Manitoba breaks ground on $142M Dauphin justice centre

Manitoba has broken ground on a 100-bed correctional facility in Dauphin, with $142 million committed to its first phase, Premier Wab Kinew and Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said Tuesday.

The Dauphin Centre for Justice will be built in the Dauphin Business Park. Early site work starts this fall and full construction is expected to begin in summer 2027, the province said in a news release.

The centre will combine secure custody with therapeutic, cultural, educational and rehabilitation programming, the province said. Of its 100 beds, 25 will be therapeutic-community beds with structured living, culturally grounded supports, recreation and wellness space and intensive planning for release.

Provincial jails in Manitoba hold adults who are on remand or serving sentences of less than two years, as well as youth who are remanded or sentenced. The province said the new centre will help ease capacity pressures across that system.

The project also carries local economic weight. Once fully running, the centre will replace about 80 jobs lost when the former Progressive Conservative government closed the Dauphin Correctional Centre in 2020, the province said.

“This facility represents a new approach to corrections in Manitoba, one that focuses on rehabilitation, accountability and giving people the supports they need to build a better future,” Kinew said at the groundbreaking.

Wiebe said the centre will be the first of its kind in the province and will include measures meant to cut reoffending and reduce the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the justice system.

The $142 million covers only the first phase, the remand and custody centre. The release did not say how many phases are planned, what the full project will cost or when the centre is expected to open. It also gave no staffing breakdown beyond the 80 jobs and did not say how many of the 100 beds will be for adults and how many for youth.

Construction will be delivered under a Manitoba Jobs Agreement that sets measurable targets for the workforce, apprenticeships, Indigenous participation and economic outcomes during the build, the province said. Design and planning followed consultation with Indigenous rights holders and governments, municipalities, community service providers and subject-matter experts.

The groundbreaking came the same day the province gave an update on repairs at the flood-damaged Dauphin Regional Health Centre, where diagnostic services have returned to their regular locations.

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Photo: The Dauphin Provincial Court House in Dauphin, Man. File photo by Krazytea via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.