The mayor of an Ontario city home to one of Canada’s most notorious prisons says converting it one day into housing could eat at its economy.
Bryan Paterson told Global News that while Kingston does have housing needs, transforming the site of Kingston Penitentiary – which Ottawa says can be suitable for housing – would be a loss for the city’s finances.
“This particular property has huge benefits for tourism and film, and we want to make sure that isn’t impacted,” he said.
“We’re always happy to have more discussions about opportunities for housing, but again, there are lots of other federal government properties that we think would be great candidates for.”
Paterson’s comments come after the federal government publicly revealed Thursday that Kingston Pen – a former maximum-security prison that has held infamous criminals like Paul Bernardo – has the potential to become housing.
Ottawa added the site, which operated as a jailhouse for 178 years, to the Canada Public Land Bank – a federal initiative that aims to turn surplus and underused federal public lands into affordable housing.
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Located on the city’s waterfront, Kingston Pen shut down in 2013 and was converted into a museum, offering members of the public guided tours throughout the institution.
Paterson said he doesn’t know how Ottawa’s process unfolded, but added it would be “complicated and difficult” to retrofit the prison into housing while keeping tourism and film operations running.
Mark Gerretsen, Liberal MP for Kingston and the Islands, said Ottawa’s listing of the jailhouse is just the first step of what would be a long process.
“It needs to be turned over from Corrections to Canada Lands, and then we can start to really push the opportunities to create a long-term lease with the city,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s a fait accompli that this will be torn down or anything like that. On the contrary, this is a good opportunity now for the city to put forward a good case to get a long-term lease for the property.”
Megan Knott, CEO of Tourism Kingston, echoed that sentiment, saying the prison’s cultural and economic value can’t be overlooked.
“Ever since Kingston Penitentiary was decommissioned as its normal use, the community has rallied around to be able to utilize it as an asset,” Knott said.
“Certainly, tourism probably played the biggest role in being able to reimagine what that site looks like.”
— with files from Jesse Reynolds
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