The Okanagan Correctional Centre is a giant step closer to reality following two important milestones reached last week.
First, an agreement was signed between the provincial government and the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) that will allow the $240-million project to go ahead in the Senkulmen Business Park on OIB land.
Second, three construction companies were short-listed, moving the construction project to its final stage in the competitive selection process.
The winning contract is expected to be awarded next March or April with construction to begin immediately.
This correctional facility, scheduled to open in the fall of 2016, is one of the largest provincial projects in the South Okanagan in decades.
Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells compares its impact to that of the irrigation ditch built here in the 1930s.
Ironically, there was no great eagerness on the part of some communities in the area to host this facility.
Penticton voted against it in a plebiscite. Other communities also gave it a pass.
Some of this concern may have been based on irrational fears that living next to a prison population poses a security risk to neighbourhoods nearby.
This ignores the experience of communities elsewhere in Canada that host prison facilities without such problems.
The entrepreneurial leadership of the OIB, however, saw the opportunity this facility could provide and jumped at the chance to host it.
The facility will provide both short and long-term employment to band members, as well as employment and numerous other economic spinoffs to the broader community.
The positive economic impact of this correctional facility is going to be felt for generations to come.
The partnership between B.C. Corrections and a First Nation is the only one of its kind in the entire country.
When the project begins a year from now, there will be 500 direct and 500 indirect construction jobs created, according to B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond.
After completion in 2016, the new medium security prison will operate on leased OIB land for 60 years, with an option for an additional 20-year agreement.
When it opens, the facility will provide 240 new full-time correctional positions. Its annual payroll is expected to be $18 million, which will have significant spinoff benefits to the South Okanagan economy.
As Wells points out, many of the employees will buy homes, goods and services in Osoyoos – increasing enrolment in our schools and creating more jobs at community facilities in the area, such as the South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver.
Obviously with a provincial election looming, the Liberal government was anxious to move things along and remind voters in the area of the benefits this project will bring. Regardless of the election outcome, it would be difficult for a new government of either stripe to back away from the project now that it has come this far. It is to the credit of the OIB and Chief Clarence Louie that they saw an opportunity and ran with it.
This project is one of the most important for the South Okanagan in the past 50 years as it will not only create much-needed employment, but massive economic spinoff benefits for decades.