Word as to whether a young offenders facility will be set up here may come within a month, Mayor Glenn Witherspoon said Friday morning.
The mayor is just back from the annual meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, where he discussed the issue with Public Safety and Security minister Bob Runciman earlier this week.
“They haven’t awarded anything at this time,” Mayor Witherspoon noted. “But the meeting went very well. There’s a new minister in charge and he took in all the information we gave him.
“He understands we’re working with Couchiching First Nation, and he knows the importance of having a facility like this is to us.
“And he understands how it important it would be for youth that are incarcerated here to have an elder to be able to help with the rehabilitative process and help prevent repeat offenders,” Mayor Witherspoon added.
The proposed 75- to 100-bed medium-security facility would be built along Highway 11 just east of the Couchiching Bingo Palace.
It received ringing endorsements from at least six other First Nations communities, the OPP, the Fort Frances Chiefs Secretariat, the Rainy River Future Development Corp., and the Seven Generations Education Institute, among others, last September when a proposal was submitted to the ministry.
But Mayor Witherspoon said the reason why the town and Couchiching First Nation haven’t heard any response from the ministry is due to both the cabinet shuffle and the provincial government’s understandable priorities, such as health care and transportation.
The mayor noted he, Fort Frances CAO Bill Naturkach, and Emo Reeve Russ Fortier also made a point to meet with representatives of the ministries of Transportation, Municipal Affairs and Housing, and Northern Development and Mines at the AMO meeting this week.
He’ll give a full report of the conference at Monday night’s council meeting here.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
