May 8, 2012

I am pleased to announce that the government has introduced legislation today to formalize the planned merger of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College and Dalhousie University.

The legislation provides the authority for the signing of the formal merger agreement in the coming weeks.

Transition activities are moving along well, but there is still a lot to do before the merger becomes effective. So Dalhousie and government have jointly decided to extend the target date from July 1 to September 1, when faculty and staff will officially become employees of Dalhousie University.

The new date will give us more time to address the few remaining details of the merger agreement and to move it through approval processes at government and Dalhousie.

It means that Dalhousie will have legal access to NSAC HR and financial information to facilitate the administrative transition and ensure university operations continue uninterrupted in September.

And a September date is also a more realistic timeframe for NSAC faculty and staff to work with Dalhousie on transition activities.  The July 1 date was always fairly aggressive.

Details of the legislation are available now. We have prepared a short summary for NSAC employees and as usual we will update Q and As on the merger website.

The merger agreement itself will have more information, and we will make it available to you once it is final. The key thing to note, however, is that the final merger agreement will be consistent with the agreement in principle announced on March 23.

Tracy Crowell and Susan Spence Wach will be on campus next week to answer questions about the legislation and the upcoming agreement. In the meantime, please e-mail Theresa Blois if you need some specific information right away and she will pursue it with the right person.

Thanks to everyone for your cooperation as this process moves along.

Paul LaFleche, Deputy Minister