Cliff Cullen came to Dauphin on Friday to announce that the jail will be shut down.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew says this is a bad move across the board.

“You got 80 families who are going to be losing jobs in the region. That’s going to have a spillover effect in impacting a lot of other businesses. On the safety side, getting rid of this facility and not committing to something new, like a healing centre in the area, that’s going to cause more problems for safety. The overall picture for Dauphin seems to be getting a lot more difficult with news of other cuts and layoffs that have happened in the area.”

Kinew says the NDP will stand up for the people in the Dauphin, Parkland Region.

“What we’re going to do is work with the community, work with mayor and council, and other leaders to put together a new plan to build a facility like a healing centre that would be for the justice system to have a focus on rehabilitation and vocational measures. So we want to see a plan to replace these jobs, to bring these jobs back. This move is a mistake.”

The 67 inmates will have to be moved to one of six other correctional facilities in Manitoba.

The two closest facilities are the Pas and Brandon.

Kinew says that unfortunately means a lot of families won’t be able to travel and see their loved ones.

“What that means is, maybe you’ve got somebody on the edge, you’ve got somebody who’s in a facility, they still have a chance to turn their life around and make our whole community safer. But instead, without the support of family and being shipped further away from their home, it’s more likely, unfortunately, that they’re going to get into more trouble in the future.”

Overall, the main point Kinew wants to get across is that the NDP will fight to get the government to reconsider, and if they don’t they’ll have a new plan ready to get jobs back to Dauphin.