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The federal government is moving forward on a $267 million research laboratory in Winnipeg to better prepare for future disease outbreaks.
Terry Duguid, member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, said that the government has taken the first step of awarding a $10-million contract for architecture and engineering services for the medical countermeasures laboratory.
“As we know, public health threats do not respect borders. They move quickly. Our response needs to move even faster,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“This is a big deal for our city, for our province, a big deal for life sciences in Canada. And this facility is going to help protect the nation, and help protect the world.”
Duguid said the lab, slated to be finished in 2033, will expand capacity to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tools before future public health emergencies become national crises.
It is being built next to the existing National Microbiology Laboratory in the city, where scientists helped respond to outbreaks like SARS, H1N1, Ebola and COVID-19.
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“Winnipeg’s reputation as a global centre for infectious disease research has been built in large part because of the work done here,” said Duguid.
The facility is being described as “unique to Canada” as it will allow researchers to bridge gaps in producing high quality test vaccines and therapeutics that can be further tested before being approved on the market.
“Throughout Canada in different universities people are working very hard to get vaccines, to make vaccines and to create them and to come up with brand new ideas but they run into a roadblock, and that roadblock is when they want to test it in an animal…they need high quality products to use to go into that testing and there just isn’t much capacity in Canada,” said Dr. Keith Fowke, a professor at the University of Manitoba and the scientific director of the Canadian Institute of Infection and Immunity.
The facility will be owned and operated by the federal government. Researchers will build on work being done at the National Microbiology Laboratory.
Officials said there may be opportunity for the lab to work with private partners.
“I think this is a fantastic opportunity for industry and academia across Canada to be able to develop products and get them to a point where they can be tested at the highest level,” said Fowke.
The design contract has been awarded to Architecture49 Inc. The Winnipeg-based firm has been the lead on similar projects in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Montana.
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