At long last, it appears the cows are finally coming home.

Almost eight years after the Conservative government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper shuttered the sprawling prison farms at Collins Bay and Joyceville Institutions because they were deemed too costly to operate and no longer provided inmates with employable skills, the Trudeau government plans to reinstate them.

The government pledged $4.3 million dollars over five years to reopen the farms in its Feb. 27 federal budget.

The news was confirmed by Kingston and The Islands MP Mark Gerretsen, noting it was included on page 210 of finance minister Bill Morneau’s fiscal blueprint.

This is the paragraph that appears on Page 210 of the latest federal budget

Gerretsen made reopening the 1,500 acre prison farms a top priority since his election in 2015. But it wasn’t just his lobbying efforts alone.

A dedicated group of farmers, activists and other prison farm advocates wrote letters, lobbied leaders, joined committees and held an almost weekly vigil at the main entrance to Collins Bay prison since 2010 – in driving rain, blistering sun and frigid cold.

Sisters of Providence were among the steadfast prison farm supporters

They steadfastly fought to persuade the government that Corrections Canada ought to reinstate its previous long-standing practice of having low risk inmates ‘paying our way through agriculture.’

Remember that was the sign that used to be posted along Bath Road?

Successive city councils also championed the need for prison farms in Kingston, passing not one but three motions in recent years voicing support for their reinstatement. The latest motion, approved in 2017, reaffirmed support for the community cause.

It came at the same time a federally-appointed citizen’s panel with expertise in business, agriculture and inmate advocacy was established to study best methods to reopen the two Kingston prison farms by engaging with community stakeholders, exploring new business ideas and promoting partnerships to provide employment opportunities for released offenders.

The seven member panel included beef farmer Jeff Peters and organic dairy farmer Dianne Dowling, both members of the local Save Our Prison Farms coalition. Other volunteer members included Bridget Doherty, with Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent De Paul, Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society, Alec Ross, Limestone District School Board Trustee, livestock farmer Tony Straathof and dairy farmer Bruce Vandenberg.

Behind Collins Bay Institution is a prison farm that operated for about 100 years until it was closed in 2010

In addition to providing inmates with rehabilitation by working with farm animals and tending to the sprawling farm land behind the red roofed prison, advocates pointed to the obvious benefits of local food sustainability.

It’s taken a long time to convince federal leaders that Corrections should get back in the business of agriculture.

There are still several unknowns about what the government has in store for Collins Bay (the minimum security operation used to be called Frontenac Institution) and Joyceville. Will the prison farms involve both livestock and crops again? How soon will they start up? Is the government’s funding stable beyond the 2019 election? Will guards have to receive special training in farming practices in order to supervise the inmates?

The whole penitentiary farming system was dismantled nearly a decade ago; prime growing fields were abandoned and most of the prized livestock sold. Though, local supporters did manage to purchase some of the Collins Bay dairy herd in the event this day would come.

But a financial commitment to restore prison farms to some capacity in the next few years is there.

It capped a good week for the local MP, who indicated that securing federal funding for the third bridge and the prison farms were his top two priorities when elected. In one week, Gerretsen has managed to check both those items off his wish list. His work on behalf of constituents, at least on the bridge and bovine fronts, should be applauded.

There were many others watching this eight year saga from the sidelines who are also probably cheering the news and its potential long-term benefits of locally sourced food, new jobs and inmate rehab.

They’ll be paying their way through agriculture, once again.