Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you pointed out, with me today are Fraser Macaulay, the assistant commissioner, correctional operations and programs, and Ms. Lynn Garrow, the chief executive officer for CORCAN, which is an arm of the Correctional Service of Canada. Good morning, Mr. Chair and honourable members.

Public Safety committee  Yes, not only have I heard of it, but when I worked the front line a number of years ago I actually made a seizure with the drugs in diapers, as well as drugs in body cavities of children. When these kinds of situations occur, they're desperate acts by desperate people for whatever reasons.

Public Safety committee  Yes, as I said, the problem with trying to break out the numbers specifically to drugs, with the implementation of the integrated correctional program model, which has early components of the program, it's hard to give you that precise percentage. I can give you very quickly a breakdown of the substance abuse programming in relation to the overall programs.

Public Safety committee  Thanks for that question. As the bill stands, there is no requirement for us to do a urinalysis test immediately prior to release. All it requires us to do is that if there is a drug test that occurs before the release, either through random sampling in the institution or because we've had reason to believe that the individual is involved in drug activity, then we would be obligated to share that information.

Public Safety committee  I would add that the combination of the risk assessment approach that the Parole Board uses and the risk-based supervision approach that our staff applies in the community is what is providing those public safety results for Canadians.

Public Safety committee  Yes, and just to clarify, that's not my total program budget. That's just if we're talking about the opportunities to address substance abuse issues. Currently I'm spending about $8.9 million specifically on substance abuse programming and with our new integrated correctional programming module, which delivers those primer portions of the programs to all offenders coming in and now admitted, I'm spending $14 million.

Public Safety committee  I'll accept that comment.

Public Safety committee  It's worth mentioning that several programs, particularly the work around the cognitive behavioural skills development, substance abuse programming and the anger management violence prevention programs have been in our service for well over 15-plus years. In relation to the substance abuse program its early infancy was almost 20 years ago.

Public Safety committee  There are several ways in which that occurs. To begin, I'll talk about individuals who are coming forward for conditional release. During that process there's a significant exchange of information between the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board of Canada. As well, that same information we share between the two services is also shared with the offender, so that the offender understands the basis for the decision-making going forward.

Public Safety committee  It varies because of the new approach we're taking with the integrated correctional program model. Before, we used to be able to just count everybody who was in the substance abuse program, but with the introduction of the integrated correctional program model in two regions, where they start their initial program primers right at the time of admission, those numbers now get confused.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for that question and the opportunity to clarify. It is actually part of the story. If you go back and look at the amount of money that we were spending just on substance abuse programming back in 2009, we were spending about $11.7 million. Now, with the approach of the integrated correctional program model combined with the substance abuse programs that we're still offering in the other three regions, we're spending just shy of $23 million.

Public Safety committee  Just to clarify again, the 95% actually refers to the number of offenders that complete at least one nationally recognized correctional program prior to warrant expiry date. So 95% of offenders, before their entire sentence is up—both the institutional and community part—have completed at least one nationally recognized program in relation to their correctional plan.

Public Safety committee  Yes, we have an early evaluation just in terms of its general implementation. Over the next two years we'll have a more detailed evaluation as to its overall effectiveness and efficacy as it relates to various correctional planning modules. Over the next two years those research reports will hopefully validate what we're seeing in the early stages.

Public Safety committee  We can definitely share that, yes.

Public Safety committee  We offer a variety of evidence-based programs. A lot of our programs have actually formed the basis for many other jurisdictions around the world for their correctional programming models they put in place. The work we've done around substance abuse programming has been a model for over 15 years.