According to Portage la Prairie City Councillor Joe Masi, the future looks promising for the site of the Agassiz Youth Centre.
He mentions they are in the final stages of preparing the property for new development.
"The province did all the asbestos removal of some of those buildings, and this is now going to allow the total finalization of demolition for the buildings. We hope to start this fall and finish by early 2025."
Masi notes that this aligns well with the city's strategic plan for the region.
"What's exciting now is that this once the demolition and the land are ready for investment, we were going to be looking for a really good development to repurpose that," continues Masi." It's really great to see that something that went from a bad news story of the jail closing is now going to be a positive story for the City of Portage as the land is repurposed and developed."
The facility opened in February 1910 and officially closed in July 2022.