A new provincial women's detention facility will be built in Montreal.
Minister of Public Security Francois Bonnardel announced that the $400 million prison will replace the shuttered Maison Tanguay, which closed in 2016 and is set for demolition in 2024.
The new prison will be built between Tanguay and the Montreal Detention Facility (referred to as Bordeaux) in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough.
"What we are announcing today is not only the construction of a new facility that is truly adapted to the reality of incarcerated women but, above all, the realization of a project that will be able to offer them better prospects for social reintegration through better access to the programs and services they need," said Bonnardel in a news release. "This project will also improve the working conditions of correctional staff."
Construction is slated to begin in the fall of 2023 and the prison should be opened by the summer of 2029.
The news release says that the new prison will have 237 beds and is said to be based on an "innovative model for managing correctional services for women, centred on the reality of women in the justice system, their profiles and needs."
The prison population that was transferred from Tanguay to the Leclerc Detention Facility in Laval is expected to be able to move into the new facility in 2030.
Public consultation meetings will take place in the near future, the ministry says.
