N.L. government once again looking for someone to design replacement for aging HMP
Liberals promised a new prison was coming back in 2019
Plans for a new prison to replace the decrepit Her Majesty's Penitentiary are going back to the design phase once again, and the Newfoundland and Labrador government is blaming rising costs.
A replacement of the aging prison was promised in 2019 — with an estimated price tag of $200 million — and scheduled to be completed in 2022. An access-to-information request in March 2022 revealed the government's "affordability ceiling" had grown to $325 million.
On Wednesday, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister John Abbott said a request for qualifications will be issued Jan. 2 and there will be a six-week period when proposals are evaluated and potential proponents will be asked to submit detailed plans.
Abbott said government is reducing the overall size of the facility and going from a campus-style model to "something that's a little bit more traditional."
"We will have stacking floors, maybe two levels," he told reporters in a joint news conference with Justice Minister John Hogan on Wednesday.
He said construction will begin in 2025 and is expected to take three to four years.
The lone bidder for the project, Avalon Corrections Partners, submitted its finalized plan, including the cost and design, last year.
Rather than go back to the consortium, Abbott said, they decided to restart the process.
Abbott said the announcement took so long because work was already done on this file before he took over the role of infrastructure. Abbott was appointed to the portfolio in mid-June, replacing Elvis Loveless.
He said Premier Andrew Furey asked him to "get behind this and really drill down to see what we could do, should do and needed to do."
"We've been back and forth with our consultants, back and forth with architects and engineers to make sure we can get these numbers right," Abbott said.
Saving costs
Abbott said the cost of the new facility wasn't something they were willing to pay.
"We just do not have the budget for that and we were talking over $500 million potentially. So what we said [was] we've got to step back and reassess that," said Abbott.
He also couldn't say if the new proposals would offer cheaper options until they were submitted but they would go into this "new procurement with our eyes wide open."
He added they're now "drilling" into the numbers and aren't taking things at "face value."
The government would also be setting a maximum cost limit, he said, though in the previous process the government had done that. Abbott said this time they would be very clear with construction sector companies with what their cost limit would be.
Forced to wait
Despite this latest delay, Abbott said a new prison is a priority for the government and him as a minister.
In the meantime, Hogan said interim measures are being brought in at HMP. That includes temporary outbuildings.
"Whether it's trailers or other facilities, temporary structures that may need to be built for recreational purposes, educational purposes, all sorts of programming that can be available," said Hogan.
NDP Leader Jim Dinn said he's disappointed with the news, adding the prison was supposed to be finished this year but has now been pushed farther down the road.
"And we're going to go through another complicated process to get it built and all the while, conditions at the penitentiary are still there, probably getting worse," Dinn told CBC News.
"It's not going to serve the people who are looking for programming or looking for a safer place and certainly not going to be helping the families whose loved ones are in that facility."
Dinn said the government should have "drilled" down into the new prison details in the first place, not just with the new prison but also on housing, poverty and education.
"It's government speak for basically, 'We've done really nothing. We haven't been on top of this,'" Dinn said.
PC infrastructure critic Barry Petten said reissuing this project confirms his view on the mismanagement of P3 projects, public-private partnerships, over the last number of years. He said he asked for this project to be retendered two years ago because it had come down to one bidder.
"I don't think they have any choice but to cancel it," said Petten.
Jerry Earle, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees, said he doesn't completely accept the government's reason behind the delay, adding that rising costs should have been factored in already.
"It's unbelievable that we're here again, talking about a significant delay in this much needed facility," Earle said Wednesday.
Going back to the drawing board means it will take more time to get a new facility, he said.
For Earle, the facility isn't just about the cost to build it.
"So what is the cost associated with not doing the right thing? I know this is not a school. I know it's not a hospital or a shiny new vessel or paved highway," he said.
"But this facility is necessary to ensure the well-being of people that work there and people that are incarcerated there, as well to be able to return to society."
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With files from Ariana Kelland and Terry Roberts
