Feds announce additional funding for Anishinabek Discovery Centre

NEWS RELEASE

TERRY SHEEHAN, MP SAULT STE. MARIE

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Terry Sheehan, member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, has announced an additional $5.1 million in additional funding from the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund toward the construction of the Anishinabek Discovery Centre.

The Shingwauk Education Trust initially received $5.1 million from the federal government for this project last Oct. 2016. This brings the total federal investment in this nationally significant project to $10.2 million.

The Shingwauk Education Trust, now under construction, will be a 19,179-square-foot LEED-certified building which will serve to preserve, promote and share First Nations history. This learning centre will establish a National Chiefs Library which would be the first First Nations organized and run research library in Canada.

The centre will also assist in archival and records management services through the building of an online research centre, where physical original documents would be disseminated digitally. The new physical space would allow for the integration of the Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig into the National Chiefs Library.

The centre will also provide a home base for the Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig (SKG), an evolving and developing Anishinaabe University that currently offers a four-year Bachelor of Arts degree in Anishinaabe Studies through Algoma University.

The potential impact of the ADC is a total gain of 165 temporary positions during the construction and professional activities phases and for 10 permanent knowledge-based positions.

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