Roughly $300 Million worth of government funding may be deferred from Otago Uni, potentially stalling the five shovel-ready projects the University had planned for years to come.
The five projects include a new building for the Te Rangi Hiroa residential college ($90 million), earthquake-proofing the Gregory and Consumer and Applied Sciences buildings ($30 million), refurbishing the P.E. building ($25 million) and the Wellington campus’ medical school ($10 million), as well as the health science development planned for Otago’s Christchurch campus ($170 million).
Stephen Willis, the Uni’s chief operating officer, said that these five projects have made it into the “final round” for consideration, and all have “demonstrable benefits”. Those include supporting over 500 jobs, as well as pumping out cash monies for the local and national economy. “The halting of the University’s building programme in Dunedin would have a profound impact on the local building sector and associated industries,” Willis said.
Before Covid-19 smashed everyone’s hopes and dreams, the Uni had planned just over a billion dollars’ worth of capital investments over the span of 13 years. Those investments were projected to literally double in financial output, as well as potentially “generating employment of an additional 7,063 FTE for both the construction and associated supply chain industries throughout New Zealand”.
TLDR; would be a massive L for the city for the projects to not go on.
The Government has done that wee joke when you say “mate, there's something on your chest”, pointed at it, then just upper-cutted the University's chin. A Physical Education graduate told Critic that if it happened, “It's not the end of the world, I'm sure something will come through, with time. [The University] will survive without a bit of moolah, lmao can they apply for the weekly allowance?”