Agassiz Youth Centre staff get transfers amid shutdown

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This article was published 14/06/2022 (882 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — Almost all employees of a Portage la Prairie youth jail that will shut down next month are transferring to other corrections sites, after Manitoba Justice pledged to offer them jobs.

Most staff from Agassiz Youth Centre put the Manitoba Youth Centre in Winnipeg as their first choice when asked to rank three preferred options, said one employee, who asked not to be named.

“Most people were OK with the decisions handed to them, but there was some disappointment if they didn’t get their first choice,” the employee told the Free Press. “A few have looked into other employment options as a result.”

The staff member said more than 20 workers will transfer to the Women’s Correctional Centre in Headingley, a few will go to jails in Headingley and Brandon, and at least one will work at Milner Ridge, about 20 kilometres southwest of Lac du Bonnet.

Agassiz has 104 staff and a rated capacity of 128 inmates. It had 16 inmates as of June 10, as the province winds down operations.

There were 73 at the Manitoba Youth Centre, which has 222 employees.

The Agassiz employee called the transfer process “bittersweet” for those who got their first choice and now face an hour-long commute each way, while the price of regular gasoline and diesel have risen more than $2 a litre. The only way to avoid the costly commute is to move.

“That’s the toughest pill to swallow. I now have to commute down a terrible highway,” the employee said. “The price of gas is a huge factor and something on most of our minds.”

For staff who live in or near Winnipeg and currently drive to Portage, their commute to work will be shorter.

The employee said Manitoba Justice has closed one of three units since announcing March 24 that Agassiz would close, “which it assured us would not happen.”

Part-time permanent staff who are backfilling full-time permanent positions have no guarantee of keeping a full-time role when they transfer, the person added.

“I’m aware many part-time permanent staff, who work in full-time backfill positions, will lose those upon transferring to their new facility, and will be going back into the part-time pool and being on call for shifts,” said the employee. “They have reshuffled our schedules and taken away additional staffing positions. Our part-time staff are struggling right now to get hours, which the employer (also) assured would not happen.”

With the exception of four employees, all staff are being relocated to other jails and maintaining their respective classification because there were vacancies for them, said the Manitoba Government and General Employees’​ Union.

One employee has decided to retire, one has found a job with a company in Portage, and two “bumped” less senior staff. Due to vacancies, jobs were available to the two employees who were bumped.

A spokesman for the province said all staff “will have the option of a job” within Manitoba Justice.

The province declined to give a breakdown of the facilities staff are transferring to and in what numbers.

“Individual staff assignments are handled on a case-by-case basis and are guided by the provisions of the collective agreement based on factors such as seniority and availability of positions at other correctional centres,” the spokesman wrote in an email. “Further, the province has already stated publicly that the facility is operating well below capacity, so some internal adjustments have been made, but for security reasons it would not be appropriate to provide extensive detail on that effort.”

Agassiz is the second provincial jail closed by the Progressive Conservative government in just over two years. Manitoba Justice shuttered the Dauphin Correctional Centre in May 2020, after the cost of renovations were deemed too high.

When he announced the closure of Agassiz in March, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said the jail has operated below 50 per cent capacity for years.

Agassiz had 32 inmates, or one-quarter of its capacity, on the day of the announcement.

Goertzen said a majority of Agassiz’s inmates are Indigenous and from northern Manitoba, and the province was shifting its priorities to better serve them.

The next day, he joined Garrison Settee, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, to announce plans for the province’s first healing lodge.

MKO will set up and run the facility in Thompson, with $2 million in initial funding from the province. The Indigenous-led lodge will offer programs closer to home and incorporate traditional teachings. The first phase will have 20 open-custody beds and community transition programs.

Manitoba Justice plans to divert Agassiz’s operating funds to corrections in northern communities.

The loss of Agassiz is another economic blow to Portage, about 70 km west of Winnipeg.

In April, an MGEU economic impact study found Progressive Conservative cuts and closures in Portage would affect 456 public-sector jobs, that pay $27.6 million in wages and salaries.

The study looked at cuts to the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba’s compass residential program and the Crown Lands Property Agency’s real estate division, and closures at Agassiz, Red River College Polytechnic’s Stevenson campus at Southport (a former Canadian Forces base south of Portage) and the Manitoba Developmental Centre, which is due to shut down in 2024.

A new hospital to be built in Portage is expected to open in 2025.

The facility, announced in 2021 at a cost of $283 million, could be built on the 23-hectare Agassiz site, which is next to the existing hospital and ambulance station.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching