WINNIPEG - Manitoba is spending more money to upgrade a polar bear jail in Churchill.

Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie says the province is spending $105,000 to improve the jail's walls and main entrance.

The compound is used to house wayward polar bears that get too close to the town or return to the community after being scared away.

After they're captured, the big predators are transported onto the arctic ice to hunt seals.

Blaikie says the bears are lingering around Churchill because ice has been slow to form on Hudson Bay this year.

Close to 60 bears have been captured and held so far in the jail.