Stony expansion about to start amid doubts

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This article was published 03/08/2011 (5403 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first phase of a $45-million expansion of Stony Mountain prison and nearby Rockwood Institution is about to get underway.

Tenders close Aug. 26 on a new 96-bed maximum-security unit at the medium-security Stony Mountain Institution. The new unit will take up 38,373 square feet on two floors. It’s expected to cost just under $20 million.

The prison project comes at a time when Manitoba’s construction industry is already “overheated” and some critics question the need for bigger prisons.

Ron Hambley, executive vice-president of the Winnipeg Construction Association, said there are about 120 local projects out for tender in the Manitoba capital region.

“Our construction market in Winnipeg is so overheated this month,” he said Tuesday, adding the federal prison project is unlikely to attract scads of bidders. “It won’t be dozens. They’ll be tickled pink if they’ve got three.”

Among the big projects in play are the completion of the new James Armstrong Richardson International Airport and the ongoing construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at The Forks.

As well, tenders closed for the massive IKEA project in southwest Winnipeg last week. “That got lots and lots of attention,” Hambley said.

Last November, the federal government announced the 456-bed medium-security Stony Mountain Institution would see its capacity expanded by nearly 100 units, and the minimum-security Rockwood annex would add 50 beds to its current 167.

The new construction at Stony will allow the prison to hold more convicts classified as maximum-security rather than transferring them to maximum-security prisons outside Manitoba.

The news of tenders for maximum-security units at the Manitoba penitentiary and another medium-security prison in Ontario has renewed fears in some quarters that the federal government is looking to create new super-prisons while avoiding public scrutiny.

“I’d be very concerned if the federal government is just trying to slip this in without telling anyone,” said John Hutton, executive director of the John Howard Society in Manitoba.

But Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday Ottawa has no plans to create any mega-prisons. He said Canadian prisons have plenty of room for inmate expansion within their existing walls.

Ottawa has announced it is adding 2,700 prison beds nationwide in the next several years to accommodate its new, tough justice legislation.

Toews said Ottawa has also been up front with its desire to build units within medium-security prisons for maximum-security inmates, adding that the institutions and corrections workers have been on board with the plan.

“I’m surprised that anybody would suggest that it was done by stealth,” he said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca