The Mayors of Owen Sound and Walkerton have a long battle ahead of them to save the jails in their communities from closing.
Deb Haswell and David Inglis met Wednesday morning with Jim Bradley — the Minister for Community Safety and Correctional Services.
Haswell says it was a good 45 minute meeting with Bradley and his key staff.
But Haswell tells Bayshore Broadcasting News they didn’t make a lot of progress — and she is ‘not terribly optimistic’ they can stop the closures.
But Haswell says they will not stop the fight — and they have another meeting scheduled next week with the assistant Deputy Minister.
Haswell says they learned the decision to close the jails was made by the Finance Ministry to save about four million dollars — 2.2 million by closing the Owen Sound jail and 1.8 million by closing the Walkerton facility.
But Haswell says she is not convinced by those numbers and they plan to talk to local officials to argue those claims.
Haswell says the idea of building a new jail was shot down as the Minister reported there are no plans to construct a new facility.
The Mayor says she also brought letters of support from the Warden and Police Chief and information from jail staff for the Minister.
Haswell says they did surprise the Minister with information about the weekend jail sentences that would be impacted if inmates had to travel all the way to Penetang.
She believes people serving weekend sentences may not be able to drive that far.
The jail employees would be able to work at the Penetang super jail but Haswell says they want to save the local jobs and the three million dollar payroll.
But time is of the essence since Haswell says they were told the closure of the jails in Owen Sound and Walkerton could occur anytime between June and December.
