THUNDER BAY – The long-awaited replacement to the Thunder Bay District Jail, a project that's future was put in question by last year's change in provincial government, will go ahead.
Two Ontario Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers, standing outside the nearly century-old facility, on Thursday reconfirmed the province's commitment to build a new correctional complex to combine the aging jail and the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.
Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, among a contingent of ministers in Thunder Bay this week for the annual Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association conference, downplayed suggestions that the announcement was made as a result of skepticism or disbelief from the community about the project's future.
"We need to keep people safe," Jones said, adding she believes the new facility will better serve staff and inmates.
"One of the ways to keep our corrections staff safe is to make sure they have facilities that can accommodate the new technologies that we want to incorporate. This facility in particular has dealt with some overcrowding issues and we're getting it right with the corrections in Thunder Bay and this was a good place to start."
The MacDougall Street jail in the last decade has been the scene of multiple in-custody deaths, a December 2015 riot that led to a correctional officer being taken hostage for several hours, an October 2016 inmate escape and an escalation of inmate violence directed at staff and other prisoners. The facility, with space for 147 beds, had a population of nearly 200 inmates earlier this year before measures were undertaken to attempt to ease pressure.
Mike Lundy, a local correctional officer and co-chair of the union's provincial health and safety committee, said staff have needed a new facility for a long time.
"I think one of the things we really focus on going back to the riot in 2015 was the fact that we had nothing. We had nothing for our inmates," Lundy said. "We barely got them out to yard. So with all of this new technology, that's something we welcome two-fold. We recognize that those that are in our care, control and custody need something to do. They need to be kept occupied and it also makes it safer for staff."
The new 325-bed facility had been first announced by the former Liberal government in 2017.
Jones insisted the project has carried on and was not stalled after the Ford government took office last June.
"It's basically been going full-bore," Jones said. "As you can imagine, there are lots of consultation happening with corrections staff, as well as our Indigenous community. We want to get this right and we're working with all of the partners to do that. That work has all been ongoing for many, many months."
Thunder Bay-Superior North Liberal MPP Michael Gravelle, who received credit from Jones, advocated for a new facility for many years leading up to his former government's pledge.
Gravelle attended the announcement at the invitation of the ministers and said the new facility ranked in the "top-three" of outstanding commitments that remained after the change in government.
"To have that commitment from the government of the day is very, very important to all of us. We want it to move forward as quickly as possible and we'll continue to press to get those details," Gravelle said.
Infrastructure Minister Monte McNaughton, who joined Jones in making the announcement, said the project would be financed using a public-private partnership model and that a request for proposals would be issued in the fall.
"The commitment from Minister Jones and our government is to get shovels in the ground as quickly as possible," McNaughton said, though he did not provide a target for when construction could start nor when the facility would be expected to be completed.
"There's all kinds of reasons why we support the public-private partnership model. Ninety-five per cent of all projects delivered in the last eight years by Infrastructure Ontario using the P3 model have been on budget and it far outweighs doing this via traditional financing. This is certainly the best value for taxpayer money."
