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A “historic” investment into the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies’ (SIIT) aerospace training program has led to a major expansion of the aviation maintenance engineering facility in Saskatoon.
Boeing gave the aerospace training program $17 million last year for the expansion and construction of the new facility will begin on Monday.
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The expansion of a hangar on Koyl Avenue, across the street from Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Services and just down the road from Saskatoon International Airport, will see its size increase from around 19,000 square feet to 28,000 square feet.
Riel Bellegarde, president and CEO of SIIT, said the expansion will make the lives of the students better and provide them with more career choices.
“We have to prepare the labour force, not just for the opportunities right now but well into the future,” he said.
“(The expansion) allows us to bring that innovation and the new technology into this facility to support our learners and our instructors, but also grow our programming into avionics.”
Bellegarde said the Boeing investment is a first for the institution.
“This is the biggest single investment in SIIT’s history,” he said. “It’s really making history for an institution 49 years later, to have a partner like Boeing.”
Currently there are 30 students in the aerospace training program and Bellegarde expects that number to grow.
“With the growth of new programming, we need the space for more learners coming in,” he said. “This is only going to increase enrollment and the number of people walking through these doors.”
Al Meinzinger, resident of Boeing Canada, shared a similar sentiment.
“It is indeed going to create additional capacity for those future demands,” he said, adding he can’t wait to see how the program expands.
“(I’m) super excited about this program and what will happen here in the coming years,” Meinzinger said.
“The idea of doubling the number of graduates each and every year and even though we may be talking 18 students extra a year, if you add that up over 10 to 15 years that’s a significant increase in talent entering the industry.”
He said the demand for aircraft maintenance engineers continues to grow.
“The ecosystem certainly needs people, the ecosystem needs talent across all of the various occupations — aircraft maintenance engineers are one of those cohorts, (as well as) pilots, air traffic controllers.”
The expansion is planned to completed in 2026.
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