Authorities were searching for 69-year-old Ernest Egon Jensen and conducting patrols near the prison in Metchosin on Sunday.
An inmate at William Head Institution serving a life sentence for second-degree murder escaped from the minimum-security facility over the weekend.
Correctional Service Canada said that 69-year-old Ernest Egon Jensen was unaccounted for at the noon count on Sunday.
Jensen is described as having a fair complexion, brown eyes, no hair on his head, and a scar on his forehead.
He is missing three fingers on his left hand and is five-foot-eight and about 230 pounds.
Jensen has been serving his sentence since March 20, 1991. He has also served time for breaking-and-entering and trespassing.
West Shore RCMP said in a statement Sunday afternoon that they have initiated patrols near the Metchosin institution.
They said the public should expect to see a heavy police presence in the area while teams search for the man.
The detachment’s dog team is helping with the search, and police air patrols are underway.
Police said Jensen is considered dangerous and people should not approach him.
Anyone who knows where he is or sees him should call 911 immediately.
This is not the first time an inmate has escaped from the minimum-security prison, which is about 30 kilometres from Victoria.
James Lee Busch and Zachary Armitage left the facility on the evening of July 7, 2019, by walking around a fence at low tide.
They found their way to the home of Martin Payne, who lived about about eight kilometres away. They holed up in his house after the 60-year-old left for work on the morning of July 8, 2019, and killed him when he returned home that day.
Busch and Armitage were arrested in Esquimalt the following day, two days after they escaped the prison.
Busch had been serving time for second-degree murder, while Armitage robbed and beat a man, leaving him a quadriplegic and unable to speak. Both had previously escaped from other prisons.
Their escape raised questions about why high-risk inmates were being sent to the minimum-security Willaim Head prison.
In December 2022, they were convicted of first-degree murder in Payne’s killing.