With a little help from the Ontario Government, Toronto's Distillery District is officially going to be home to a brand new college campus and the price tag is huge.

College Boreal is a French school that currently has at least six different campuses in Ontario including one on Yonge Street in Toronto. They announced that they are officially expanding in the city with a brand new $21.7 million building.

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They officially announced the start of construction on the building in the Distillery District on October 29th. The building will not only double the amount of space they currently have in the city but also serve as the college's only permanent property in Toronto.

The building itself will be huge, with 100,000 square feet spread over four different floors. The so-called Ribbon Building will run along the southeast edge of the Distillery District by the railway tracks and hitting Cherry Street. When it's done, the school will focus on four main program themes: health, business, community services, and other elements relating to local needs and trends.

Obviously, a project this big comes with a pretty hefty price tag. In this case, it's costing almost $22 million to build the new campus, but College Boreal isn't footing the entire bill.

In fact, most of the funding for the new campus is coming from the Government of Ontario, or more specifically the taxpayers. The Ford government is dolling out almost three-quarters of the funding, paying $15 million. College Boreal is paying the remaining $6.7 million.

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The Ontario government is so tied to this project that Conservative MPP Caroline Mulroney, acting in her role as French Affairs Minister was on hand at Monday's Distillery District announcement.

However, this move comes just days after the provincial government cancelled construction and expansion projects for three different Ontario university campuses, a decision that was met with disappointment and outrage from students across the province.

The construction for the new school is now underway and students are expected to begin classes there by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021.

Source: L'Express / Northern Ontario Business