FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 5, 2000

Citizens deserve answers from Dunlop, correctional staff say

PENETANGUISHENE - Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop has some explaining to do Thursday night, Ontario corrections workers say.

"Before the 1999 election, the Ontario government told the citizens of Penetanguishene that the superjail being built here would be publicly run," said Tim Mulhall, a correctional officer at the Barrie Jail and vice-president of Local 313 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. "Now, after the election, they’re saying it will be privately run. That wasn’t the deal."

Mulhall called on people in Penetanguishene to come out to a special meeting of town council, with MPP Dunlop in attendance, "to get some answers."

Date:  Thursday, January 6, 2000
Time:  7:00 p.m.
Place: Town Council Chambers,
            10 Robert Street, Penetanguishene

Before the 1999 election, then Corrections Minister Bob Runciman said there were "too many unanswered questions about safety" with a private facility. Private prisons in the U.S. and the U.K. have a track record of riots, deaths, and escapes.

There are still too many unanswered questions, Mulhall said. For example:

Did the government lie when it said that the Penetanguishene superjail would be public - just to get elected? when it said that the Penetanguishene superjail would be public - just to get elected?

If not, what new information that the government didn’t have a year ago makes them think a private superjail will be less dangerous here than other ones have been elsewhere?

Why should Penetanguishene accept $4 million less in annual payroll than Lindsay will get with a public superjail?

What will be the impacts on local property values of a private, as opposed to a public, superjail? Has the government done a study?

- 30 -

For more information: Tim Mulhall (705) 790-8556