Cost of new Minto jail more than doubles to $66M

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A new jail earmarked for Minto is now expected to cost $66 million – more than double the original estimate when the project was announced back in 2021.

Infrastructure Minister Richard Ames provided the new figure after Liberal MLAs tried to pin him down on the cost of several capital projects Thursday during a review of his department’s budget by the estimates committee.

The new Central New Brunswick Correctional Centre had originally been estimated to cost $32 million, but. last spring, Public Safety Minister Kris Austin told the estimates committee the price tag had grown to $42 million due to the rising cost of building materials.

Construction of the new jail is expected to start later this year, with mass excavation, site grading, electrical work and the laying of water infrastructure to be wrapped up by August. An access lane to connect the Industrial Park Road property to Route 10 has already been created.

Ames couldn’t say Thursday how much his department will spend on the jail project during this fiscal year, stating it was still waiting on the transfer of funds from the Department of Justice and Public Safety.

The minister also provided a similar answer when asked about funding earmarked this year for Fredericton’s new justice building.

Victoria-La Vallée Liberal MLA Chuck Chiasson accused Ames of being “evasive” after the minister referred him to the health department for a financial update on the Chaleur Regional Hospital project.

“I have to say I don’t appreciate the fact that you’re being evasive in your answers and I don’t appreciate you’re not forthcoming with these numbers,” Chiasson told the minister.

Thursday marked the first time Ames appeared before the estimates committee on a Department of Transportation and Infrastructure budget. Last June, Ames, the MLA for Carleton-York, was named the department’s minister in a cabinet shuffle after Premier Blaine Higgs booted Jeff Carr, a long-time minister, from the portfolio.

The shakeup came in the aftermath of six Progressive Conservative MLAs voting against their own government’s changes to the province’s gender identity policy for public school students.

New cost for justice building expected this month

In front of committee Thursday, Ames pledged a revised price tag would be released this month for Fredericton’s new justice building.

In January, the province chose Bird Construction to finish off the new courthouse on King Street, between Regent and Carleton streets, after the project ground to a halt due to a single bid coming in for the work.

The province had budgeted $60 million for the project, but the bid, from Ellis-Don Corporation, came in at more than $90 million. The government has yet to release the value of Bird Construction’s bid to serve as construction manager for the project.

Ames said Thursday there are still outstanding tenders for some of the construction work, so he couldn’t provide a new cost for the project yet.

“We’ll do our very best to have (that figure) by the end of the month,” he said.

The project is now expected to be completed in the fall of 2026, Ames told the committee. Back in January, the project was said to have a completion window of the spring of 2026 – several months after the original timeline of the end of 2025.

– With files from Savannah Awde