GamesBids.com: Students Vote To Fund Part Of Toronto 2015 Pan Am Athletic Facility

Students Vote To Fund Part Of Toronto 2015 Pan Am Athletic Facility
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GB Staff on Sunday, March 21, 2010  1:24pm EDT
 
The Toronto Star reports University of Toronto (Scarborough Campus) (UTSC)
students voted overwhelmingly in a referendum in favour of supporting financing
part of the construction of an international standard aquatic centre and
multi-purpose training facility that will include two Olympic-sized swimming
pools, a dive tank, and an eight-lane 200-metre running track, racquet courts,
and sports medicine clinic and other fitness and training facilities.
The facility is central to the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.
Sixty two per cent of students voted in favour of the financial levy, but the
results are unofficial until formally ratified by the Scarborough Campus
Students' Union and the University.
Amir Bashir, acting student union president for the Scarborough campus, released
a statement saying, "with this vote our students have clearly spoken that UTSC
students deserve world-class facilities as does the community in which we all
live. I am extremely proud of our students who have had the vision and courage
to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and contribute to the future of
this great campus".
Under the new levy, students will contribute about $30 million over 25 years -18
per cent of the projected $171 million total cost of the complex. The remaining
building costs will reportedly be paid by the university, as well as the
municipal, provincial and federal governments.
Starting this September full-time students will pay $40 per semester and
part-time students $8, going up to $140 and $28 per semester in 2014 when the
facility is expected to open.
Last May Toronto's Mayor David Miller encouraged students to pass the vote. He
told a town hall forum, "you deserve a world-class facility. And you can help
make UTSC a remarkable situation institution that is home to a facility unlike
anything else in Canada, for your students and your community".
Miller praised the students after the vote saying in a statement, "I'm
incredibly pleased with the strong YES vote and want to thank all those who cast
ballots over the last several days".
The University of Toronto will be hosting the Toronto 2015 Opening and Closing
Parapan Am Ceremonies.