Windsor will be one of the top-draw cities in the province for students in nursing and applied health care sciences once the doors open in 2012 on St. Clair College's $32-million Centre for Applied Health Sciences, said college president John Strasser.

At a ceremonial groundbreaking, Strasser told reporters Friday that his college's current complement of up to 1,500 health sciences students will expand by a minimum of 20 per cent -- or up to 300 students -- in the centre's first year. "This will move us to the forefront of health learning in the area," Strasser said.

The state-of-the-art facility -- the single priciest construction project in St. Clair's history -- will provide "an outstanding student learning experience," said Essex MP Jeff Watson, on hand to represent the federal government and its $16-million contribution.

Windsor West MPP and cabinet minister Sandra Pupatello said the timing is perfect, with her government guaranteeing Ontario jobs for every nursing graduate and plans underway for the first "nurse-led clinics ... unheard of elsewhere."

Windsor-Tecumseh MPP and Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the health care sector is the fastest growing sector of the economy and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

"Now, Windsor will lead," Duncan said of St. Clair College's training facility and the new University of Windsor medical school.

Ontario and Ottawa split the cost of the facility under Canada's economic stimulus spending program. Strasser said the centre will be "more teaching lab than straight classrooms," and that the building will boast a further $7 million in capital equipment.

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