After updating the entrance hall and cafeteria on its main campus, the Cégep de Valleyfield is continuing to invest in its educational facilities this year. In the short to medium term, the general management would like to revamp the Café chez Rose and proceed with a major expansion requiring investments of several million dollars. 

In total, for the years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, an annual sum of $10M will be invested in refurbishing and transforming the main campus. 

Cégep de Valleyfield General Manager Marc Rémillard provided further details on both projects at a media breakfast held on Monday, August 21, the start of the 2023 school year.

The first project the administration would like to tackle is the renovation of Café chez Rose. However, the dual status of the common area is likely to complicate operations, according to Mr. Rémillard.

"During the school year, Café chez Rose serves both as a student café where students gather between classes to study or do homework, and as a room for Ministry of Education exams. It is also sometimes used for Cégep Foundation events such as the Vins & Causerie and other student activities. We're not the only ones, since the Salle Albert-Dumouchel, located just below, is also used on evenings and weekends to present shows. These multiple vocations are likely to complicate our task," he explains.

Right now, because of its positioning, Cégep de Valleyfield can't hold an event at Café chez Rose at the same time as a show at Salle Albert-Dumouchel. "We'd need a special floor between the two to isolate the sound," he says.

Without revealing the details, Mr. Rémillard assures us that discussions are underway to evaluate options for the Café chez Rose.

Another project to refurbish a room or common area is scheduled for completion in 2023. "Since 2022, the Foundation has made a participatory budget available to students to finance a project of this type. Last year, it was the student lounge in the Arts, Letters and Communication program that was selected as part of this approach," he added.

A major expansion

As Cégep de Valleyfield enters the fall 2023 semester with nearly 2300 students, the school is preparing to embark on its biggest expansion project in 40 years.

The project will require an investment of several million dollars and will add 11 classrooms.

"In 2024 and 2025, we will welcome two new programs of study that will bring in new students.So we need space to accommodate them. Starting next fall, we'll be offering the Civil Engineering program. We are preparing for this.We recently hired our first teacher and a practical technician.The curriculum will offer students a work-study program starting in the first semester. They will spend 20% of their learning hours in the workplace," he explains.

Following a 5 à 7 organized in the presence of employers in the civil engineering field, Mr. Rémillard noted their enthusiasm for this new training program. "From what I've learned, the majority of our first graduates, in 2027, will have a job as soon as they graduate."

The addition of new programs of study at Cégep de Valleyfield over the next few years necessitates the expansion mentioned earlier. Specifically, the worksite will enable the relocation of the Coop étudiante, which is currently housed on the 2nd floor of the cafeteria."In total, with the expansion and the vacating of the residences located on G 300, a floor that will be converted, we will be adding 11 new classrooms.We have recently obtained all municipal authorizations to start construction. We are aware that the noise caused by the work will have an impact on students, but we will do everything in our power to minimize the impact of the work," he assures us.

A new program from autumn 2025

The following year, in the fall of 2025, Cégep de Valleyfield will host the physiotherapy program at the Centre d'études de Vaudreuil-Dorion, in collaboration with Cégep de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

"It will be a program that responds directly to the needs of today's employers," he says.