Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan warned Friday that Windsor could lose the proposed jail to another community if it does not approve rezoning of the province’s preferred site near Highway 401.

“If the city doesn’t want it, we’re not going to drag this out,” Duncan told reporters following a speech to the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Other communities want it, other communities nearby.”

The city’s planning advisory committee last week voted against rezoning the 30-acre site north of the highway between Walker Road and Concession 8. Only five of the eight committee members were in attendance for the vote, which came at the end of a 71⁄2-hour meeting that stretched into the early hours of the following morning.

City council could ignore the committee’s recommendation and approve changing the land’s zoning from agricultural to major institutional. If council doesn’t approve the change, the province won’t bother appealing to the Ontario Municipal Board, Duncan said.

He said the province will just move on to another site.

Asked if the province was considering only other sites in Windsor, Duncan responded with an emphatic “No.”

“This is a regional centre,” he said of the new jail.

Chatham-Kent and Lakeshore have offered to host the new Southwestern Detention Centre, a 315-bed facility to replace the 80-year-old Windsor Jail in the city’s west end. The city has been pitching Brighton Beach, also in the west end, as a location more convenient to the downtown courthouse.

Duncan’s comments about the jail came at the end of a speech about last week’s budget. He said the changes made to provincial taxes makes Ontario a good place to invest, despite the current economy.

Even when pressed, Duncan didn’t say much about the new border crossing and the Detroit River International Crossing’s rejection of Windsor’s GreenLink proposal. Duncan said DRIC’s Parkway plan is in the midst of an environmental assessment and “well on track” for construction to begin this fall.

The city’s preferred border crossing proposal includes more tunnels than DRIC’s Parkway plan.

“The Ministry of the Environment is looking at it with a very critical eye,” he said. If approved, “Our desire is to proceed.”

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