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Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General
250 213-3602

Backgrounders

B.C.’s newest correctional centre by the numbers

Safety

  • Okanagan Correctional Centre (OCC) is a high-security facility. Its layout, construction, surveillance and security systems – including extensive use of cameras – are designed to work together systematically to support the safety of staff, inmates and the community.
  • The exterior of the maximum security building will form most of OCC’s secure perimeter. As at other B.C. correctional centres, the fencing that forms the remainder of the perimeter meets correctional security standards.
  • For security reasons, other state-of-the-art protective features cannot be disclosed.

Economic benefits of construction

  • Since breaking ground in May 2014, the project had provided more than 741,000 person-hours of employment, with 32 different sub-trades involved and about 320 workers on site at any given time.
  • Of 61 subcontracts awarded during construction, 32 went to businesses in the region:
    • 19 in Kelowna
    • 7 in Penticton
    • 3 in Oliver
    • 1 in Salmo
    • 1 in Merritt
    • 1 in Vernon

Centre jobs and economic spinoffs

  • As at all provincial correctional centres, BC Corrections will staff all positions related to inmate supervision and management at OCC.
  • Once the centre is fully operational next year, it will employ 240 corrections staff plus 60 people in support positions.
  • Close to 100 staff are already working at the centre, focusing on readying the centre for full operation, providing security at the site and taking part in training.
  • Over the coming months, classes of 24 correctional officers will start every two weeks for training.
  • About 99% of the positions at OCC are now filled, with only two remaining positions to be filled – the centre’s chaplain and business office manager.
  • Approximately 50 staff and their families have relocated to the region, bringing 45 school-aged children into the local area.
  • Under a fixed-price, performance-based agreement, Plenary Justice – which designed and built OCC under a public-private partnership agreement – will provide ongoing maintenance and facilities management.

Capital program context

  • OCC is part of the second phase of the largest capital investment in BC Corrections’ history. The Okanagan project follows:
    • A 216-cell expansion at Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, completed in 2014, which more than doubled existing capacity and made it B.C.’s largest provincial correctional centre.
    • At Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, 104 new cells that became operational in 2013.
    • A 20-cell expansion for women at Prince George Regional Correctional Centre, opened in December 2010.

Other

  • OCC is designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, which will help to minimize operating costs.
  • The OCC project won the Silver Award in the community involvement category of the 2015 National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships (P3s). The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships hailed OCC as "a unique and ground-breaking partnership with the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB)" that "serves as a model of how to develop and build a best-in-class P3 on First Nations land."

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