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Ottawa’s plans to spend $1.3 billion to build a new hospital for inmates in New Brunswick is misguided and a “profound misallocation of resources,” Correctional Investigator of Canada Ivan Zinger says in his annual report released Thursday. Instead, the ombudsman for inmates within the federal correctional system calls on the government to rely on partnerships with provincial facilities for acute mental health services. “[Correctional Service Canada] could have funded enhanced bed capacity through provincial partnerships — an approach that would be more humane, cost-effective and sustainable over the long term. The $1.3 billion allocated could cover the costs of such a model for decades to come,” said Zinger. He denounced the fact the federal project will be built next to the Dorchester Penitentiary, stating that mental health care for inmates should be offered outside of the prison environment. “The seriously mentally ill are patients first, and not inmates first,” he wrote. “CSC routinely transfers individuals requiring complex physical care — such as chemotherapy or heart surgery — to external hospitals.… Yet, when it comes to mental health, CSC continues to operate under the misguided belief that it can provide specialized psychiatric care internally.” Cost triples from 2021 estimate CBC/Radio-Canada revealed on Thursday that Ottawa now plans to spend $1.3 billion on the project, more than triple the $400 million allocated in 2021. The project will replace the Shepody Healing Centre inside the Dorchester Penitentiary, which a psychiatrist there compares to a “dungeon.” The new centre will be built in the riding of Beauséjour, which has been represented by cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc since 2000. Last year, he confirmed that the centre's budget would be higher than initially planned, without providing a specific figure. Zinger was unavailable for comment Thursday. In his report, he urges the federal government to reconsider its plan. “Individuals diagnosed with serious mental illness — those experiencing acute psychiatric crises, persistent suicidal ideation or chronic self-harming behaviours requiring long-term psychiatric care — should be transferred to community-based psychiatric hospitals better suited to meet their needs,” he said in his recommendations. The federal government did not provide an immediate response to Zinger's report. In an interview, the former director of the Shepody Centre defended the project to create a new centre outside of the penitentiary’s walls, despite the budget increase. “The longer we wait, the more it will cost,” said Luc Doucet. “We have a duty to the Canadian population to treat these people, so that when they are released, they will represent as little danger as possible to society, or no danger at all.”
