New Lower Mainland jail slated for Surrey

Metro Vancouver's new remand centre will be built next to Surrey City Hallnear the intersection of King George Highway and Highway 10, the provincial government announced on Wednesday morning.

The new 180-cell corrections facility will be connected by tunnel to both the adjacent provincial courthouse and the police station, which also share the the Municipal Centre sitewith an existing Remand Centre,said Solicitor General Kash Heed.

The Surrey location was selected by the government from a list of four possible sites identified by a committee of Metro Vancouver mayors, after Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan objected to a provincial proposal to build the new facility on the site of the former youth detention centre in Willingdon.

"I want to thank the Metro Vancouver mayors, especially [Surrey] Mayor Dianne Watts and her council, who came forward and volunteered locations in their communities, demonstrating their understanding of the necessity of getting gangsters and other dangerous criminals off our streets and behind bars," said Heed.

Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by 2013 as part of a$185-million province-wide upgrade of correction facilities. The new remand facility will be used to hold people awaiting trial at courts in the Lower Mainland area.

The governmenthas saidthe North Fraser pre-trial centre in Port Coquitlam is overcrowded and a new jail closer to courthouses in Metro Vancouver is needed.

Heed said the province plans to increase provincial prison capacity by 304 new cells, or a 19 per cent increase in order to house the increasing number of inmates brought in by a police crack down on organized crime.