Yes, thank you very much.
Thank you for accommodating this. I know it was short notice for all of us, so I appreciate the opportunity to appear.
I'm representing the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, and we are 26 members across the country, who provide services to women and girls who have been victimized, marginalized, criminalized, and institutionalized.
Like many Canadians, we are extremely concerned about the cost of the proposed law, concerned that the rolling out of all of this legislation will cost many billions of dollars. We're very concerned about how, in fact, this will be paid for.
I want to thank the panellists who went ahead of me, Mr. Sullivan, and Chief MacKnight. We would certainly support their views, as well as those of groups like the Canadian Bar Association, and others who have presented.
We're also extremely concerned that the direction of this bill is to encourage more use of imprisonment—in fact, unprecedented use of imprisonment in Canada—and that the cost of that will detract from other services and resources. It will make prisons more overcrowded, and it will ensure that we have more women, people with mental health issues and, particularly, indigenous people in prison. We're extremely concerned about that.
Canada has a long and proud history of being a defender of human rights and of having a strong criminal justice system, one that is recognized as being among the best internationally, and we're in danger of losing that. We're following a direction that is being rejected by many jurisdictions in the United States, and yet we're heading headlong onto this path.
Rather than speaking to all of the individual portions of the bill, because you've had many excellent representations on those, I would like to speak to a proposed amendment of ours to the bill. That amendment focuses on the fact that many people who are in prison, as has long been recognized by those who run prisons, are not necessarily violent or a risk to public safety, and that some are there largely because of other issues like their mental health or poverty. In situations where they are committing criminal offences and being convicted, there should be opportunities for them to pay back and to be held accountable in the community in a way that isn't a further drain on taxpayers.
We know that most of the services that will be expanded by this bill are policing services and in the federal and provincial prison areas. We know that two of the bills that were introduced last session have already impacted at least 150 to 160 women by Correctional Service Canada's own estimation. Those are significant increases when you see the relatively small number of women serving federal sentences. And we're already seeing overcrowding as the numbers increasing.
I was in an Edmonton institution this past weekend, and it was very overcrowded. They've had to use the visiting area to house women. They've had to use interview rooms from time to time, and they've also had to use the gymnasium.
We know that Quebec has already voiced concerns and that Nunavut, British Columbia, and other provinces are also voicing concerns. We're suggesting that the amendments to the bill be just that until we have a full costing of how the omnibus bill will be funded by the provinces, the territories, and every federal department; until we have a clear understanding of the price tag attached to each piece of the proposed legislation or policy reform included in the bill; and until Parliament can assure taxpayers that the increased costs will be accommodated without exceeding 100% of the capacity at correctional institutions, and without decreasing other resources that are currently available.
So we are suggesting that amendment. We respectfully submit that it should be made a component of the act and that the act not be enacted and brought into force until such time as all provinces, territories, and the respective federal departments to be impacted have signed off that it's affordable. Otherwise, we consider it a breach of the fiduciary obligation that members of Parliament have to taxpayers in this country, to have a clear and transparent understanding of what the cost will be and how it will impact all of us in the future.
Thank you.