Rendering of what a new Dafoe Library could look like.
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
Rendering of what a new Dafoe Library could look like.
Rendering of what a new Dafoe Library could look like.
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
Strategic plans

UM unveils bold vision for campus renewal

Ambitious capital plan looks 30 years ahead

The University of Manitoba has unveiled a bold new roadmap to renew its campuses and tackle a mounting capital deficit over the next three decades.

On Jan. 20, UM launched Building Bold: UM’s Capital Plan for People, Place and Possibility to a packed hall, outlining how the long term plan will help UM move beyond piecemeal fixes toward strategic, sustainable investments in its infrastructure. (Watch the full event online.) 

Developed under the leadership of Associate Vice-President (Administration) and Chief Risk Officer Raman Dhaliwal, the plan is grounded in a comprehensive assessment of the structural and mechanical integrity of UM’s 155 buildings, as well as its roads, riverbanks and 600 acres of land. Dhaliwal’s team also engaged community members to understand capital needs across the spaces where Bisons live, work and play.

Benarroch was quick to address the feasibility of Building Bold in his opening remarks, noting that on its own, UM cannot afford to complete everything the roadmap lays out, but “we need a real honest discussion about how we move forward.”

We need a real honest discussion about how we move forward.

Michael Benarroch, President and Vice-Chancellor

UM receives just $4.2 million annually in provincial funding dedicated for infrastructure, leaving the university to cover roughly $85 million in additional capital costs each year. Of that, $15 million is directed to deferred maintenance, which is any repair or renewal done to keep a building in good condition. And despite this annual spending, UM faces a $600million deferred maintenance backlog.

“Simply put, we have a very large capital deficit at the University of Manitoba and we need a bold vision to overcome that deficit,” Benarroch said.

To guide difficult choices, Dhaliwal’s team used an industry-standard Facility Condition Index to categorize each building as Good, Fair, Poor or Critical. “Critical,” Dhaliwal stressed, doesn’t mean a building is unsafe, only that it has many pressing maintenance and repair needs. Each building was also evaluated for accessibility, sustainability and its ability to support UM’s academic mission and commitment to Reconciliation, including considerations such as spaces for smudging ceremonies.

A key conclusion of the assessment is that UM cannot maintain its status quo.

Michael Benarroch and Raman Dhaliwal sit on a stage in an event room.
President Michael Benarroch and Raman Dhaliwal, Associate Vice President (Administration) and Chief Risk Officer, sit down in front of a capacity crowd to talk through UM's new capital plan.
President Michael Benarroch and Raman Dhaliwal, Associate Vice President (Administration) and Chief Risk Officer, sit down in front of a capacity crowd to talk through UM's new capital plan.

“The main realization and a key component of the master capital plan is divestment,” Dhaliwal said. “We can’t keep all these buildings open and for those buildings where it doesn’t make sense for us to retain that infrastructure, we need to demolish it and deliberately plan for the replacement, consolidation, or modernization of the functions those buildings currently support.” 

This approach, she noted, is essential to prevent cascading facility failures and to ensure UM can continue to support teaching and research into the future. Without divestment, the deferred maintenance backlog will only grow.
 

Among the top priorities identified for construction are additional parking, development of new teaching and research facilities and outdoor gathering space at the Bannatyne campus, the demolition and reconstruction of Dafoe Library at the Fort Garry campus, and new laboratories  for the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. And much exciting progress has already begun: a new leading-edge dental clinics are being erected on the Bannatyne campus and UM has broken ground on the Prairie Crop Soil Research Facility and the PRAIRIE Biologics Accelerator.

This plan is ambitious. It’s bold. It’s going to take longer than 30 years. But it’s setting us on the right path for the future.

Raman Dhaliwal, Associate Vice-President (Administration)

“This plan is ambitious. It’s bold. It’s going to take longer than 30 years,” Dhaliwal said. “But it’s setting us on the right path for the future. It’s about stewardship, ensuring we spend our capital dollars in the best way possible.”

Because capital plans take such a long time, Board Chair and architect Michael Robertson said at the event, “we have to build what we believe. [This is] a statement of belief about the future of our institution and province….The challenge for us is to balance our bold aspirations with our responsibility to take care of what we already have. And this plan does that so well and the Board is proud to endorse it.”