Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
I want to start off by congratulating you for daring to stand up and talk about problems you are facing and about problems destitute people are facing. In his 2009-2010 report, the Correctional Investigator of Canada painted a rather bleak picture of what he said were over three quarters of the prison population. I don't know whether you have seen this report, but it stated that there was a very high number of incarcerated women and aboriginals. According to the investigator's study, there are women and aboriginals with mental illnesses, but there are also financially destitute aboriginals in prison.
You are the ones experiencing the poverty first hand. Financial, but also mental poverty cause people to commit acts that lead to imprisonment.
That's why I wanted to congratulate you on the stand you have adopted. The fact that you are several representatives from a number of churches adds credibility to your testimony.
Mr. Champagne, two sentences jumped out at me, but you didn't read the following one because you hurried to get through your letter:
We are called to be a people in relationship with each other through our conflicts and sins, with the ingenious creativity of God’s Spirit to find our way back into covenant community.
This is very important. We are a community that should take into consideration people who are more financially and psychologically destitute and provide them with services.
Here's what worries me about the freeze on budget envelopes. When a decision is made to freeze the Correctional Services budgets, an additional 4,400 CXs, or prison guards, must be hired. Where will the cuts be made inside prisons? Would the governments not be likely to make cuts to reintegration programs, substance abuse programs, skills-building programs?
Money is in short supply at Correctional Services. For those who are not aware of this fact, at Correctional Services, they teach women how to do needlepoint, but they don't provide them with the skills to improve their financial situation. At least they are kept busy, but even these programs will be cut.
Do you think that this is where the cuts will be made?