I believe the committee members are familiar with the transformation report prepared by Rob Sampson for Corrections Canada. It laid out a plan that has largely been embraced by my predecessor for the long-term transformation of the corrections system.
One of the elements of it was a move toward some of these regional facilities. At this time a decision hasn't been taken on the construction of new facilities and closures of existing facilities. That's all very premature, and in the current environment you can understand why that's not imminent this week.
We have been moving on the other aspects of the transformation agenda, particularly things to do with programming, to change some of the programs available in the penitentiaries to better meet the needs of prisoners. I found it intriguing that when prisoners were in the intake process, for the first 90 days or so there was no programming for them during that assessment period. With the changing profile of prisoners, I think that was a real gap. That is an area we are moving on right now, so there will be some programming during that assessment period.
It's also important because of the way sentences are being delivered differently, with credit for time served before people get sentenced. A lot of the stays in penitentiaries are shorter than they would have been in the past, and to lose that 90-day period for programming just doesn't make sense. So that is an example of one of the elements of the transformation plan.
There are others that are being moved on, but at this point, in terms of the actual regional structures, the physical buildings and so on, we've provided some integrity money for improvements where necessary to keep things moving, but there haven't been any decisions taken on closures, new construction, or anything like at this point.