Province changes course and gives ombud records on new Fredericton jail

The provincial government has given the ombud copies of records detailing the business case for spending more than $40 million to build a jail in Fredericton.

That comes after the department initially refused to provide the ombud's office with the records, claiming they're confidential cabinet documents.

After CBC News reported on the refusal on Wednesday, Premier Blaine Higgs said he'd asked the deputy minister and clerk to look into it.

"People are lighting their hair on fire on this and I want to make sure transparency is there as much as possible," Public Safety Minister Kris Austin said on Thursday during a Legislative committee meeting, after Green MLA Megan Mitton asked about the records.

Last year, CBC asked the province for all records that detail the need for a new jail, such as records that discuss the business case for the jail or capacity issues within existing correctional centres.

The Department of Justice and Public Safety refused to provide any records in response to that request, saying all the records are exempted under sections of the right to information law that protect confidential cabinet documents and advice to a cabinet minister.

CBC appealed the decision to provincial ombud Marie-France Pelletier, whose office handles complaints about right to information.

The government then also refused to provide copies to Pelletier's office, claiming all of the records are protected under cabinet confidences. It's one of only two reasons the law allows the department to not produce records to the ombud for review.

Austin says department followed the law

Austin said the department reversed course and decided to provide the records to the ombud "out of an abundance of transparency." He said his government has never provided a cabinet memorandum to anyone, including the ombud.

"The premier has always been very big on ensuring that the public knows what's going on and that there's no perception out there of trying to hide anything," Austin told reporters.

Austin said the department followed the law when it refused to hand over the records.

But he also said the information has already been released to the public, raising questions about how it could be considered confidential information.

"What I've given you is hard data … here's the capacity levels, here's where we're at  or over capacity, over the last several years," Austin said. 

"What the [memorandum to executive council] is going to give is basically the same thing summarized in a different form."

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When asked whether he will follow the ombud's advice if Pelletier determines the records should become public, Austin didn't seem to see any issue, even though his department refused the right to information request.

"If it's the information that we've already been giving, why wouldn't we? There's no extra information there. It's the case around why we need the jail."

Last month, the ombud's office told CBC the records may not have been properly held back, and suggested the department reconsider its decision to not provide the records to CBC.

"Unfortunately, the department was not amenable to changing its minds, and maintained its original position that you are not entitled to access to any records," the ombud's office wrote.

Cost of Fredericton jail now up to $42 million

Austin also told the committee Thursday that the cost of the Fredericton jail is now estimated to be around $42 million, up from the $32 million figure the government gave a year and a half ago.

A spokesperson with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure told CBC this week that it won't have a better sense of the overall cost until it finishes work to "define the project's requirements."

"I'm not overly concerned that the costs are going to be that exorbitant," Austin said. "You've got to take in inflation, it's the world we live in today. But if that [number] changes, we're going to get it done."

Plans to build a new jail were announced in December 2021.

The expenditure didn't appear in the Progressive Conservative platform from the 2020 provincial election or in the party's 2018 platform. The government has cited rising crime rates and jails stretched to capacity as reasons why the new jail is needed.

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As of March 31, Austin said there were 450 men inside provincial jails, which is under the capacity number of 470. Another 18 men were being monitored by ankle bracelets on this date, the minister said.

Money better spent on housing, MLA says

Criminologists who have previously spoken to CBC have argued that building a new jail won't reduce crime or make the public any safer, and the money could be better spent on things like mental health care, addiction and housing. 

In the committee meeting Thursday, Mitton asked Austin to provide more justification for why the government plans to spend at least $42 million to build the jail.

"That's a lot of money," Mitton told reporters.

"We could really use those investments in other things like supporting a housing first approach, so that people who are leaving jail have the supports they need to not end up re-offending."

The department's operating budget for 2022-23 includes $3.7 million for provincial jail programming "designed to help [people] change their lives and avoid re-offending once released."