The library renewal project at Coast Mountain College is a long-term investment that will give students dedicated spaces to study and learn and will also provide immediate, well-paying construction work for tradespeople in Terrace. The inclusion of Indigenous design and child-friendly spaces will guarantee a welcoming and inclusive building for generations to come.”

The Work to renew and refurbish the flood-damaged Spruce Building on the college’s main campus is expected to begin this summer. In addition to providing students with better access to learning supports, the renewal work will bring the building up to current code standards and improve accessibility for users, along with energy efficiency, air quality and comfort for occupants.

College president and CEO Justin Coleman expressed the excitement of all on the campus towards the work ahead and anticipation of the finished result.

“The library renewal is a very exciting project for our Terrace students who have been accessing library services from a smaller, temporary location since the flood in 2018. The new space will not only reflect Indigenous ways of learning and knowing, it will give students and instructors a modern and comfortable space for study, teaching and learning.”

The new library facility for the Terrace campus will offer a number of Northwest touches and some key additions towards potential use.

The project design team worked with Coast Mountain’s First Nations Council and sought the input of students to design space that supported the college’s First Nations students in its function and reflection of local First Nations culture.

The design includes an Indigenous reading circle crafted from local cedar. The wood ceiling design represents the Skeena river watershed.

The new space will include informal learning spaces that will give students flexible technology-enabled work areas for collaboration, quiet study and research. In addition, it will feature a lab where students can attend non-credit workshops, such as career advising, research methods, resumé writing or receive peer-to-peer tutoring.

A designated reading area for children will enable student parents to care for their children and continue to study.

More on today's investment in Coast Mountain College can be reviewed here.

The library project is just the latest of some significant improvements and additions to the Terrace campus in recent months and years.

Included on the list was an expansion of their housing program for students in that community with completion of the 17 million dollar project expected by the end of summer.

Despite many indications that it is part of the planning in Prince Rupert, Student housing is an option that still has yet to be moved forward on for students of the Prince Rupert campus, with few updates provided on the progress of that goal delivered in recent months.

Last fall, Coast Mountain College introduced a new health and wellness Centre for their Terrace campus.

More notes related to the College's operations in the Northwest can be found from our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.