Mayssia Elajami
News Reporter

Two new greenhouses on North Campus will be constructed this summer with a $5,370 grant from the ministry of training, colleges and universities.
“The greenhouses are currently 1970s vintage style,” said associate director of capital development and staff architect Scott Valens. “They are in poor condition and are leaking, which is not good quality to support the programs that will be using them for a long time.”
Humber’s application to modernize the greenhouses was made over a year ago.
“We are in the stage right now where the supplier contractors who build greenhouses are bidding for the job,” said Valens. “The ideal time line to use the money is until 2011 and it is going to largely be constructed this summer.”
“The advanced greenhouses will help us with the green incentives that we are trying to have on campus,” said vice president of finance and administrative services, Rani Dhaliwal.
The greenhouses will have up-to-date technology, including an operating system that would allow ventilation to filter through the roof instead of fans being the main ventilation system.
“We are going from something of bare minimum greenhouses, to more advanced greenhouses that are properly built,” said professor and program co-ordinator of landscape, Harry Chang.
The greenhouses will benefit horticulture technician apprentice and landscape technician co-op students.
The flora that grows in the greenhouses include Blue Pacific Juniper, English Lavender, Baltic Ivy, Lungwort and Common Fig.
The greenhouses are connected to the G building, across from the Daycare Centre. They currently stand in a north-south direction, and will change to an east-west direction.
The structural change will open up more space between the two greenhouses, allowing students to use the land in between for other course related experiments.