The long-promised closure of the Brantford jail is now a reality.

Workers at the Market Street jail have been informed that the province is moving ahead with the decommissioning of the facility.

A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services says the decommissioning is expected to be complete by early 2018.

All 77 inmates currently held in the jail will be moved to other correctional facilities, as will the approximately 80 people currently working at the jail.

Leslie Ogden, the president of the union representing jail workers, says she and her colleagues aren’t looking forward to dealing with new coworkers and – in many cases – longer commutes.

“We’re a family,” she says.

“We rely on each other.”

The jail’s closure has been considered an inevitability since 2012, when the province announced that it would happen. This week was the first time a specific timeline was provided.

In a statement to CTV News, Brantford Mayor Chris Friel called the closure the “right course of action” given the jail’s age, and said he hoped the province would offer “seamless transfers and generous retirement package options” for the workers.

With reporting by Tina Yazdani