Construction of the Advanced Technology and Academic Centre (ATAC) at the Thunder Bay Lakehead University site is in its final stages, but had slowed down slightly due to a proposed sixth floor for the Northern Ontario Medical School (NOMS).
“We had to slow down (construction) so that we had an option of whether we were to put a roof on the building or provide a temporary roof so that we could add a sixth floor,” Fred Gilbert, president of Lakehead University says.
The sixth floor has been the proposed location for the NOMS in Thunder Bay. Although Gilbert and Michael O’Reilly, communications officer for the Northern Ontario Medical School in Thunder Bay, have not received any formal approval from the government, plans are in the works to accommodate the health facility.
“The date of completion (for the ATAC) is the end of May. We are going to have our grand opening in September,” Gilbert says.
Private-sector companies like Sony and IBM Canada LTD., have supplied technology and equipment to the facility. It is now a matter of installing it.
“A lot of the commitment is already in storage ready to put into the building,” Gilbert says.
Portions of the technology and equipment will also be installed on the sixth floor, Gilbert says. “There would be limited classrooms on the (sixth) floor and more office space and as such would not have the same technical needs,” Gilbert says.
