‘Access to justice’ pledge leads to reopening of Dauphin courthouse
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/01/2026 (233 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The provincial government announced the grand reopening of the Dauphin courthouse on Thursday — although court proceedings have taken place in the new facility since July.
The courthouse reopened on July 7, 2025, according to the Manitoba Courts website.
The former Progressive Conservative government closed the Dauphin Correctional Centre in May 2020 to complete renovations to expand the courthouse, which shared a building with the jail. The Tories previously said the facility, built in 1917, was no longer up to code.
MATT GOERZEN / THE BRANDON SUN
Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe gestures during a press conference at Brandon City Hall on Friday morning. Wiebe said the modern upgrades at the dauphin courthouse have made it a safer and more welcoming place.
Modern upgrades have made it a safer and more welcoming place, Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said at an unrelated news conference in Brandon on Friday.
“A major priority for our government is improving access to justice,” Wiebe said.
“The community stood up, and they said, ‘We want a proper facility to be able to administer justice’ and they pushed back, and that’s why we now were able to open the courthouse,” he said.
The renovations included more holding cells, enhanced security, accessibility improvements, better video conferencing, more offices and meeting spaces for lawyers and their clients.
The cost to upgrade the Dauphin courthouse was about $15 million. The PCs originally put out an $11-million tender in 2021 for the project construction management, awarded to Bockstael Construction, but spent an additional $4 million when material and labour costs increased owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tories’ decision to close the jail for the courthouse expansion was opposed by the NDP and former Dauphin mayor Allen Dowhan, who said the city wasn’t consulted about the closure.
Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wiebe said the jail’s closure left a hole in the services provided in Dauphin, but the province is “fast tracking” the process to get shovels in the ground for the community’s new Centre for Justice.
The Manitoba government also announced $33,000 in grants to support law enforcement and crime prevention initiatives in the Parkland region through the 2025-26 Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund.
— Brandon Sun