Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, March 2, 2022-Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Honourable Dennis King, Premier of Prince Edward Island, Sean Casey, Member of Parliament for Charlottetown, Heath MacDonald, Member of Parliament for Malpeque, Robert Morrissey, Member of Parliament for Egmont, the Honourable Ernie Hudson, Minister of Health and Wellness, the Honourable Cory Deagle, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, and Dr. Greg Keefe, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island, announced more than $48.8 million in joint funding for the new health education building that will house the new Faculty of Medicine on the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) campus.
The funding announced today will be key to the creation of the UPEI Faculty of Medicine. It will allow UPEI, in partnership with Memorial University of Newfoundland, to offer a joint Doctor of Medicine degree. The program will start in September 2025 under Memorial's accreditation and will later become a fully joint program.
The new five-storey, nearly 133,000-square-foot energy-efficient facility will provide spaces where simulations, clinical learning and academic anatomy learning will be able to take place for medical students and students in other interprofessional health education programs such as nursing, nurse practitioner, and paramedicine.
It will also house the expanded UPEI Health and Wellness Centre, which will transition to a patient medical home and on-site psychology clinic that will add much needed capacity to Prince Edward Island's healthcare system. The facility will be a model for primary care delivery, improve community access to healthcare and provide service to more than 10,000 patients each year. This increased access will help reduce the waitlist for family doctors and relieve pressure on Island walk-in clinics, emergency rooms, outpatient departments, and physicians.
By investing in infrastructure, the Government of Canada is growing our country's economy, increasing the resiliency of our communities, and improving the lives of Canadians.
