* Updated 2 March 2011
During my presentation (read here), I noted that through informal information requests by phone and e-mail, as well as Access to Information and Freedom of Information requests, I discovered that the provinces and territories were in the process of establishing 22 new prisons and 16 additions to existing facilities. Once all of the facilities come online, I had noted that over 6,500 new prisoner beds would be created at a cost of $2.829 billion dollars for construction plus the expenditures associated with building new facilities in St. John's (Newfoundland), Labrador, Windsor (Ontario) and Fort Smith (Northwest Territories) that had yet to be released.
Since that time, the Government of Manitoba has revised the costs of some of their penal infrastructure projects, bringing the total provincial-territorial construction tab to $2.8348 billion. The Government of British Columbia has also recently announced that it is holding public consultations to establish a new 360-cell prison that will be able to hold up to 720 prisoners in the Okanagan region to be completed by 2015 (read 6 December 2010 press release). According to an official from the BC Corrections Branch, the estimated cost of this facility, which has yet to be approved, is $200 million for construction. This same official notes that previous additions to the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, Fraser Valley Regional Correctional Centre and the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women for which I previously had no data cost a total $14 million to build.
With all these facilities at various stages of completion (see below), it should be noted that it appears as though most of these new prison beds were not planned to respond to an increase in provincial-territorial populations resulting from federal legislation (see 16 February 2010 post). According to the information and records I've obtained, only Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Ontario have attempted to incorporate such considerations in their penal infrastructure planning. Thus, should federal laws generate a significant influx of new prisoners, the capacity crisis that prisons systems across the country are experiencing will likely only be exacerbated by the minority Conservative Government of Canada's punishment agenda - an agenda were the Feds would "rather not share" details pertaining to the costs of their 'just us' bills with Canadian taxpayers.
While there have been rumblings from the provinces and territories indicating that they are frustrated with having to do deal with the federal government's penal downloading (see 2010 Year-in-Review for Developing Stories to Watch For in 2011 - #4), it appears that some high-ranking provincial-territorial politicians are now sounding off on having to foot this bill.
In a story by Althia Raj of Sun Media (read here), Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is quoted saying that "If they [the Feds] intend to put in place new laws that make it more expensive for us at the provincial level when it comes to levels of incarceration, length of incarceration, then we expect to be compensated for that - especially at a time when objective data demonstrates that crime is going down".
An article by Lee Greenberg of Postmedia News also documented remarks made by McGuinty (read here), who openly questioned the Conservative punishment agenda, asking "Why are we building more prisons? Why are we lengthening sentences when crime is actually going down? [...] Because when I talk to Ontarians, their first concern is not keeping people in jail longer, it's 'When are you going to build this new hospital?' ... 'What are we going to do about strengthening the economy?'".
With a prison population already bursting at the seams, details from a taxpayer-funded report commissioned by the provinces and territories dubbed the Changing Face of Corrections (2009) that has yet to be released to the public (read 30 October 2010 post) are also now emerging.
According to an article written by Globe and Mail journalist Gloria Galloway (read here), the federal government has rejected a recent bid by their provincial-territorial partners to change the two-year rule - that currently sees all prisoners sentenced to two-years-plus-a-day serving their time in federal penitentiaries and those sentenced to two-years-minus-a-day serving their time in provincial-territorial prisons - to a six-month rule proposed in this report. In exchange, the provinces and territories would be responsible for the supervision of all prisoners in the community. The logic behind this proposal being that these governments are better networked with the employment, housing, health, mental health and other services they are responsible for administering that prisoners may need to access upon their release from prison.
While the federal government has indicated that it does not want any part of this discussion, which even prompted them to abort their participation from the Changing Face of Corrections study, this conversation is not one they can runaway from as long as their urge to punish continues to cloud their judgement and affect other jurisdictions. After all, as many fiscal conservatives have noted, at the end of the day, there is only one taxpayer.
PROVINCIAL-TERRITORIAL PENAL INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES
(2007 - present)
* This data was originally compiled during the primary data collection phase of my doctoral dissertation from January 2009 to May 2010. As noted above, this component of the project relied on the use of informal information requests by phone and e-mail, as well as Access to Information and Freedom of Information requests. Where the information below has been updated from the FPT report I submitted in May 2010, it is based on figures made available via press releases published from May 2010 to present. Figures pertaining to federal penal infrastructure initiatives are also available on this blog (read 14 February 2011 post).
Newfoundland and Labrador
Replacement Prison(s)
1 or 2 - for Her Majesty's Penitentiary
Location(s): to be determined
Net capacity gain: to be determined
Estimated construction cost: to be determined
Project phase: on hold
* Studying the impacts of federal legislation prior to implementation
New Remand Centre
Labrador Remand Centre for Youth, the Mentally Ill and Women
Location(s): to be determined
Net capacity gain: to be determined
Estimated construction cost: to be determined
Project phase: on hold
* Studying the impacts of federal legislation prior to implementation
Prince Edward Island
Addition - Provincial Correctional Centre
Location: Charlottetown
Replacement Remand Centre / Prison
Prince County Correctional Centre
Location: Summerside
Net capacity gain: 42 beds
Estimated construction cost: $18.5 million
Project phase: on hold
* Studying the impacts of federal legislation prior to implementation
Nova Scotia
Replacement Prison
Location: Coalburn
New Brunswick
Replacement for the Moncton Detention Centre
Southeast Correctional Centre
Location: Shediac
Net capacity gain: 122 beds
Estimated construction cost: $36 million
Project phase: construction
Replacement Prison
New Dalhousie Correctional Centre
Location: Dalhousie
Net capacity gain: 70 beds
Estimated construction cost: $20 million
Project phase: construction
Québec
New Replacement Prison
Location: Sept-Îles
New Replacement Prison
Location: Roberval
New Replacement Prison
Location: Sorel-Tracy
New Replacement Prison
Location: Amos
Closed Prison Retrofit and Re-opening
Location: Percé
Addition - Établissement de détention
Location: Québec
Net capacity gain: 96 beds
Estimated construction cost: $19 million
(shared with other additions)
Project phase: construction
Addition - Établissement de détention
Location: Amos
Net capacity gain: 36 beds
Estimated construction cost: $19 million
(shared with other additions)
Project phase: construction
Addition - Établissement de détention
Location: Trois-Rivières
Net capacity gain: 96 beds
Estimated construction cost: $19 million
(shared with other additions)
Project phase: construction
Addition - Établissement de détention
Location: Sherbrooke
Net capacity gain: 96 beds
Estimated construction cost: $19 million
(shared with other additions)
Project phase: construction
Ontario
New Remand/Intermittent Centre -
Toronto South Detention Centre / Toronto Intermittent Centre
Location: Toronto
Net capacity gain: 1,100 beds
Estimate construction cost: $1.1 billion
Project phase: construction
New Remand Centre - South West Detention Centre
Location: Windsor
Net capacity gain: 175 beds
Estimate construction cost: to be announced
Project phase: procurement
Manitoba
Replacement Prison
New Prison for Women
Location: Headingly
Net capacity gain: 55 beds
Estimated construction cost: $60 million
Project phase: construction
Addition - Millner Ridge Correctional Centre (phase I)
Location: Beauséjour
Net capacity gain: 160 beds
Estimated construction cost: $50 million
Project phase: operational
Addition - Brandon Correctional Centre
Location: Brandon
Net capacity gain: 80 beds
Estimated construction cost: $5.7 million
Project phase: operational
Addition - The Pas Correctional Centre (phase I)
Location: The Pas
Net capacity gain: 40 beds
Estimated construction cost: $3 million
Project phase: construction
Addition - Millner Ridge Correctional Centre (phase II)
Location: Beauséjour
Net capacity gain: 64 beds
Estimated construction cost: $17 million
Project phase: construction
Addition - Millner Ridge Correctional Centre (phase III)
Location: Beauséjour
Net capacity gain: 160 beds
Estimated construction cost: $25 million
Project phase: procurement
Saskatchewan
New Remand Centre / Prison
New Provincial Correctional Centre
Location: Regina
Net capacity gain: 211 beds
Estimate construction cost: $50.3 million
Project phase: operational
New Remand Centre
Location: Saskatoon
Addition - Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre
Location: Saskatoon
Alberta
New Remand Centre - New Edmonton Remand Centre
Location: Edmonton
Net capacity gain: 1,944 beds
Estimate construction cost: $568.5 million
Project phase: construction
British Columbia
New Remand Centre - Surrey Pre-trial Services Centre
Location: Surrey
Net capacity gain: 432 beds
Estimated construction cost: $130 million
Project phase: procurement
New Prison
Location: Okanagan
Net capacity gain: 720 beds
Estimated construction cost: $200 million (to be approved)
Project phase: site selection
Addition - Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre
Location: Kamloops
Net capacity gain: 50 beds
Estimated construction cost: $14 million
(includes project costs for 100-bed FRCC and 24-bed ACC additions)
Project phase: operational
Addition - Fraser Regional Correctional Centre
Location: Maple Ridge
Net capacity gain: 100 beds
Estimated construction cost: see above
Project phase: operational
Addition - Alouette Correctional Centre for Women
Location: Maple Ridge
Net capacity gain: 24 beds
Estimated construction cost: see above
Project phase: operational
Addition - Alouette Correctional Centre
Location: Maple Ridge
Net capacity gain: 208 beds
Estimated construction cost: $43.5 million
Project phase: construction
Addition - Prince George Regional Correctional Centre
Location: Prince George
Net capacity gain: 24 beds
Estimated construction cost: $11.5 million
Project phase: operational
Nunavut
New Prison - Women's Correctional Centre
Location: Iqaluit
Net capacity gain: 8 beds
Estimated construction cost: $2.9 million
Project phase: operational
New Prison - Men's Correctional Centre
Location: Rankin Inlet
Net capacity gain: 46 beds
Estimated construction cost: $29.4 million
Project phase: construction
Northwest Territories
Replacement Prison
New Territorial Women's Correctional Centre
Location: Fort Smith
Net capacity gain: 27-32 beds
Estimated construction cost: to be determined
Project phase: preliminary planning
Yukon
Replacement Prison - New Yukon Correctional Centre
Location: Whitehorse
Net capacity gain: 87 beds
Estimated construction cost: $67 million
Project phase: construction
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