Evidence of meeting #27 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Ms. Latimer.
We go now to the Union of Safety and Justice Employees.
You have 10 minutes, but if you could do it faster, that would be great. Thank you.
2:35 p.m.
Stanley Stapleton National President, Union of Safety and Justice Employees
Good afternoon. My name is Stan Stapleton. I am the national president of the Union of Safety and Justice Employees, also known as USJE. As a national organization representing employees working on the front lines of the pandemic, I am immensely appreciative of the opportunity to be here with my colleague David Neufeld, who is the national vice-president.
USJE represents over 16,000 federal public service employees who work for 18 federal departments and agencies in a safety or justice capacity. However, the largest number of our employees work for the Correctional Service of Canada.
Unlike the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, UCCO, which plays a security function at federal penitentiaries, USJE represents a diverse range of employees with crucial rehabilitative and administrative functions. These include food service officers, parole and program officers, teachers, managers of assessment and intervention, facilities and maintenance crew, and licensed practical nurses. Hundreds of federal parole officers and case management teams from coast to coast oversee the reintegration of federal offenders. Their job is to ensure that federal offenders across the country adhere to their supervision plans and are not at risk of reoffending.
I will be very honest with you. When COVID-19 hit, I do not believe we were prepared. Whatever pandemic protocols may have been in place were not immediately applied within CSC. On March 18 I wrote a letter to Commissioner Anne Kelly, appealing to her to immediately implement proactive measures to minimize the spread of COVID in federal prisons and contain the footprint in the community. We needed CSC to do what was effectively being done in Canada's long-term homes—namely, heavily control who was coming in and out of federal penitentiaries; significantly increase cleaning and sanitization protocols; ensure appropriate use of PPE, and encourage face coverings within; begin widespread testing; stop employees from working at multiple sites; and isolate presumptive cases among employees or offenders.
For several weeks, we found that new protocols were not always applied consistently. For example, there was limited access to testing and PPE, sanitization was inadequate, employees were moving between sites, food delivery within affected prisons was presenting opportunities for further infection, and there were not enough laptops to enable work from home. Quite frankly, when considering the living and working conditions at CSC during this pandemic, it is remarkable that major outbreaks were contained to five federal sites and two deaths. Although extremely unfortunate, it could have been much worse.
USJE's senior leaders worked around the clock for several weeks to highlight the challenges, gaps, oversights and opportunities to do things better when it came to COVID. One could say we were relatively lucky this time. However, many CSC employees working at full capacity and under enormous stress during the past few months would not view the situation so favourably.
Thankfully, at this stage CSC and its union partners are in a much better place. This is in part because of the creation of a joint transition task force established by CSC, USJE and other labour partners. The task force is something that USJE called for in order to keep employees and offenders safe. The work of this task force has been very encouraging in terms of the level of respect and engagement. We commend Bev Arsenault's leadership with this task force. I believe it could represent a new direction in how CSC treats its labour partners, who have first-hand knowledge of the challenges on the ground.
I will now turn it over to my colleague David Neufeld.
2:40 p.m.
David Neufeld National Vice-President and Regional Vice-President, Correctional Service of Canada Community and Parole Board of Canada - West, Union of Safety and Justice Employees
As we begin to enter a reset phase of this pandemic, it is imperative that USJE work very closely with CSC and other stakeholders to, first, critically evaluate the effectiveness of the protocols put in place because of COVID-19 and determine what could be done better and how, and second, assess what is needed in this new normal environment for operations to continue efficiently and safely while also beginning to prepare immediately for future waves and challenges. To do so, we have identified the following recommendations.
First, USJE is encouraged to seek greater collaboration between our organization and CSC. This meaningful joint work is already yielding positive outcomes for employees, offenders, institutions and facilities as a whole. USJE is committed to working closely with all stakeholders to ensure we take the time to critically reflect on the past few months as well as to act now to mitigate the impacts of potential future pandemics. We believe the work of the task force must continue for a minimum of one year, until this pandemic is safely behind us.
Second, from the onset, safety measures must meaningfully take into account input from front-line employees who work within the institutions, community corrections centres and community parole offices. In the early days, USJE members across the country reported immense frustration in having their feedback disregarded by CSC management. Many felt that the lives of offenders and employees were on the line, especially in outbreak sites, where hundreds of offenders became ill. Our members are often the people who will be putting the new protocols into place, so their buy-in is absolutely paramount. No one understands operational considerations better than those who see their impacts daily. Their input matters a great deal and needs to be treated with respect.
Third, for service levels to continue at their pre-pandemic standards, more resources—especially human resources—will be required. Many CSC employees have adapted their work to be in line with social distancing and other COVID-19 requirements. For example, a CSC program officer in the community who is in charge of delivering a weekly rehabilitation program to a group of 10 offenders now has to meet individually with each one every week through video conference or teleconference. Not only will this require far more time to accomplish, but it means that each offender must have access to a smartphone or device, a reliable Internet connection and a quiet place to speak with the instructor. Sufficient human resources are imperative to maintaining the required frequency of contact with offenders. Meaningful frequency of contact is absolutely critical to ensuring proper supervision and rehabilitation, as well as public safety. For some, COVID-19 has only worsened workload issues and stress levels, given the realities of working differently.
Fourth, sanitation processes must be improved. COVID-19 has forced us to take a much closer look at cleaning protocols within CSC. CSC has just recently committed to the Public Health Agency of Canada standard. Over the past few months, employees have worked hard to contribute to enhanced cleaning efforts, even if it was not part of their official duties. However, the current practice of relying on a small number of offenders to do the majority of sanitization in very large penitentiaries, with little or no training in pandemic standards, is irresponsible. Contracting these critical tasks to outside agencies with highly transient employees is also not the answer. Using outside cleaning contractors who enter a number of sites increases the chances of spreading the virus between institutions. We witnessed this during the outbreak in Mission Institution in B.C., where cleaners were going between two different penitentiaries during the same week. Additionally, interview rooms for multiple staff to meet offenders in federal prisons are often extremely small and not cleaned regularly. CSC penitentiaries and CCCs carry the same risk as Canada's long-term care homes. We urge CSC to hire full-time properly trained cleaning professionals in each institution, community parole office and community correctional centre.
Last, in terms of the community footprint, community parole officers and case management teams have significantly decreased their footprint and have reduced community contagion through delivery of programs by telephone or video. They are also providing supervision by reducing the number of times an offender travels to a community parole office or by meeting with the offender in the community at a safe distance. In many instances, case management teams can effectively work from home.
In light of the prospect of a second wave, USJE strongly recommends no meaningful change to this modified approach to overseeing offenders in the community until Canada is confident that we are past a second wave.
In closing, we urge committee members to consider how the federal government can assist the federal correctional system with proper resources to maintain this new normal. Additional human resources, a contained footprint and more robust cleaning practices are imperative to keeping offenders, employees and Canadians safe. The federal government must also ensure that public health agencies throughout Canada offer widespread testing to offenders and employees. CSC must continue to foster ongoing collaboration with its labour partners and front-line employees.
Thank you for your time. We are pleased to answer any of your questions.
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you.
I see Ms. Orr has rejoined us. I understand she had a power surge in her building, and that sounds very bad.
Please go ahead. We'll make do the best we can. If you'd like to start your presentation over, you have 10 minutes. Please speak slowly and carefully. Thank you.
2:45 p.m.
Director of Corrections, Native Counselling Services of Alberta
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairperson and members of Parliament.
I am honoured to speak to you today. My name is Marlene Orr, and I am speaking to you from Treaty 6 territory. As a member of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6, I am especially proud to acknowledge the traditional territory of my people.
I am the director of corrections for Native Counselling Services of Alberta, a not-for-profit that, for over fifty years, has provided and continues to provide programs and services for indigenous people in conflict with the law. Native Counselling Services of Alberta runs the largest healing lodge for male federal offenders in Canada and the first section 81 healing lodge for female federal offenders.
Healing lodges are minimum-security federal institutions, in which the care and custody of minimum-security indigenous federal offenders is transferred to the indigenous community under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. Focusing on indigenous culture and ceremony, section 81 healing lodges work to reintegrate indigenous federal offenders into the community using an indigenous world view. Our healing lodges are better equipped to deal with indigenous offenders than are Correctional Service Canada or their other partners because we understand historic trauma. We take guidance from our elders on how we should address those issues of trauma and the relationship those issues have to criminal activity. We are better at the reintegration of indigenous federal offenders than are Correctional Service Canada. Section 81 healing lodges are the face of reconciliation and indigenous reintegration for federal corrections.
Today I will speak about the impacts of COVID-19 on indigenous people in general and on indigenous offenders and service providers in particular. It's important to understand the wider impacts so that we can understand the impact on offenders.
Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings and calls to action, we've become better informed regarding the social issues seen in the indigenous community and the direct link those issues have to historic trauma. We understand that the myriad impacts, such as loss of culture, fragmented families, lack of parenting models, addictions, poverty and violence in all forms, are directly tied to legislation in Canada that sought to strip indigenous people of their very cultural and legal identity in order to have access to their lands.
The onset of COVID-19 left us all unprepared for the upheaval in day-to-day life. Rapidly changing government and corporate policies left us in fear, anxiety and isolation for months. The impact was widely felt amongst Canadians but particularly amongst indigenous people and communities, who still struggle with poverty and other historic trauma impacts.
With the measures put in place by Canada, the provinces, municipalities and first nations communities, mental health concerns and loneliness have added increased stress. The impact on our communities, where the intergenerational effects continue, has exacerbated existing mental health concerns for indigenous people, perhaps to a greater degree than for others. Unresolved issues of trauma have surfaced and have been magnified. Lack of access to the cultural and spiritual community have left many indigenous people unable to cope with their emotional and mental health challenges without supports. That is especially true for indigenous offenders in institutions.
As restrictions ease, the use of masks and gloves has been stressed by provincial and federal authorities. With many provinces moving into relaunch, the use of masks will become increasingly necessary for people to access services. For example, in Alberta, persons attending court are required to wear masks, yet no masks are supplied by government agencies. Given the level of poverty many indigenous people experience, they are not likely to have the resources to purchase this protective equipment. Many indigenous not-for-profits are expected to bear the cost of providing this.
Very early on in the pandemic, schools closed down, and the expectation was that classrooms would move online. Students were expected to continue their studies while isolating. While laudable, these efforts come from a very privileged perspective.
According to the Canadian Poverty Institute, indigenous peoples in Canada experience the highest levels of poverty. A shocking one in four indigenous peoples are living in poverty. Speaking from lived experience, I can assure you that luxuries like electronic devices and Wi-Fi or phone data are not financially attainable for those in poverty.
This need for devices and data to stay connected became an issue for us as well. The online supports necessary for marginalized people excluded indigenous people because of their lack of access to connectivity. As we've seen here today, those are issues that our organization faces providing services out of a federal building.
Funders forced many organizations to bear the real cost of setting up online services and, when you consider that many indigenous people are too poor to stay connected virtually, it does not really make sense. Many indigenous communities have connectivity issues because of the lack of quality internet within their communities. One example is a Métis settlement in Alberta, where the Wi-Fi services do not extend beyond the governance office because of lack of internet infrastructure in their remote community.
This lack of connectivity was felt by us as well. At the very start of the pandemic, corrections staff were ordered to work from home, using Correctional Service Canada laptops to remain connected to the offender management system. Staff were kept safe and supported by corrections supplying them the equipment necessary to do their jobs in isolation.
Indigenous community partners in corrections didn't have the same assets and, as a result, couldn't work from home. Healing lodge staff had to go to work daily and risk exposing themselves and offenders in a residential facility. Despite numerous requests for laptops and connectivity, the two healing lodges I oversee were not provided with them. We were told by CSC that there was no equipment available, yet we received reports that approximately 20,000 laptops were purchased during the pandemic by CSC and are sitting stockpiled in Ottawa. The unspoken message is that the government is concerned about the safety of its staff, but not concerned about the safety of its indigenous partners.
While corrections staff were working at home, some of their responsibilities were deemed too unsafe for them to undertake. One example is the urinalysis testing performed on inmates and conditionally released offenders. This responsibility was devolved to my staff because, apparently, the task is not unsafe for indigenous people.
One of our healing lodges is in this old federal building. CSC is responsible for the maintenance. We had an electrical fire that burned out our entire camera security system. Correctional maintenance staff refused to enter our building, even though we implemented precautions long before CSC did. We were left to deal with that on our own.
CSC was slow to implement a COVID-19 response. We couldn't get answers to questions we had about policy, practice or testing. As our healing lodges are also, in part, community residential facilities, we have both inmates and conditionally released offenders. We were the only Alberta-based community residential facility that has remained open during the pandemic. We implemented policies around COVID-19 weeks before CSC did, and we continued to accept offenders released from the federal institution.
Our policies included a requirement for institutional health care to attest that offenders being released were COVID-free, or at least symptom-free. For three solid weeks institutional and community parole staff were dismissive of our policy and fought us on every transfer case. We asked that they attest that the transfer of released offenders occurred in a CSC vehicle that had been sanitized after the previous use. For three weeks, every federal institution we received released offenders from fought my staff about this. This speaks to the lack of pandemic policies and practices within CSC. It also speaks to the lack of health and safety practices in general.
The pandemic exposed cracks in the relationships among CSC, the indigenous community and community partners.
With tremendous political pressure mounting, CSC and the Parole Board rushed to depopulate the prisons for fear of COVID-19 spreading. In this rush there was little understanding of the reality of how this would affect indigenous people in communities. The rush to depopulate was a rush towards displacement and increased risk of offender exposure to the virus and to poverty.
It is well documented that my people are predisposed to a number of health issues like diabetes, tuberculosis and respiratory issues. Because of this, indigenous people in our communities are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, and the risks of contracting the virus are much greater in the presence of these health concerns. This led to first nations taking unprecedented steps to safeguard their communities by locking down their borders and restricting access to those who did not live in the community. The increased cost of implementing security and ensuring food sovereignty has been enormous and a challenge for our communities.
If you did not live in the community when the pandemic hit, you were not likely allowed to go there. CSC did not have the relationship with indigenous communities to fully understand the impact of releasing indigenous offenders to closed communities.
2:55 p.m.
Liberal
2:55 p.m.
Director of Corrections, Native Counselling Services of Alberta
Sure.
What we are recommending is that a number of things take place.
Ensure that indigenous communities have good-quality Internet access. Ensure stockpiles of PPE are for not-for-profits. Ensure work-at-home policies for government workers apply to contractors as well. Ensure a thorough review of the fast-tracking of indigenous offender releases and ensure that a return to the systemic barriers faced by people in corrections does not happen again. Ensure that indigenous offenders remain connected to their families and cultural supports, keeping in mind community issues of connectivity. Ensure solid health and safety practices in corrections that are sustainable during normal and/or non-pandemic times.
Thank you for hearing me out today. I am open to any questions you may have.
3 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you.
Thank you to all the witnesses.
Unfortunately, we are completely out of time. We have a hard cap on these video conferencing facilities at 3:00 p.m. EST.
I would encourage all the witnesses to submit additional material in a written brief through the clerk. We would certainly appreciate hearing more from you. I regret that we're not able to ask questions at this point. Thank you for your time and thank you for your patience.
Thanks to all the members.
With that, we are adjourned.