So time is definitely of the essence.
I just want to lay some facts on the table, Mr. Chair. I was hopeful that with the new minister maybe there'd be a reconsideration. There obviously wasn't, because the same statement came out within very few days, before I think the minister even had a proper review of the files. Neither the previous minister nor the current minister has visited the farms. After questioning the head of CORCAN and senior officials the other day, I'm very doubtful if they've visited them or spent very much time there.
We're seeing questionable numbers in terms of the costs. As for the $4 million, to be quite honest, I don't believe it. The strategic study on which this decision was made is not available. We haven't seen it, you haven't seen it, and this committee does not have access to it. We don't even know if it looks at the whole system or just the economics in terms of the numbers without rehabilitation.
They admit that 14 people went to jobs, but they divide that into $4 million and say that it cost $285,000 for the creation of a job. So I would ask one of you to answer this: do others who come off the farm have jobs? Do they get jobs? The numbers from Shelly Glover the other day indicate a very expensive cost there, but I'm assuming that others got jobs. I'll come back to that in a minute.
The corrections officials quoted job numbers for other industries, but admitted under questioning that they never even talked to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council, which is about farm jobs. We were told by them that 39,000 farm workers will be needed in 2013 in seasonal positions. In fact, we're depending on foreign labourers in those areas now. They never even talked to that, which goes to show that they're using the numbers for their own purposes.
As well, the officials here the other day were not aware that in the United States.... I certainly don't favour their criminal justice system, but at least in the San Francisco area they are now turning to farming crops for rehabilitative reasons, and they admit that those numbers show recidivism is down.
Those are the facts.
So really, my question is in terms of the numbers that go through the farm system. Do they find jobs when they get out? Those jobs may not be in the farming industry, but do they find jobs when they get out?