Cost estimate more than triples to $1.3B for new federal inmate hospital

The budget for a new hospital for inmates in federal facilities is now estimated at $1.3 billion, over three times the $400-million estimate made public in 2021, according to federal documents and sources.

The funding for the project in New Brunswick was approved by Treasury Board in December 2024, but the higher amount has not been made public as Ottawa is in a bidding process with construction firms.

Sources familiar with the matter indicate that the project survived Ottawa’s expenditure review ahead of the Nov. 4 federal budget, despite pressure to reduce spending at Correctional Service Canada.

The 155-bed centre will offer 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 It will be in a new building and will replace an outdated facility with a third of the capacity inside Dorchester Penitentiary.

The centre will be built in the Beauséjour riding that is represented by Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade.

Last year, LeBlanc confirmed that the centre’s budget would be higher than initially planned, without giving a precise figure.

LeBlanc only indicated the budget would be comparable to the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, 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 centre would be 30 per cent higher than the $1-billion Confederation Bridge contract, according to federal sources and documents.

Radio-Canada granted confidentiality to federal sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about this matter.

Correctional Service Canada plans to complete the project by 2032.

While he was minister of public safety in 2023, LeBlanc was informed that the project’s budget was increasing, according to a briefing note released under the Access to Information Act.

Financial information is redacted, but the note shows that LeBlanc requested the full project be maintained, despite the increase in costs.

“During our first meeting, I raised the revised forecast for a 155-bed facility,” wrote Anne Kelly, commissioner of Correctional Service Canada. “At that time, [Correctional Service Canada] was asked not to reduce the scope of the project but proceed with the original planned facility.”

According to federal documents, the proposed centre will “meet both physical and complex clinical and mental health needs of federal offenders from across Canada.”

Located in southeastern New Brunswick, the new centre will be built on the grounds of the Dorchester Penitentiary and will replace the 53-bed Shepody Healing Centre.

Dr. Louis Thériault, a psychiatrist at the recovery centre, has been saying for years that 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 deficient. And the space is very, very cramped. Of all the treatment centres across the country, within the correctional service, we are in the worst situation,” he said.