Oakville courthouse project axed as Ontario government focuses on online court services
Published May 12, 2020 at 1:35 pm
Oakville will not be getting a new state-of-the-art courthouse.
At least not anytime soon.
Oakville will not be getting a new state-of-the-art courthouse.
At least not anytime soon.
Buried in the Province of Ontario’s announcement May 8, titled, “Ontario Investing in Innovative Ways to Modernize the Justice System”, Attorney General Doug Downey confirmed the cancellation of the project.
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“…our government has made the decision not to proceed with the Halton Region Consolidated Courthouse construction project [in Oakville], which was in the procurement phase before the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Downey.
“This investment will be repurposed to transform and update Ontario’s severely antiquated justice system, and address immediate infrastructure needs at the courthouses in Milton and Burlington.”
The provincial government said it will instead direct its resources towards developing ways of delivering justice remotely and online.
“This innovative new approach will allow Ontario to take concrete action for the first time in recent memory to support a truly reimagined justice system,” Downey continued.
“It will move Ontario’s justice system forward by decades and allow it to emerge from this public health crisis more resilient and better positioned to face future challenges.”
The cost of the Oakville project was estimated between $200 million and $500 million and was set to be located on provincially-owned land in the area of William Halton Prkwy and Third Line, north of Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.
According to Infrastructure Ontario, the 7-storey, 45,000 square metre courthouse would have featured up to 32 courtrooms and a broad range of services.
The now-cancelled project would have amalgamated the Superior Court of Justice and Ontario in Burlington and Milton.
The Government of Ontario said it will “engage with justice sector partners, leaders, and innovators to develop investment priorities that support new ways of delivering and increasing access to justice that spans the entire sector and province, including rural and remote communities and criminal, civil and family law fields”.
The government said it will provide an update later this summer.
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