THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay District Jail is evacuating all of its inmates after the building's boiler broke down on Monday.
This is the first time in its long history that they actually had to execute an evacuation plan at the Thunder Bay District Jail, said OPSEU Local 737 president Anthony Rojik, who represents the correctional officers at the facility.
“All I can say is that the plans are in place and we’re following that plan and it’s executing well,” he said.
Local 737 vice-president Bill Hayes said the jail was over capacity with 188 inmates, all of whom are being evacuated.
Hayes said the nearly 100-year-old building was without heat and the use of electric heaters would have caused air quality concerns.
Hayes is hopeful that up to 80 inmates can be moved to the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre with the remainder of inmates headed to jails in other areas of the province.
Rojik said for security reasons, he couldn’t say which other correctional institutions inmates would be temporarily housed in.
“Once the systems are back up and running, then the inmates will be cleared to return back to their home institution here, and we’re working with our contractors and our maintenance crew to get that piece of equipment up and running again,” he said.
Rojick said they were alerted to the problem Monday morning after maintenance staff noticed an issue in the system.
“We’ve had an infrastructure failure,” he said. “The backups are running and it is working as a precautionary measure. We are planning on evacuating the inmates to other institutions across the province to ensure their safety.”
A new jail is being constructed on Highway 61 beside the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre; the 345-bed facility is expected to open in 2026.
