Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of the Solicitor General have issued a request for qualifications for teams to deliver the Brockville Correctional Complex & St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre Project.

The project, which will be located near Brockville in the Township of Elizabethtown-Kitley, will add 295 new correctional beds in Eastern Ontario.

“Our government is cracking down on criminals by building jails and strengthening the bail system to keep violent offenders where they belong: behind bars,” said Premier Doug Ford. “The Brockville expansion is part of our plan to add over 1,400 beds in correctional facilities across the province and ensure lack of space is never an excuse to grant offenders early release.”

The Brockville Correctional Complex includes the construction of 270 new male beds in a new facility with classification levels that will include maximum, medium, minimum and specialized care.

The St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre includes the construction of 25 new female beds.

The project will expand the existing secure treatment unit facility to exclusively house females in maximum-security. The expanded facility will be built at the same time as the new Brockville Correctional Complex and will be located next to the existing secure treatment unit facility as its own separate structure.

A bridge will be built to connect the new St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre to the existing secure treatment unit. 

Both facilities will share administrative staff and correctional staff facilities, and recreational spaces.

The project will be approximately 322,000 square feet and is being delivered using a design-bid-build model.

"Launching the Request for Qualifications represents a significant milestone and signals the start of a competitive procurement process to bring a construction partner on board,” said Infrastructure Ontario President and CEO Angela Clayton. “We remain committed to working closely with our government partners and engaging with experienced proponents who can support the delivery of correctional facilities that meet the province’s long-term needs."

The RFQ is the first step in the process to select a team to deliver the project. Teams shortlisted through the RFQ will be invited to respond to a request for proposals, which is expected to be issued this fall

The province says the building of the new Brockville Correctional Complex and expansion of the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre is part of a broader plan to strengthen Ontario’s correctional system with new beds, facility expansions and modernization projects, including:

• 345 new beds at the Thunder Bay Correctional Complex
• 320 new beds at the Toronto South Detention Centre
• 150 new beds between three modular expansions in Niagara, Milton and Sudbury
• 91 new beds at the Quinte Detention Centre
• 235 new beds at the Eastern Ontario Correctional Complex.

In the coming months, the government says it will unveil additional expansions, totalling hundreds of new beds, to further increase capacity across the province.