Parolees are no longer frequenting the controversially located parole office at 191 Gilmour Street, according to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.
Instead, he told Centretown News in an e-mail, they are reporting to the Jackson Building at Bank and Slater streets as well as temporary office space provided by the John Howard Society and Community Residential Facilities. The Jackson Building will become the permanent home of the parole office once it is retrofitted, likely by the spring.
The Gilmour Street location will only be used for administrative purposes in the meantime, the e-mail said.
The move satisfies a long-time commitment from the federal government that the office be moved by September of this year. The Gilmour Street location has been subject to public lobbying since it opened in 2004, primarily due to its proximity to Elgin Street Public School and Minto Park.
After months of searching for a new location that could both satisfy the needs of the Correctional Service of Canada and appease the public, the Jackson Building was announced in May as the new home for the 16 parole officers.
It was selected because it is centrally located, easily accessible by public transit and in a predominantly business (rather than residential) area.
At the public meeting announcing the Jackson Building as the new location, June Blackburn, the CSC director for greater Ontario and Nunavut, said the September move was still on.
“We are committed to the minister’s commitment to move by September,” she said.
The office works with over 150 parolees at any given time, many of whom live in halfway houses in the Centretown area.