Ontario Construction Report staff writer
Ontario’s plan to create more capacity in provincial jails includes modular facilities at the Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold, the Cecil Facer Youth Centre in Sudbury and the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton.
Each site would increase capacity by at least 50 inmates.
The province has awarded a contract to design and build the sites to Bird Construction Inc. and the Ministry of the Solicitor General has said construction is expected to start this year.
“When it comes to public safety, let’s face it, the times that we’re in require us to make investments . . . in our corrections system,” Kerzner told the Legislature Monday, confirming the $500 million price tag to modernize jails.
Modular cell blocks will be permanent structures, with design expected to speed up procurement and construction.
The first modular facility opened in 2022 at the Kenora Jail.
In a report published last week, outgoing Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé called the “crisis” in the correctional system “one of the most urgent public policy challenges facing the province today.”
As a result, the province has outlined projects including:
- Renovations at the Toronto South Detention Centre
- Construction of a new correctional complex in Thunder Bay
- 91 additional beds at the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee
- new Brockville correctional complex
- treatment unit for women at the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre
- new Eastern Ontario correctional complex in Kemptville