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Local: Never perfect
Commentary by Chris Clegg
for South Peace News
Any chance High Prairie and area have of successfully landing a federal penitentiary should be welcome with open arms.
Despite a few drawbacks to having a facility in the region, the benefits of having a prison in the area far outweigh the disadvantages.
M.D. of Big Lakes Reeve Alvin Billings let the cat out of the bag at council’s Feb. 10 meeting. Keeping in mind this project is in the most preliminary of stages the fact is, this is something we should be putting our noses to the grindstone quickly and aggressively.
Billings has discussed the matter with Athabasca MP Brian Jean, who says the federal government is thinking of building some new prisons in Canada.
“It needs to be studied,” Billings told his council.
The economic benefits of having a federal prison nearby far outweigh any benefit Tolko could have ever given us. The penitentiary at Prince Albert has room for 532 inmates. It has 455 employees. Other pens have similar numbers.
These employees are not poorly paid. They are highly-trained professionals and experts at what they do.
And, if a federal pen is built, it’s not here for a song and a dance, as Tolko was. It’s here for decades. That’s called stability. Economic stability.
Just ask Peace River what their correctional centre has done for them the last few decades.
Further, can you imagine what the economic benefits would be in having an extra 300-350 families locating in High Prairie?
There is also another hidden benefit to having the prison here. We know all too well in High Prairie how much money leaves this community to access health services. The same can be argued for people coming to visit friends and relatives in a prison. They have to come to town, stay overnight in a hotel, eat at restaurants, buy a few things in our stores they forgot to bring – it all adds up to money being spent in our town.
New businesses would immediately take notice if an industry as stable as a federal pen was setting up shop in town. They wouldn’t think twice about building in town to accommodate the new onslaught of shoppers.
And, do you think some of the thugs and drug dealers in town would be so brave to openly operate their business if they knew a trained prison guard and his friend were walking their dogs around the corner?
Having a prison located in your community does have a certain stigma attached to it. The common argument we hear is, “What if someone escapes and attacks someone in our home?”
We can’t deny that would never happen but chances are, if a criminal escaped the last thing he’d want to do is hang around a town where there were a few hundred prison employees.
High Prairie desperately needs new economic development to drive its economic engine. The last few years, taxes have risen shamelessly and we need an economic base to sustain what we have.
A prison isn’t the perfect solution, but it’s a solution that demands serious consideration and eventual support. It would be a serious mistake to not support this worthwhile endeavour.
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