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Yesterday, we announced that the Macdonald-Stewart and Barton Buildings would open today. Barton will indeed fully reopen today, but during a final inspection of Macdonald-Stewart, it was determined that the southern half of the first floor of that building must remain closed a while longer, due to the presence of equipment and temporary structures obstructing hallways.

MS and Barton buildings are open as per original plan, with the exception of the South wing of floor 1 of the Macdonald-Stewart building, occupied by offices and labs of the Depts of Food Science and Bioresource Engineering. Teaching labs in the basement are open.

The map shows in magenta the corridors that remain closed in the South wing of floor 1 of the MS building.

In case you are concerned, these areas are not closed because of asbestos tests. All air tests indicate that the air there is safe. These areas remain closed only because we cannot yet ensure safe transit through them in the event of an emergency. The remaining equipment and temporary structures must be removed, and the passages cleared, in keeping with our commitment to ensuring the safety of all building users. At that point, this portion of the building will reopen.

This is not the news we were hoping for, and we deeply regret these further disruptions to some building users’ activities. We can only assure you that every effort is being made to fully reopen the building as quickly as possible.

Fabrice

Fabrice Labeau, Co-Acting Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic), Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) and Planning Chief for the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) on behalf of the EOC