College of the North Atlantic has received the largest ever donation in its history — money that will help expand its climate change programming through a new School of Sustainable Development.
The donation from the Hebron offshore project, which is operated by ExxonMobil Canada, amounts to $10 million over the next five years.
It will be used by the college to “transform its resources, enhance infrastructure, and unlock new potential.”
CNA President and CEO Liz Kidd says about half of the money is already spent, adding they are “being very thoughtful” about how it’s used.
“This is a provincewide thing, this isn’t necessarily a one, bricks and mortar kind of solution. This is about creating a sustainable development school but it could be virtual, it could be in all of our campuses, that’s the process we’re working through right now, and we’re looking at what programs are needed — everything from solar power, to making sure that we have technicians in the province to repair electric vehicles,” she said.
Gary Thompson, dean of the new school, says he’s excited about where things are heading.
“I see this as we can really do some new, innovating things,” he said. “We can take the college in a new direction, we can bring in some great, new initiatives that we haven’t been able to afford before, bring in some innovative ideas.
“We’ll work with (CNA’s) Applied Research and Innovation to bring a lot of new things together and try different things and do different things that we’ve always wanted to do.”