"Weeks after the McGuinty government rammed ahead with a decision to shut down the Owen Sound and Walkerton jails, it still hasn’t released the numbers that justify the closures," Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker said today.

“Any decision to kill off 200 well-paying jobs and $6 million in combined area payrolls – without a trace of local consultation – deserves more than this,” Walker said, adding he has made repeated requests to obtain cost-benefit analysis documents from Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur. “Frankly, this looks to be more about politics than bureaucracy.”

The jail closures were announced in the March, 2011 budget as a “cost-saving measure”. Former Minister Jim Bradley said moving inmates to the Central Correctional Facility in Penetanguishene would save the province $4 million. However, according to a Ministry letter, dated Nov. 15 and obtained by Walker, the OPP Transport Unit will be paid $2.30 per kilometre to transport prisoners from Owen Sound to Penetanguishene.

“This is exactly what we feared: We’re going to see increased costs footed by the local community,” Walker said.