May 5, 2003 For Immediate Release

Construction companies interested in building the state-of-the-art building that will house the Northern Medical Program have until May 29th to submit their bids. The tender package for construction of the facility is being released today through the UNBC Purchasing Office.

The Northern Health Sciences Centre will be built to the north of the Library building and will be a showcase for wood and high-technology. At just over 42,000 square feet, the building will house laboratories, small classrooms, meeting rooms, offices, and a pair of lecture theatres. A sophisticated telecommunication system will link medical students with the university campuses in Victoria and Vancouver as well as with physicians throughout the North. The building is expected to be complete in the late summer of 2004. The Northern Medical Program - an integral part of BC's Medical School - will accept its first 24 students that fall.

BC's Medical School is a partnership involving the University of British Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia and the University of Victoria designed to ease the doctor shortage by doubling the number of student spaces by 2010.

Currently, 128 MDs graduate from UBC per year. BC has the lowest per capita number of medical school spaces in the country.

The partnership should help to ease BC's shortage of rural doctors since studies show that doctors tend to practice in the regions where they receive their training.

Site preparation for the Northern Health Sciences Centre is also beginning today. The work is being undertaken by Western Industrial Contractors of Prince George.