THUNDER BAY – There are more questions than answers one day after the province announced plans for a new jail in Thunder Bay, though there is a sense of optimism the project won’t get derailed.
The provincial government on Thursday announced funding had been approved for the construction of a new 325-bed correctional facility to replace the nearly century-old Thunder Bay District Jail and the more than 50-year-old Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.
Speaking on Friday, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP and Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Mauro said it’s too early to determine costs or timeframes for the new jail.
“This is a massive project. It will be massive in scope in terms of the dollar value attached to it,” Mauro said. “There would be at least a year to two of work, I would expect, on the front end that would have to be done. Site location, consultation, functional plan – there’s a fair bit to be done here.”
Mauro acknowledged the current Thunder Bay Correctional Centre site on Highway 61 could be a potentially feasible location for the new jail, but said the decision hasn’t been made yet.
“It does seem in some ways to be a logical location but I don’t want to speculate on that,” Mauro said. “There will be a process that goes forward with site selection. It’s important to people, I understand they want to know where it’s going to go, how much it’s going to cost and when a shovel will be in the ground.”
This announcement marked the second time in the past two decades a provincial government had announced an intention to build a new correctional facility in Thunder Bay. In the early 2000s the Progressive Conservative government under former premier Mike Harris had plans to build a new jail on the correctional centre site, but that institution never came to fruition.
Michael Lundy, the former union president at the Thunder Bay District Jail and now a member of the provincial corrections health and safety committee, said the many high-profile incidents at the nearly century-old district jail have likely led to too much pressure to back away.
“I think with all of the attention that has come and unfortunately a lot of it has been bad news, I don’t think they’re going to be able to get away from what they’ve committed to,” Lundy said.
A December 2015 riot, inmate escape last October, multiple in-custody deaths over the past decade and the 1,500 straight days inmate Adam Capay spent in segregation have put a significant amount of attention on the jail.
When asked about the possibility of the looming provincial election expected next year stopping the project in its tracks, Mauro was not particularly concerned.
“Not from us. Certainly our commitment as a government is clear,” Mauro said.
Lundy said he anticipated the Progressive Conservative and Ontario NDP leadership would have a hard time cancelling the jail after levelling criticism at the Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government.
“They would look pretty silly by not, especially by how much they’ve called out the Liberal government for failing to do something about the conditions in Thunder Bay,” Lundy said.
Each of the two opposition candidates have taken turns in taking the government to task over the conditions at the jail.
Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown wrote an open letter to Wynne after he toured the district jail following the December 2015 riot.
“The conditions of the jail were deplorable. My tour of the facility made it clear that the building does not meet the needs of the inmate population, and the security conditions are archaic,” Brown wrote.
As well, NDP corrections critic Jennifer French was given a look inside the facility that month.
“This is archaic. It is very tightly packed, even in terms of the design you know everyone in there is fighting the building, with every other challenge we have in our corrections system from addictions to violence compounded,” she said after completing the tour.
“It’s dirty. It’s deplorable. Things are in such dire straits because of the staffing, it’s so under-staffed. All of our jails across the province are suffering, but seeing it here in such a small space really drives it home.”
