The Ottawa District Parole Office may not remain in Centretown when it’s scheduled to be relocated next September, says a former chair of the parole office’s citizens’ advisory committee.
The office is currently housed in a building at the corner of Elgin and Gloucester streets across from the Elgin Street Public School. The location is a source of concern for parents and others in the neighbourhood. In 2006, after two years of public pressure, then Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the office will be moved by the beginning of the school year in 2009.
Jo Cassie, former chair of the advisory committee who now volunteers at the office, says it is unlikely that a suitable space will be found in Centretown because of restrictions on the location of parole offices.
“I believe it would be better off in Centretown but I don’t think it will be,” she says.
Cassie says a location in the area is better because many of the offenders live there.
“They [the offenders] are in the community so you want the people who supervise them to be accessible,” she says. “Even if you took away the office, the offenders would still be living in the community.”
Holly Knowles, a spokesperson for the Corrections Canada says the office will be moved by 2009 and that they are working with the Department of Public Works to find a new location.
Nathalie Bétoté Akwa, communications adviser for Public Works, says that sites within the area bound by the Ottawa River, St. Laurent Boulevard, Baseline Road and Woodroffe Avenue are being considered.
Cassie also says that the fears raised by those who pressed for the move from the current location may be slowing down the process of finding a new home for the parole office.
The process started more than a year ago, says Cassie. Requests for bids have been sent out but the response has not been great partly due to the concerns expressed by those who pushed to have the office moved.
“If the people who spearheaded the move had spent a fraction of the time learning about the office, there would not have been that fear,” she says.
The argument that safety concerns slow down the relocation process also arose when the office was moved from a high-rise building on Laurier Avenue to its current location in 2004, says Albert Galpin.
Galpin, the co-chair of the Elgin Street Public School parent’s council, was heavily involved in pressing to have the office moved from its current address. He says he has received no word on when a new site will be announced.
“The Minister has said that the parole office will be moved and we can only take the minister on his word,” he says.
According to Public Works, it normally takes 18 to 24 months to find suitable locations for government offices, depending on the complexity of the clients’ needs. Parole offices have specific requirements such as access to public transportation, proximity to community services which must be considered when choosing an appropriate location. This can make the process a lengthy one, says Akwa.
Knowles, the spokesperson from Corrections Canada, would not comment on claims that delays in naming a location were linked to fears over the location of the office.