SECU Committee Report

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz, M.P.

Chair

Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Breitkreuz:

On behalf of the Government of Canada, I am pleased to provide you with the following response to the recommendations of the First Report of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security with respect to prison farm closures and food provisionment.

The Committee’s Report called for the Minister of Public Safety to table the Strategic Review document referred to by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) officials during the Committee’s meeting on March 25, 2010.  As you know, Strategic Reviews are designed to ensure that programs are achieving their intended results, are efficiently managed and are aligned with the priorities of Canadians.  While I am unable to table the Strategic Review document as it remains subject to Cabinet confidence, the decision to close the farming operations was taken as part of a modernization of CSC’s skills development programming, and confirmed in Budget 2009.  CSC is committed to providing offenders with opportunities to develop marketable employment skills to reflect the labour market demands of today and the future.

The Committee’s Report also recommended that the Minister of Public Safety refrain from taking any steps to sell, dismantle or reduce operations at any of Canada’s prison farms in any way, until independent experts have had an opportunity to fully review the value of the farm program.

CSC has been gradually phasing out the six farm operations located in federal institutions, and will continue to do so as planned.  The intention is to better address the employment needs and realities of offenders in an effort to reduce recidivism and increase their chances of successfully reintegrating into society.

CSC recognizes the need to implement skills development opportunities for offenders that will allow them to access the labour force in a more significant way, given that the vast majority of offenders return to urban centres.  From 2004 to 2009, less than 1% of offenders found work in the agriculture industry.  As such, the closure of the farm operations is allowing CSC to focus on developing alternative training that will provide more relevant and practical employability skills for offenders facing today’s labour market.  Examples of specific training programs identified to replace the prison farm program include, among others, a meat cutting operation at Westmorland Institution in New Brunswick and a First Nations housing project at Riverbend Institution in Saskatchewan.  Forklift operation, light-frame construction and welding are other employment training opportunities that CSC is currently offering to offenders.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the members of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security for the diligent and important work you do, on an ongoing basis, in probing matters related to public safety that are of real and legitimate concern to all Canadians.

Yours sincerely,

Vic Toews, P.C., Q.C., M.P.

Minister of Public Safety