East Gwillimbury seeks partnership with Newmarket for university bid

East Gwillimbury Era
By Simon Martin

With news that York University is interested in locating a satellite campus in York Region, East Gwillimbury’s leaders hope to submit a proposal partnering with another municipality.

“The natural fit would be East Gwillimbury and Newmarket,” Mayor Virginia Hackson said. “We are certainly hoping that a submission can be put in with more than one community.”

East Gwillimbury council directed staff to continue discussions about a partnership with nearby municipalities for a post-secondary institution.

Town leaders’ desire to land a post-secondary institution is well publicized.

More than two years of work have gone into the town’s post-secondary attraction project, town representatives are looking forward to the opportunity to pitch their plans to York University, Ms Hackson said.

“We have a lot of material and will put our best foot forward on that day,” Ms Hackson said.

The region received a message from York University that it is pursuing expansion funding from the province and would like to hear from prospective municipalities. The timeline appears to be in the next few weeks.

Late last year, the provincial government released a fiscal review that noted many of the largest and fastest growing communities in Ontario do not have post-secondary campuses or have campuses that provide few local options for students.

The government plans to release a policy framework to govern future expansion in the post-secondary sector either through the creation of three new campuses or through major expansion at existing campuses.

East Gwillimbury representatives acknowledged in 2013 they had discussions with York University, University of Guelph, Ryerson University and Seneca College, but did not have any agreements in place for a partnership.