New Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus breaks ground in Saskatoon on U of S land

A groundbreaking ceremony on Monday marked the beginning of the new Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus.

Premier Scott Moe, dignitaries, and officials with the post-secondary school put shovels in the ground at the site of the Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Joseph A. Remai Saskatoon Campus.

“This is a phenomenal day,” Moe said.

The new campus will be located at Innovation Place on the University of Saskatchewan Campus. Officials say the goal is to centralize Sask. Polytechnic’s 11 existing buildings across the city, and to bring together businesses, students and other learning institutions to be a centre for applied learning and research.

“By having that proximity, it will help to create and spark that innovation amongst all of our organizations, and really help those students to realize what their dreams and their future is,” said Kari Harvey, Innovation Saskatchewan CEO.

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“Almost certainty nowhere in North America will you have an entire polytechnic co-located with an entire university and a research park in the middle,” Sask. Polytechnic President Larry Rosia said.

Rosia said Sask. Polytechnic launched a $100 million capital campaign, and about $60 million has been secured so far.

The provincial government previously said it will contribute up $200 million for the project.

Moe said the campus will play a key role in the province’s future.

“When you look at a very hungry world and a world that is in need of energy, whatever that looks like in the future, and you look at what Saskatchewan can provide in the way of uranium, in the way of potash fertilizer … that all is going to come from the education that happens right here,” he said.

The Skilled Trades and Technology building will be the first part of the new campus to open. Site preparation will include removal or upgrading of underground infrastructure, tree relocation and grading.

Rosia said Sask. Polytechnic will start moving over programs once the first building is complete.

“We'll start bringing programs from the main campus over to here, some of the remote locations will move to the campus on Idylwyld, so there'll be a little bit of a domino effect until this campus is complete,” he said.

In a news release, the Government of Saskatchewan said design and pre-procurement work is still in progress. It said a major capital procurement is targeted for early 2025, with construction expected to begin in 2026.