Remai family foundation donates $25M for Sask. Polytechnic's new campus

The room filled with applause Friday as Saskatchewan Polytechnic president and CEO Larry Rosia announced a large donation to the school's Time to Rise campaign, which is raising money for a new campus.

The Joseph Alfred Remai Family Foundation donated $25 million to the campaign.

"This is a gift that keeps on giving," said Rosia. "We graduate 5,000 students a year. You can only imagine in … 50 years from now the number of students that will benefit from the significant and heartfelt donation."

Saskatchewan Polytechnic is planning to move its Saskatoon operations to a new centralized campus at Innovation Place on the University of Saskatchewan grounds. The campaign aims to raise $100 million total.

The donation is a real game-changer, Rosia said.

"We are halfway to our campaign goal."

The new campus name will now be named the Joseph A. Remai Saskatoon Campus, Rosia said Friday.

The name of the new Saskatchewan Polytechnic's Saskatoon campus was revealed. (Trevor Bothorel/ CBC News)

Barry Remai, the chief financial officer of the Remai Group, said the family was happy to donate the money toward a good cause.

"We first talked about this in 2019," he said. "We made a commitment early on that if this project was to proceed, we were going to be a part of it."

Barry said his father Joseph Remai knew from speaking with Rosia in 2019 that the institute would happen, but would need support from Saskatoon's business community.

"If we want our governments to invest into it, then we needed to invest in it as well," Barry said.

Barry said his father's business always focused primarily on construction and development of apartments and condominium buildings in Saskatoon. He said his father saw first-hand the contributions that Saskatchewan Polytechnic's graduates made to his own success.

Barry said his father is at an age where he wants to give back to the community as much as possible and hopes it will inspire others to do the same.

"I think this is a great legacy for Joe," Barry said.