Web posted on Friday, 15 February 2008
A showdown is looming over plans to build a prison in the central Okanagan.
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107.5 KISS FM Plan For Prison Panned
Okanagan native leaders have told provincial officials to build their new prison somewhere else. The BC government has been planning a correctional facility on the Kelowna-Lake Country border which is also near reserve land of the Okanagan Indian Band. Band members met with provincial officials Friday in Lake Country and told them it will have a fight on it hands if it proceeds. David Morehart, the deputy solicitor general, says they received a clear message to take back to Victoria. "We came hear to talk about some of our needs within the Okanagan Valley and there was a loud, clear message from some of the locals that there's some concerns about location of a prison in this community." Okanagan Band chief Fabian Alexis says the process has been handled poorly by the province. "It's just been wrong the way this whole process has been working out, and things have got to change." Lake Country mayor James Baker was also at the meeting and says his community also doesn't want the jail.
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