City approves tender for BPS expansion
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2022 (1270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Brandon City Council approved a multimillion-dollar expansion of Brandon Police Service headquarters Wednesday that will allow for the installation of 17 new permanent detention cells.
Councillors green-lit Phase 2 of the planned expansion during a special meeting.
This stage of the project will be completed by CW2 Construction and Design Ltd. for $7.22 million.
In addition to the extra cells, the permanent expansion of BPS headquarters, located at 1020 Victoria Ave., will include more space for bail hearings, storage and food preparation.
Police Chief Wayne Balcaen told councillors that BPS has needed new permanent detention facilities since April 2020, when their long-standing agreement with the Brandon Correctional Centre for direct lock-up use wasn’t renewed due to complications brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Brandon Police Service was [now] responsible for initial lock-up for the first 24 hours until remand or until release on police discretion [for cases] such as people that are under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act or breach of the peace,” Balcaen said. “Whereas we used to lodge those all the correction centre, we now take that responsibility.”
While BPS did build a temporary detention centre to deal with the overflow of detainees, the service requested funding from the province to establish a permanent facility, managing to secure $4.1 million at the outset.
After sending the project out for tender, the price tag came back significantly higher than BPS expected, forcing the service to request another $4.5 million from the province.
Balcaen said the service is receiving a total of $8.6 million from the province, which will cover a contingency, too.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor Rick Chrest commended BPS for enduring a very difficult situation in the early days of the pandemic and managing to secure all this provincial funding for new permanent detention facilities.
While the timeline for the project is subject to change, Balcaen estimates construction could be completed by Jan. 31, 2024, with the new detention facilities hopefully being operational by March of that year.
» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson