Construction begins on new Shediac jail project
Published Saturday October 24th, 2009
Old Downtown Moncton Detention Centre property won't be available for development until end of 2011
BY ALAN COCHRANE
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF
SHEDIAC - A new $40-million provincial jail now under construction in Shediac should be completed in the spring of 2011, but it will be late fall of that year before the old Moncton Detention Centre is vacated to open up valuable space for development in Downtown Moncton, Public Safety Minister John Foran said yesterday.
VIKTOR PIVOVAROV/TIMES & TRANSCR
Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General John W. Foran, left, and Business New Brunswick Minister Victor Boudreau answer questions after a photo opportunity marking the start of construction of the Southeast Correctional Centre in Shediac yesterday.
The downtown detention centre, first built as the city's police station in 1969, has stood in the way of development plans in the area for several years.
Completion of the new jail building will be followed by certification and staff training before inmates are moved from the Moncton Detention Centre in the late summer of 2011. The old detention centre is expected to be closed in the late summer or fall of 2011. After that, it will be declared surplus and offered for sale.
The old detention centre property has long been considered a prime spot for redevelopment, since it sits behind the Assumption Life Building and near the new Assumption Boulevard. Several new developments have grown up around the detention centre. The new $90-million courthouse is now under construction nearby and there is still land available for development.
Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc said earlier this year that the city hopes to gain access to the old detention centre once it is vacated.
Foran joined Shediac-Cap-Pelé MLA and Business New Brunswick Minister Victor Boudreau and Shediac Mayor Raymond Cormier yesterday in the chilly wind off Highway 15 to officially shovel some gravel on the road leading into the new facility, which the government hopes will ease the overcrowding of the jail system in this province.
"This new facility will alleviate the stress, both on the inmates and the employees of public safety," Foran said.
The new Southeast Correctional Facility will be 8,156 square metres (90.629 square feet) in size and include three accommodation units, each containing 30 cells. The province is building another similar facility in Dalhousie which will be 3,857 square metres (41,519 square feet) and include five accommodation units, each containing 10 cells. Both facilities will include other areas for admitting and discharge, medical services, program rooms, secure visitation, food services and facilities for administration and staff.
But whether it actually cures New Brunswick's problem of too-little jail space is something that time will decide.
The issue of overcrowding resurfaced recently when the province sent letters to the court services, reminding judges that weekends are the busiest time for provincial jails because many people convicted of reasonably minor crimes are allowed to serve their sentences on the weekends. This allows people to keep their day jobs.
New Brunswick's provincial jails house people serving sentences of less than two years, along with people who are remanded and awaiting trial. The province said in its letter to the courts that the jail population is already 25 per cent over capacity when the weekends arrive, and then inmates serving intermittent sentences report and the situation gets worse.
Foran said the province wants to alleviate the overcrowding problem and hopes the new jails in Shediac and Dalhousie will help.
"It's certainly going to help but I can't predict the future," he said. "Our inmate population is going to grow but it's going to be a heck of a lot better than what we have today."
The minister quickly noted that the new Shediac facility sits on a large piece of vacant land, which offers lots of room for expansion in the future. The building site is located on the outskirts of Shediac on the Lino Road, which runs parallel to Highway 15 (the Veteran's Highway between Moncton and Shediac).
The Lino Road is basically a dirt service road with water-filled potholes and the nearest neighbour for the jail is the Beauséjour Campground. Many citizens complained about the choice of location but Foran said it was very suitable because of its proximity to Moncton -- where a new courthouse is under construction -- and the highway.
Boudreau said the new jail will bring a lot of jobs and economic spinoffs to the Shediac area. Construction will mean about 360 jobs, he added, while there will be about 130 employees at the jail when it becomes operational, as compared to the 90 jobs at the Moncton Detention Centre.
The minister said the jail will have an operational budget of several million dollars a year, which opens up opportunities for local businesses to get contracts for things like laundry, food service and maintenance. Shediac Mayor Raymond Cormier said having the jail on the Lino Road will open the door for future development in that area. The town partnered with the provincial government to bring water and sewer service to the road.
Yesterday, the departments of Supply and Services and Public Safety announced that the site preparation contract for the Southeast Correctional Facility is worth $963,859 and has been awarded to Modern Construction of Moncton. Phase 2 of site preparations for the Dalhousie Correctional Centre has been awarded to LCL Excavation of Charlo for $289,000.
"The combined total of these two projects is close to $60 million," Boudreau said. "These two facilities will meet a critical infrastructure need in our provincial correctional system and hundreds of jobs will be created during the construction period which will provide significant stimulus to our economy."
Prev
YES!
Linear Mode
