Memos outline Ottawa's refusal to fund prison

Internal correspondence obtained by CBC News show the federal government maintained the same message, and often exactly the same wording, in turning down repeated requests for a new prison in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Memos, letters and briefing notes obtained through federal access to information legislation show the federal Conservatives have maintained the same posture since 2006 on requests for a federal prison.

The documents obtained by CBC News include an appeal from former premier Danny Williams, two different provincial justice ministers, MHAs, MPs, mayors and a variety of community groups, including the John Howard Society.

The responses from the Department of Public Safety, though, are consistent in the language they use in explaining the government's refusal.

Optics, not need, focus of memos

A memo written last year for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews deals more with political considerations and optics than the actual need for the prison itself.

"This request was made specifically at the federal/provincial ministerial level, and a refusal to meet might cause unnecessary damage to the relationship between the federal government and the province," says an undated memo that recommended that Toews meet Williams.

Williams and other Newfoundland and Labrador politicians want  to share the cost of replacing Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's, parts of which were built in the mid 19th century. The facility often handles inmates serving federal terms, and Williams wrote it was "in dire need of replacement."

In their correspondence, federal officials used similar language — sometimes exactly the same phrases — in stating the government's position.

"At the outset, I would like to advise that the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has no current plans to build or fund a federal correctional facility in Newfoundland and Labrador," wote assistant commissioner E. Van Allen in a June 2010 letter to a writer whose name was redacted.

The "no plans" phrasing appears in seven other documents obtained by the CBC.

Stockwell Day, the federal public services minister of the time, toured the prison in July 2008. Although Day said then that he had "no foregone conclusions" about federal involvement, memos show no change in government policy.