Kitchener, Ontario

The City of Kitchener, in southwestern Ontario, Canada, has a population of 190,399 (2001 census). The metropolitan area, which includes the two neighbouring cities of Waterloo and Cambridge, has 414,284 people, making it the eleventh largest in Canada by population. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/popdwell/Table-CMA-C.cfm?CMA=541&T=2&SR=1&S=1&O=A It is the seat of the Waterloo Regional Municipality, and is adjacent to the smaller cities of Cambridge to the south, and Waterloo to the north. Kitchener and Waterloo are often referred to jointly as "the twin cities" or "K-W" (Kitchener-Waterloo), although they have separate municipal governments.

Education

The Doon neighbourhood, formerly a separate village but now part of Kitchener, is home to the primary campus of Conestoga College, one of the foremost non-university educational institutions in the province.

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For six consecutive years, Conestoga has earned top overall ranking among Ontario colleges on the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) surveys, which measure graduate employment rates and satisfaction levels, and employer and student satisfaction.

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Renovations have begun on the former St. Jerome's High School in downtown Kitchener, in preparation for the Faculty of Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University.

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The University of Waterloo is also planning on opening a School of Pharmacy in the downtown area. The City of Kitchener has contributed $30 million from its $110 million Economic Development Investment Fund, established in 2004, to the establishment of the UW Downtown Kitchener School of Pharmacy.

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The school is expected to graduate about 120 pharmacists annually and will become the home of the Centre for Family Medicine, where new family physicians will be trained, as well as an optometry clinic and the International Pharmacy Graduate Program. Construction on the $147 million facility - expected to create an influx of 1,200 staff and faculty into the city's core - is slated to be complete as early as the summer of 2007.

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