January 24, 2020
The PCs decision to close the Dauphin Correctional Centre rather than build a new one is another example of the PCs taking rural Manitoba for granted, says Dougald Lamont, Manitoba Liberal Leader and MLA for St. Boniface.
The PCs "buried the lede" of the Dauphin Correctional Centre closure at the end of a press release that announced renovations to the Dauphin Courthouse. The correctional centre houses approximately 74 prisoners, who will apparently be sent to other facilities. It is also a major employer in the town.
"You would think the Pallister Government has a vendetta against Dauphin and the Parkland region, because he seems determined to make them pay through cuts," said Lamont. "There have been cuts to health, education, pharmacies, Crown Lands, and now public safety. This isn't government, it is economic vandalism."
The PCs have already closed an ambulance station in the Parkland region and handed a contract to supply medication to 104 rural personal care homes to a subsidiary of Shoppers Drug Mart, which used to be handled by locally-owned and operated pharmacies.
The PCs delayed the installation of an MRI for more than a year, changes to Crown Lands leases are threatening farmers with bankruptcy, and now the closure of a local jail.
Lamont said the PCs are making a terrible mistake by stripping rural Manitoban towns of their services and jobs.
"What rural Manitoba needs is investment, and what we are getting is a PC government that is stripping the province for parts," said Lamont. "We don't accept it, and neither should the people of Dauphin."
-30-