Thank you, Chair.
This is the only issue of contention, it seems, as we go through the clause-by-clause. It's a fairly significant bill and this is the only issue.
I think we all agree it's not in the interests of anybody—of the person being released from prison, or his family, or for the community—to have people hitting the streets without any money after having been incarcerated for a long period of time.
You've mentioned the draft information sharing agreement with Human Resources and Skills Development and Correctional Services. When Mr. Head was here last week, he indicated in his comments the following about that agreement, that it “would include information on those who are incarcerated in order to facilitate the suspension of payments, as well as information on those who were recently released”.
“Recently released” doesn't have a specific time. It also indicates that after the fact, Correctional Services will be speaking with Service Canada.
Considering how long it could take to get a cheque done, I'm concerned about that. It seems to me this is one way of addressing that.
I do wish that Correctional Services were here so we could see what that means, but it does seem to me there has to be something in the bill that says, yes, it's going to be incumbent upon, yes, the individual, but also Correctional Services should be preparing for when the time is that this person's being released and interacting with Service Canada.
You agree with that, that's why you have the agreement. It just seems to me that if the head of Correctional Services is saying that we'll do it after the fact, as opposed to preparing before the fact, we might end up with a situation that's not good for anybody--i.e., people who've been in prison for a long period of time hitting the streets with, what, eighty bucks or whatever they might have accumulated over a number of years in prison.
Can you speak to that?