Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee members, I'm pleased to be here this afternoon to answer any questions you may have about the impact of Bill C-25 on the operations of the Correctional Service of Canada. I'd like to provide you with some background about my hist

Justice committee  I'll address the double-bunking issue first. The statistic that Mr. Sapers shared with you is the approved level of double-bunking. That doesn't mean that every single day of the year we're double-bunking 10% of the offender population.

Justice committee  Yes, but at the same time we have to address the pressures of inmates that are admitted to us. We absolutely do not control the number of inmates that flow to us from the courts. So we have to use the available cells that are there, plus take whatever measures or steps to address

Justice committee  Yes, I'll get to that.

Justice committee  I'll get to that. So it's not just that we're at 10% double-bunking population levels. In terms of the money piece, over the last several years we've received an infusion of money for various issues. One we received, and it has been ongoing into our base now, is $2 million for

Justice committee  It's $2 million.

Justice committee  I haven't finished. There are a whole bunch of other things I'll list. So our total budget is $2.3 billion, of which the vast majority is staff salaries. We receive $2 million for issues related to literacy and for ethnocultural programming, and to address some issues around cate

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  Yes, that is correct.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, and good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members. I'm pleased to be here today, and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on this very important issue for the Correctional Service of Canada. Over the last decade, due to a number of factors, we

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. That's an excellent question. Under the legislation, we have an obligation to provide a range of programs for offenders. The legislation very much puts the onus on us to make available a variety of programs, not only correctional programs but soc

Public Safety committee  I think we have some issues in some of the more unique or specific types of programs, some very unique problems—particularly, for example, on the mental health side. We have a huge array of programs available and in some cases we have more capacity than we have demand. I'll use

Public Safety committee  I have a couple of responses, one just quickly on the program piece. I mentioned briefly in my opening comments the moves we're making around what we're calling the integrated correctional program model. What that will do for us, to address the issue you raised about access to

Public Safety committee  We're trying to provide opportunities that address the criminogenic needs of offenders. The participation in farm programs don't necessarily do that. There is more emphasis on trying to meet production quotas than there is in meeting the criminogenic needs of the offenders. Our p

Public Safety committee  I've been the commissioner of Correctional Service Canada since June 2008. Previous to that I was the senior deputy commissioner from 2002 until I was appointed commissioner. Previous to that I was the assistant deputy minister in Saskatchewan responsible for the provincial proba