The money comes to the university through the province’s expanded Facilities Renewal Program, and will be used to help address deferred maintenance projects. Year-one funding of $4.65 million is a boost of 58 percent over what the university collected for 2019–20.

The document contains more than 60 actions to expand highways and transit services, create Northern economic opportunities, provide reliable travel options for remote and First Nation communities.

Shortlisted teams will now be able to submit their proposals for work on the project to the province. The government expects construction to begin in 2022, and create as many as 4,700 construction jobs per year for its duration.

The design, build and finance contract is worth nearly $314 million. The QEW and Credit River Improvement project extends approximately 2.6 kilometres from west of Hurontario Street to west of Mississauga Road in Mississauga.

The province announced on December 16 that it will allocate an additional $695 million to local governments as part of the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement. A further $1.3 billion for municipal transit systems is expected to be announced next month.