Kemptville jail closer to reality after province puts up $21.8M for wastewater plant

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A controversial 235-bed jail to be built in Kemptville has moved forward after the Province of Ontario announced up to $21.8 million to upgrade the town’s wastewater treatment plant.

Expanding the 30-year-old plant is “an essential step of our plan to get this jail built,” Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told reporters in Kemptville on Thursday. “Absolutely we are moving ahead.”

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Kerzner did not commit to a timeline for building the jail.

First announced in August 2020 as a measure to alleviate overcrowding at the 50-year-old Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, the jail was originally projected to be complete by 2027, built on a 72-hectare site once used by the former Kemptville Agricultural College At the time, the cost of the project was pegged at $200 million.

But the project appeared to be in limbo, with little information about progress coming from the province, which had pledged to “fully pay for the necessary infrastructure, including servicing the land for water and sewer, and any related road upgrades that would be required” — without providing any numbers.

For jail opponents, there are numerous reasons why the site is a bad place for a jail. The site is prime agricultural land and 60 kilometres away from the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, despite stipulations that candidate locations be at most 40-45 kilometres away. Opponents also cited environment concerns about the site and argued that Kemptville would be on the hook to pay the additional costs of policing and infrastructure, including updating the wastewater treatment plant.

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Legal manoeuvres have delayed the project. Jail opponents brought forward an application for judicial review of the province’s decision in August 2022, but that was rejected by the Ontario Court of Justice in February, with the three-judge panel saying applications to review Ontario government decisions must be filed within 30 days and the residents had waited too long.

An appeal was later dismissed.

The provincial funding announced Thursday will cover about one-third of the cost of expanding the treatment plan. The tender for the project’s first phase was already awarded, in April, said Nancy Peckford, the mayor of North Grenville, which includes Kemptville.

The town has been growing, and growth accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Peckford said. The municipality was adamant that the province needed to pay its way if it was going to tap into Kemptville’s infrastructure to build the jail. The wastewater treatment plant was in need of expansion, with or without the provincial funding, she said.

Peckford said she recognized that not everyone was in favour of the jail. Based on her conversations with residents, 20 per cent oppose the jail, 20 per cent are “absolutely enthusiastic” about the potential for jobs, and the rest are in between, she said.

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“But the reality is that our job, my job as mayor in this community, is to ensure that, from a fiscal perspective and a quality of life perspective, that we are doing everything in our power to ensure the fiscal health of our municipality and to make strategic investments in quality of life,” she said.

Jail opponents say they are not giving up the fight.

“For us, it’s still not a done deal as to whether the jail actually gets built,” said Justin Piché, a University fo Ottawa criminology professor.

“It’s likely there will be a provincial election. Until there are shovels in the ground, there are ways to push back,” he said. “The opposition has been going on for four years. They’re four years behind schedule.”

Thursday’s announcement was not unexpected, said Victor Lachance, a member of the Coalition Against the Proposed Prison. However, the $21.8 million will not pay for maintaining Kemptville infrastructure, he said.

“When they announced this, a big part of their reason was that they were placing no burden whatsoever on the taxpayer because they own the land,” Lachance said. “Well, it is placing a burden on taxpayers — the ongoing maintenance, the policing costs, the additional use of the hospital, paving over prime agricultural farmland. It’s not good news for anybody. It’s certainly not good news for the taxpayers of North Grenville.”

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The $21.8 million announced Thursday could have been used to buy land closer to Ottawa, Piché said. He also argued there were other better alternatives to building more jails, including social housing and mental-health and drug treatment in the community.

“At the end of the day, we know there are more effective, less costly was to address violence and prevent it,” Piché said. “They’re going the expensive route.”

The jail is part of a province-wide plan to modernize correctional services, adding 200 jobs to local communities, Kerzner said.

In Eastern Ontario, that plan includes the Eastern Ontario Correctional Complex in Kemptville and the Brockville Correctional Complex as well as an expansion of the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre to include a women’s treatment unit. The Quinte Detention Centre will also be expanded to add inmate programming and capacity for women.

“Our message today is simple: We are not going to stop. We will not apologize, and we will never lose focus on prioritizing our public safety,” Kerzner said.

“This is not going to change at the end of the day. We’re worked with the mayor and the council, and we will continue to do so, but the priority of this government is to ensure that we have public safety in the four corners of Ontario.”

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