It was a full house at the Walkerton Jubilee Hall for the first all candidates meeting in the riding of Huron Bruce.
Over 200 people packed the Hall on Thursday night and the Walkerton Jail closure was the biggest issue of the night.
Liberal MPP Carol Mitchell was on the defensive as she vowed the closure will not result in higher costs to the municipality through prisoner transportation costs.
She says all these transportation costs will be uploaded to the province.
NDP Candidate Grant Robertson took a swing at the fact that even after filing a Freedom of Information Request — the Liberals have still not come forward with the numbers they used to justify the decision.
Conservative Candidate Lisa Thompson promises to keep the jail open while officials take a hard look at the numbers through a comprehensive study.
Robertson took this one step forward and pledged to keep the jail opened.
Save our Jail Committee Chair Chris Peabody was pleased with what both the NDP and Tory Candidate had to say about the jail.
As to the mystery ‘numbers’ the Liberals used to justify the jail closure — Peabody isn’t holding his breath, saying he doesn’t believe they exist.
Meanwhile both Mitchell and Robertson suggested the possibility of locating a Remand Centre in the region.
Rising hydro rates, education dollars, health care, wind power, tourism and agriculture were other topics of interest through out the night.
