Rumours surrounding the impending closure of the Bluewater Youth Centre near Goderich have been confirmed.
Children and Youth Services Minister Eric Hoskins has announced that the facility on Highway 21 south of town will shut down.
No timeline for the closure has been given.
Hoskins says the 17 youth inmates will be relocated to facilities closer to where their families live.
The Bluewater Centre is operating at just 25 per cent capacity and employs around 200 people.
Huron-Bruce Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa Thompson says Hoskins told her about the announcement before it was made public late Monday.
Thompson says the Children and Youth Services Ministry will work with the union representing the employees during and after the closure.
She says Huron-Bruce has been a target of the McGuinty government’s cost-cutting agenda as it moves to eventually wipe out a 16-billion dollar deficit.
The Bluewater announcement follows last year’s closure of the Walkerton Jail.
Thompson brands the Bluewater move as another example of how rural Ontarians are paying for Liberal waste and mismanagement.
Thompson pledges to work with Ministry personnel as operations at the Bluewater Youth Centre wind down.
She says she doesn’t want to see another case of employees hearing additional news via social media or broadcast before they’re given the word by the Ministry.
Two similar facilities in Cobourg and Sudbury — which are at less than 50 per-cent capacity — will stay open but with fewer beds.
