CANADA GOVT SPENT $ 593.9 MILLION AND BUILT TORONTO SOUTH DETENTION CENTER WHICH IS THE LARGEST JAIL IN COUNTRY TO HOUSE 1650 PRISONERS BUT LYING EMPTY SINCE NOVEMBER 2012 AWAITING GUESTS BUT GOVT SAY PROCESS TO OPEN IS COMPLICATED 16TH JANUARY 2014 The $593.9M Toronto South Detention Centre, is the second largest jail in Canada. So why has it sat empty since 2012? We dont need to have a government asset that the taxpayer has paid a lot of money for sit idle, said Steve Clark, Progressive Conservative... Fourteen months since the completion of the regions new super jail in Etobicoke, and three months since officials gave media a tour of the open-concept facility, not a single inmate has set foot inside. The $593.9-million Toronto South Detention Centre, the second-largest jail in Canada with space for 1,650 inmates, was completed on schedule in November of 2012. Previous predictions for the jails opening have come and gone. Rose Buhagiar, the jails director, told media tour attendees in October that it was expected to open within the next several weeks. We dont need to have a government asset that the taxpayer has paid a lot of money for sit idle, said Steve Clark, Progressive Conservative corrections critic and Leeds-Grenville MPP. The taxpayer deserves to know, for every month that facility isnt open, what its costing the taxpayer. The process is complicated, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. It takes a certain amount of time to commission any large facility, said Brent Ross. Commissioning includes installing systems and equipment, setting up policies and procedures and hiring and training the 1,000 or so employees needed to staff such a complex operation. You cant just flip a switch and open the doors. And yet, it took barely three months for the Edmonton Remand Centre, the largest jail in the country at 1,952 inmates, to go from construction completion to opening day. While that jail, the countrys first direct supervision detention centre, opened comparatively quickly, it was hit with an illegal strike by guards within weeks of opening, due to what the union called health and safety concerns. The Ontario ministry intentionally excluded the guards union from Toronto Souths design and development process, said Dan Sidsworth, corrections division chair of the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union. The union said it offered input from the projects inception - so as to avoid the kind of labour unrest seen in Edmonton - but the offers were rebuffed. The union was only brought to the table sometime in early 2013, Mr. Sidsworth said, when the building was already complete. The ministry insists the delay is not unreasonable. I understand that some people might want us to rush the opening without consulting the employees and our service delivery partners I understand that some people might want us to rush the opening without consulting the employees and our service delivery partners, said Madeleine Meilleur, minister of community safety and correctional services, in an email. Wed rather get this right and open the Toronto South Detention Centre in a safe and responsible way that keeps the health and wellbeing of staff and inmates as a priority.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 05:13:02 +0000
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