Olivia Groenewegen holds on to Stormy the donkey out side the Correctional Service Canada regional headquarters in Kingston, Ont. on Friday July 23, 2010. Members of Save Our Prison Farms held a blockade in front of the headquarters. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

The federal Liberals are considering re-opening some Canadian prison farms.

Correctional Service Canada is launching a feasibility study on the two shuttered Kingston farms, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said during question period Thursday.

“We are launching a feasibility study on restoring the prison farms in the Kingston area,” Goodale said in repose to a planted Liberal question. “This process will allow citizens, business leaders, and other stakeholders to share their visions for what the program could look like. It will allow the government to review the costs and efficacy of reinstatement.”

The feasibility study, the government said, will be conducted online from June 2 until August 2. The agency will also hold a town hall meeting in Kingston for “local residents, business leaders and other stakeholders to voice their perspectives.”

A date for the town hall meeting has not been announced.

The Harper government closed Canada’s six prison farms – despite public protest – in 2010, arguing the farms were no longer a useful tool for inmate rehabilitation. Two of those farms were located in the Kingston area.

Farms in Atlantic and Western Canada were auctioned off, while the two farms in the Kingston area – including Frontenac Farm, considered by many to be the leading dairy farm in Canada – were closed.