News
New NSCC trade building opens in Sydney
• Fri, October 28, 2011
By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Cape Breton Bureau Marconi campus addition good fit for shipbuilding project SYDNEY — Somebody was thinking ahead.
Just a week after Nova Scotia won the $25-billion federal shipbuilding contract, the new $7-million trades building at Nova Scotia Community College’s Marconi Campus officially opened. Don Bureaux, head of NSCC said Friday at the opening ceremonies, timing appears to be everything. “A couple of years ago, Dave MacLean (Marconi campus principal) had a vision,” said Bureaux. “He told me there would be a need in the future for more trades people,” said Bureaux. The principal told him the need for an expanded wing and new facilities for certain trades was a high priority.
The province chipped in $7 million toward the new wing, the federal government contributed $1 million and two years later, the building was completed.
Bureaux said the head of Irving Shipyards called him just last year to say the company was going to make a bid for the large federal contract. “And now both announcements come within a week of each other,” said Bureaux.
The 2,493-square-metre trades building houses classrooms, shops and offices for students enrolled in metal fabrication, welding, heavy duty truck and transport, automotive service and repair and motorcycle and power products repair.
First-year students Meg Carroll-Andrews of New Waterford and Phil Sophocleous of Sydney looked on as the opening ceremony began. “I’m in the first year of electrical construction and this program will make a big difference in my life and in my little girl’s,” said Carroll-Andrews (a graduate of the Women Unlimited program.) “I’ll be able to afford things with this kind of trade and put some savings in the bank for my daughter,” she said. Having previously worked in retail businesses and call centres, she believes with her trade and the prospects for the Nova Scotia economy, her quality of life will improve many times over.
Phil Sophocleous feels the same way. The 23-year-old is enrolled in the automotive service repair course. “Making ten bucks an hour, it’s just hard to get by,” said Sophocleous. “I worked in retail for years at Sobeys, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and there’s just no money in that,” he said. “I’ve learned so much already about the way an engine works,” he said.
Deputy premier Frank Corbett, Senator Michael MacDonald, Bureaux and principal Dave MacLean took part in the “ribbon” cutting ceremony. The so- called ribbon was a piece of plate steel which was fed into a massive cutter in the metal fabrication shop. (mmacintyre@herald.ca)