Information Sessions on Burnside Facilities
The government of Nova Scotia is inviting members of the public to learn more about the new correctional centre and forensic psychiatry hospital that the province is considering relocating to the Burnside Industrial Park in Dartmouth.
Information sessions will be held Wednesday, Sept. 22, at Future Inns, 20 Highfield Park Dr., Dartmouth, and Monday, Sept. 27, at the Burnside Hotel, 739 Windmill Rd., Dartmouth. Both sessions will be from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Staff from the departments of Justice and Health and the Nova Scotia Hospital will be on hand. Residents are invited to ask questions, express concerns and learn more about the facilities.
The government continues its discussions with the Halifax Regional Municipality regarding the details of a land swap in which the province will exchange the 390-hectare (960-acre) site in Bedford for 27 hectares (66 acres) of serviced land in the Burnside Industrial Park. In anticipation of the arrangement, the municipality will be surveying the site. However, any land exchange will not occur until after the information sessions have been held.
The project will bring new development and 300 construction jobs to the industrial park, which is properly zoned for the facilities and is near the courts, emergency services, and forensic psychiatry resources already used by both facilities.
The facilities will replace the Halifax Correctional Centre in Lower Sackville and the Forensic Service of the Nova Scotia Hospital. Both facilities require constant upgrading and renovation to meet safety standards. The Forensic Service continues to transfer patients out of province for custody and treatment, the costs of which are expected to reach $4 million per year by 2001-02.
The new correctional centre will house 272 inmates, including 48 female offenders. The new forensic psychiatry hospital will include 60 beds for patients, a 24-bed unit for mentally ill offenders, and two four-bed transition units. The facilities will share kitchen and laundry services, as well as program and treatment resources.
The development agreement with Read Management Ltd., signed in April 1999, has been extended to allow the government to determine a new site.