Because it is a unique and ambitious project. It encourages the world to visit, to consider, Eastern Ontario.

A big bold idea that took a total of 10 years to conceptualise, turn into a project and be implemented. In September 2011, the Academy officially opened its doors to its first cohort of 68 high school students who lived hockey and education at its fullest in a beautiful riverside campus environment. The Academy’s state of the art campus is also home to a twin-ice arena, which also welcomes surrounding communities to sports or cultural entertainment events thanks to its seating capacity of 2,500 spectators.

The Canadian International Hockey Academy is the dream of a visionary entrepreneur who wanted to give back to his community. The 33-acre campus also includes, a cafeteria a student commons building and a student residence, where all the students live. This $30 million riverside campus provides Eastern Ontario with an outstanding and renown academic and hockey-oriented institute attracting families from other Canadian provinces and from around the world. The regional economic benefits from the increased number of visitors to the area and from services and businesses related to the newly inaugurated Academy are significant.

The key to success in this project was to mould the commercial structure and the accessibility of its services in a way in which the benefit to the community and region were optimized. Every day, M. Robert Bourdeau, promoter of the project (and now President), can experience the benefits of the realization of his project through the students’ accomplishments, the smiling faces of community members and the new entrepreneurs in the region that were able to establish a business or service offering related to the Academy’s presence.