Thank you very much.
As I mentioned a little earlier, it will be a university of modest size when it starts up so we can maintain a level of excellence. We intend to increase the student body to 2,000 after 10 years of operation, and we'll continue to grow thereafter. The current population of the central—southwestern region is almost equal to the francophone population of New Brunswick, which is 240,000 inhabitants. So there's room for an even larger university. However, we intend to grow gradually.
We have to meet certain conditions.
First, as I just mentioned, there's the issue of the programs we've submitted. If they aren't reviewed very quickly, imminently, that will compromise the university's opening in 2020, or at least the bachelor's degree programs it offers.
The second condition concerns the appointment of members to our board of governors, which was done by regulation. Two conditions originally had to be met for the board of governors to go from temporary to permanent status. First, the board had to adopt administrative by-laws, which it did in September. Second, an employee had to sit on the board. I've been that employee in my capacity as interim president since October 1st. So we've met those two original conditions. Five new conditions were added on July 18. The university is required to develop and approve administrative policies, more specifically, an executive compensation plan, an access to information policy and a policy on sexual violence. Those conditions are in the process of being met as we speak.
To meet the third condition, we negotiated a lease with the Daniels construction company, on very favourable conditions, on offices in downtown Toronto. Our location is in the innovation corridor, which really makes it ideal for this kind of 21st century university. We had to meet certain parameters. We had to be located near public transit, more particularly the metro. We also had to be close to our partner universities in Toronto: the University of Toronto, Ryerson University and the Ontario College of Art and Design. We found a place that will be available in January 2020, and we'll be able to start fitting up the interior for our opening in September 2020. The real estate market is highly competitive, and we secured favourable conditions in accordance with Treasury Board instructions. George Brown College and the Ontario School of Art and Design will also have facilities on those premises. It's an ideal site for this university. We signed an agreement on July 18. Since then, we've been waiting for the Ontario government's authorization to sign the lease. Yesterday, we received a letter from the Daniels company informing us that it would renew its offer until January 18, 2019. We've lost our exclusive arrangement as a result of all the delays we've experienced. Daniels is now negotiating with other potential tenants but will honour the same conditions for us until January 18.
The fourth condition concerns start-up funding. We already discussed that this morning. We need $84 million in start-up funding for the first eight years. The federal and provincial governments will contribute in equal parts. I won't go back over the amounts we've received to date since we discussed them earlier.
As for the fifth condition, we mentioned that we'll have no further funding as of January 15. We'll have to find some after that date.