Cost estimate for new federal prisoner hospital more than triples to $1.3B
The budget for a new hospital for prisoners in federal facilities is now estimated at $1.3 billion, more than three times the $400 million estimate made public in 2021, according to federal documents and sources.
Funding for the project in New Brunswick was approved by the Treasury Board in December 2024, but the higher amount has not been made public as Ottawa is in the bidding process with construction companies.
Sources familiar with the matter have indicated that despite pressure on Correctional Service Canada to reduce spending, the project survived Ottawa’s spending review ahead of the November 4 federal budget.
The 155-bed center will provide mental and physical health care in French and English to men and women in the federal correctional system. It will be in a new building and will replace an older facility inside Dorchester Penitentiary with one-third capacity.
The center will be built in the Beauséjour riding, which is represented by Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada-US trade.
Last year, LeBlanc confirmed that the center’s budget would be higher than initially planned, without giving an exact figure.
LeBlanc only indicated that the budget would be equivalent to the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, which was inaugurated in 1997.
“The scale of this project is very much in that range,” said LeBlanc, who was finance minister at the time.
The $1.3 billion budget for the new center will be 30 percent more than the $1 billion Confederation Bridge contract, according to federal sources and documents.
Radio-Canada provided confidentiality to federal sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Correctional Service Canada plans to complete the project by 2032.
According to a briefing note released under the Access to Information Act, when he was minister of public safety in 2023, LeBlanc was informed that the project’s budget was increasing.
Financial information has been redacted, but the note shows that LeBlanc requested to retain the entire project, despite cost increases.
“During our first meeting, I raised a revised forecast for a 155-bed facility,” wrote Anne Kelly, Commissioner of Correctional Services Canada. “At that time, (Correctional Services Canada) was asked not to reduce the scope of the project but to proceed with the original planned facility.”
According to federal documents, the proposed center will “meet the physical and complex clinical and mental health needs of federal offenders across Canada.”
Located in southeastern New Brunswick, the new center will be built on the grounds of Dorchester Penitentiary and will replace the 53-bed Shepody Healing Centre.
Dr. Louis Theriault, the recovery center’s psychiatrist, has said for years that the current facilities are not safe for inmates or staff.
Dorchester Penitentiary opened in 1880.
“We have isolation cells that look like dungeons. The windows are low. And the space is very tight. Of all the treatment centers around the country, within the correctional service, we have the worst conditions,” he said.
