Dauphin stakes hopes on Justice Centre

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This article was published 27/11/2024 (495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city of Dauphin is looking forward to the establishment of a new Centre for Justice, which is expected to revitalize the local economy and help improve law enforcement efforts in the city and surrounding areas.

Mayor David Bosiak told the Sun the 8,000-strong community is hopeful that the construction of the new facility will result in the creation of at least 50 to 100 well-paying jobs.

“The spinoffs of that, [such as] folks that maybe were in the community and left will return; new people will come to our community and their families with them. Our enrolment in schools will go up, which is a good thing. We think this may also help spur a bit of a housing build in our community.”

The initiative is part of the provincial government’s Public Safety Strategy announced earlier this month, which aims to improve policing and safety in rural Manitoba. An older correctional facility in the city had been shuttered by the former Progressive Conservative government in 2020, impacting policing and crime prevention efforts in the area. The move also hurt the city of Dauphin.

“What we learned from the last closure was that we lost people that worked in the facility — whether sheriffs or security people, correctional officers, some nurses, and other positions that were all attached to the old correctional facility. But we also did not realize at the time that when many of those people left our community, their spouses left with them. And those were also people that worked in our community,” Bosiak said.

“We lost a bunch of teachers. We lost a bunch of medical technicians, a few nurses, others, because they went with their spouses to a new location. And so we lost a lot when the last facility closed, and we hope that the new facility will bring much of that back.”

Bosiak said he is hoping that the construction of the new facility will result in more people engaging with community businesses, and filling in part-time jobs.

The city is also working to reap economic benefits across the board and is working hard to ensure the smooth implementation of the proposed centre. The city is offering its utmost co-operation to the province, he said.

“We will absolutely make sure that all the infrastructure requirements — water and sewer — are all available. Any road improvements or anything else that needs to be done to improve access to the location in our business park, that’s all part of our plan. That’s all in the strategy to make this facility happen,” said Bosiak.

“As a municipality, we will not act as a stumbling block. We are about smoothing barriers or reducing any barriers to entry.”

Even as the impending project has been welcomed across the board, timelines for its implementation remain unclear. In an email to the Sun on Tuesday, Justice Minister and Attorney General Matt Wiebe said he could not provide a specific timeline, but emphasized that the province considers the project important to its public safety mission and steering criminals toward better futures with rehabilitation resources.

“Our government is committed to building a Centre of Justice in Dauphin that will include culturally appropriate supports, educational resources and vocational training,” said Wiebe. “We know that rural Manitoba needs the supports to get tough on crime and the causes of crime, and this new centre will help rehabilitate offenders and set them on a pathway to success after the previous government closed the Dauphin jail. To ensure we get this right, we’re consulting with stakeholders and look forward to announcing more details in the future.”

Bosiak told the Sun that he and his council also recognize the key difference between the Centre for Justice and the previous correctional facility, in terms of the new facility placing a particular emphasis on rehabilitation efforts instead of an outdated approach to incarceration.

The location in Dauphin is central, he added, allowing families to visit inmates which will also support a more rehabilitative approach, compared with when inmates have to be sent to southern facilities located in Brandon, where their families have a tougher time visiting them.

“It’s not just a place to lock people up, but it’s a place to help people, to treat people, to educate people, so that when they’re finished being in the facility, the likelihood of them becoming contributing members of society is enhanced.”

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com