The City of Coquitlam and the YMCA of Greater Vancouver have signed an Agreement in Principle to develop a new 50,000-60,000-square-foot community recreation facility in the Burquitlam community of Coquitlam, B.C. A site for the new facility has not yet been selected, though city officials are eyeing the location of the future Burquitlam Evergreen Line rapid transit station.

The new Joseph & Rosalie Segal Family Health Centre at the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) is one step closer to reality thanks to a recent donation of $1-million from Bell Let’s Talk. Once complete, the $82-million, eight-storey development will be the largest purpose-built mental health facility in British Columbia.

The K-12 Souris Regional School has officially opened in Prince Edward Island after entering construction in the spring of 2013. The new $20-million facility is comprised of 128,000 square feet of space including a new K-6 academic wing, a culinary teaching area, enhanced IT and trades spaces, two gymnasiums and three playgrounds.

Approximately 380,000 square feet of space will be added to the Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH) in the form of a new eight-storey patient care tower. The project, which will include an underground parking lot, courtyard and an additional three-storey expansion, is scheduled for completion in 2023.

A 107,639-square-foot expansion has been added to the John H. Price Sports and Recreation Centre at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Que. The addition, which includes renovations of existing facilities, was funded by the governments of Canada and Quebec as well as the City of Sherbrooke. The project represents a total investment of $32-million.

A new $42.3-million correctional facility has officially opened in Priestville, N.S. Known as the Northeast Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, the jail replaces the aging Antigonish and Cumberland penitentiaries, built in 1948 and 1890, respectively. The new building is the second largest correctional facility in the province.

Waterfront Toronto and Menkes Developments unveiled plans for a new, commercial innovation centre that will bring 2,000 employees to Toronto’s waterfront and create high-paying jobs

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) recently designated a seven-storey provincial government building in Peterborough, Ont. as LEED Platinum in the Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (EBOM) category. The facility is Canada’s first government building to receive the status.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto is seeking entries for its second annual Urban Ideas Competition, which will search for visionary ideas or design proposals

Nine national research facilities have received a total of $25-million in funding for ongoing operations and maintenance from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) Major Science Initiatives Fund. This fund allows researchers to undertake world-class research and technology development leading to social, economic and environmental benefits for Canadians.

The Government of Manitoba has invested $8.9-million into the construction and development of a new bilingual ACCESS centre in St. Boniface, Man., scheduled for completion in summer 2016. ACCESS centres offer health and social services to community residents. These include public health, primary care, mental health, employment and income assistance, early learning and child care, children’s disability, community living disability, and home care services.

A new state-of-the-art health care centre has officially opened in Labrador City, N.L. The 9,500-square-foot facility, known as the Labrador West Health Centre, provides patients with access to a variety of services, including emergency, outpatient, surgical, obstetrical, pediatric, respite, palliative care, physiotherapy, oncology/chemotherapy and mental health and addictions.

The International Facility Management Association’s (IFMA) facility management credential program has earned an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accreditation and seven commendations. ANSI accredited IFMA for their Facility Management Professional and Sustainability Facility Professional programs, both of which were described by ANSI as “world-class, gold-standard models of learning and development.”

The new Royal Alberta Museum, a 419,000-square-foot development, has entered construction in downtown Edmonton, Alta. The facility, which will become the largest museum in western Canada, will feature over 82,000 square feet of exhibition space focused on the natural and human history of Alberta. It replaces and doubles the size of an existing facility, built in 1967.

A new 57,745-square-foot community centre has opened in Clareview, Edmonton. The $122.8-million project was financed by the City of Edmonton ($104.3-million) and the Government of Alberta ($18.5-million), through its Municipal Sustainability Initiative. The project was built to meet LEED silver standards through the incorporation of green roofs, energy-efficient mechanical and lighting systems, and reduced water consumption.

Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital (St. Michael’s) is adding a state-of-the-art 17-storey patient care tower, known as the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower, to its facilities and Bondfield Construction (Bondfield) has been selected to build it. Bondfield will also renovate approximately 150,000 square feet of existing space to expand the hospital’s Slaight Family Emergency Department and replace a 100-year-old wing.

A new laboratory-controlled study, funded by office furniture designer and manufacturer Teknion Corporation (Teknion), has found that employees who change positions throughout the workday are less likely to develop lower-back pain, cardiovascular disease and cancer than their co-workers. Teknion came to these conclusions based on research of sit-stand workstations and their health benefits.