Province breaks ground on new Dauphin jail

Manitoba’s premier and several of his ministers were in Dauphin Tuesday to participate in the groundbreaking for the long-awaited replacement for the city’s shuttered jail.

The 2026 provincial budget earmarked $7 million for construction work to start on the $142-million Dauphin Centre for Justice this year.

Kinew said the new centre will “keep communities in Manitoba safer.”

“It’s going to put tons of Manitobans to work and it’s going to replace the Dauphin jail that was closed by the previous government,” said Kinew.

The new centre will have 100 inmate beds and include supports and services to help rehabilitate prisoners, the province said.

Kinew said the new jail will have a “state-of-the-art approach” to working with people serving provincial jail sentences.

“The idea being, ‘OK, we have this person for two months, maybe up to two years,’” said Kinew.

“Let’s make sure that when we’re releasing them back in the community after that time, that they’re going to be prepared to be a productive member of society, that they’re going to be prepared to re-integrate into the community, and make sure that you and your kids and your parents are all going to be safer when they return to the streets.”

The union that represents provincial corrections officers in Manitoba said the move was a good step to combat overcrowding in jails.

“It better supports the programs inmates need while putting some closer to their families and communities in the Parkland region. It will support good jobs in Dauphin,” said Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, in a statement.

The former Progressive Conservative government under Brian Pallister closed the more than 100-year-old correctional facility in 2020.

At the time, Pallister said the aging facility had been deemed no longer safe or viable after four independent reviews and he accused the NDP of not following through on a plan, announced when that party was in government in 2013, to replace the jail.

The Torys, elected in 2016, determined in 2019 that officials did not think a new facility was needed and moved ahead with the closure.

Area residents, the then-opposition NDP, and the union that represents corrections officers questioned the closure of the jail in 2020, which employed just under 80 people.

The NDP promised to build a jail in Dauphin during the 2023 election, saying it would create up to 80 jobs once built.

Kinew, Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn — who represents the area as MLA — and Public Service Delivery Minister Mintu Sandhu attended the groundbreaking, flanked by local and union officials, corrections officers and an official from the Manitoba Métis Federation.

fpcity@winnipegfreepress.com