ENAP secures $3.355 million to cement its Gatineau future

Tashi Farmilo

Quebec's national school of public administration is riding a wave. Just two months after cutting the ribbon on a brand-new downtown campus, the École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP) has secured $3.355 million in provincial funding to keep building.

The Government of Quebec confirmed the contribution on April 24, under its 2025-2026 Budgetary Rules and Calculation of Operating Subsidies for Quebec Universities, the mechanism that governs annual operating grants across the university sector. The funds are earmarked for additional spaces and the long-term stability of ENAP's presence in the Outaouais.

It has been a busy winter. In February, ENAP inaugurated its new Gatineau campus, a 13,000-square-foot facility on the sixth floor of a Rue Laval building in Hull, fitted with co-modal classrooms, workshops, a multifunction room, and offices. The build-out cost $2.2 million over five years. The provincial subsidy is the next investment in a school that is clearly expanding its ambitions here.

Those ambitions are well-placed. Gatineau is home to a dense concentration of civil servants at every level of government, and demand for graduate training in public management, policy development, and administrative leadership is woven into the fabric of the city. ENAP has been here for more than 50 years. The Gatineau campus now accounts for nearly a quarter of its total student population, with 35 per cent of those students drawn from the provincial public service, 34 per cent from the federal government, and seven per cent from the private sector. Few Canadian universities can claim a student body so directly shaped by the work of governing.

The research agenda at the new campus reflects the same local reality. Work will focus on Indigenous Peoples' issues, defence, and public procurement, areas where Gatineau's proximity to the national capital gives researchers direct access to the people and institutions that matter. Mayor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, who taught municipal management at ENAP before entering politics in 2024, has made the case that the campus could also become a national leader in cybersecurity research, pointing to the Ottawa-Gatineau region's standing as Canada's primary hub for the field.

Founded in 1969 to professionalize public administration during a transformative period in Quebec's history, ENAP enrols approximately 3,000 students annually across its campuses. It offers graduate programs with specializations in human resources development, international administration, and program evaluation, among others. As the only university in the Université du Québec network dedicated exclusively to public administration, it occupies a singular place in how Quebec trains the people who run its institutions.