Kemptville Gets a New Prison by the OLA

The past 21 months have been challenging for Landowners with governments taking advantage of the lockdowns to make some questionable decisions without a lot of public input.

For example, did you know about the plans to build a prison on land that was formerly part of the Kemptville Agricultural School established in 1917. According to the Coalition Against the Proposed Prison (CAPP), on August 27, 2020, the Government of Ontario announced plans to build the “Greater Ottawa Correction Complex” later renamed the “Eastern Ontario Correctional Complex” in Kemptville, Ontario. This announcement was made without any prior notice or consultation with the Municipality of North Grenville and the residents it serves. Since that time, the provincial government has asserted its right to “sole discretion” in determining the location of new provincial corrections facilities, despite the opposition of residents. Publicly available information has been slow to emerge, resulting in confusing and at times contradictory communications. See https://www.coalitionagainstproposedprison.ca/ for more information.

The CAPP website has a petition to sign, a Go Fund Me page, and a history of the process to build the prison. You may also want to contact MPP Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, who put this project in motion using a ministerial zoning order (MZO), at 613-342-9522 or steve.clark@pc.ola.org.

Although several sites were considered, documents show that Kemptville failed to meet selection criteria that had removed other potential sites from contention, including lack of public transit, municipal servicing to the site and the existence of natural heritage constraints and hazards on the property.