The relocation of the Ottawa Parole Office on Gilmour Street has been pushed back once more.
“Every effort is being made to expedite the full relocation of the Ottawa Parole Office to the 122 Bank St./257 Slater St. location,” Kyle Lawlor, spokesperson for Correctional Services Canada, wrote in an email.
The current parole office has been the centre of controversy since it opened in 2004. Residents object to its proximity to Elgin Street school and Minto Park.
But Correctional Services says they are pushing back their moving date yet again, to the summer, because of “further unforeseen delays in obtaining the full office space through Public Works and Government Services.”
The office, currently at 191 Gilmour St., has been set to move for many years. In a letter to Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar last summer and again most recently on Feb. 8, Federal Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose confirmed the final moving date as this May.
Albert Galpin, a nearby resident and activist who has campaigned for the relocation of the office for several years, wonders what could have changed within a month to push back the move.
“Either the government is totally incompetent or they are not telling the truth,” says Galpin.
Correctional Services and Ambrose have both said that 191 Gilmour is being used as an administrative location and no parolees have reported to the location since 2009.
Despite this, Galpin says he believes simply having the administration at this location is a cause for concern.
The purpose of the office is to administer parolees, he says. There is nothing stopping them from sending parolees back to that location or having them in the area.