Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm still at a bit of a loss in terms of what we're actually studying in the committee since we didn't have any consultations about this study beforehand. I thank the two witnesses for bringing the larger context to the table, because what I find when we look at, for instance, the deck you've handed out on crime prevention and social innovation, we have 12 pages, and only the last one deals with social finance. So I'm still concerned that we've selected arbitrarily one piece of the national crime prevention strategy to look at in detail.
I was glad to hear Ms. Thompson mention that the provinces and the federal government had agreed that rehabilitation and crime prevention were joint priorities. I'm also glad when you look at the crime prevention strategy that it says that one of its goals is to prevent future offending among vulnerable populations. I guess if I had my way we'd be talking much more about mental illness than we would be about social innovation.
This committee just tabled a report on policing, where the evidence we heard from police was that their costs are driven primarily by mental health and addiction problems. We have a current crisis in our correctional system in accommodating people, which was identified by the Auditor General. A large number of those people are people with mental illness. I believe we actually have a crisis in the way we treat people with mental illness, who will eventually come out of prison, hopefully. Although, I have to say, I think dealing with the question of mental illness is urgent since the reports of the Correctional Investigator show that an additional 58 prisoners have committed suicide in custody since the death of Ashley Smith.
Rather than go on about the mental illness part, I guess what I'm saying is, I think this committee would be better off spending a larger proportion of its time looking at that aspect of national crime prevention than this narrow focus on social innovation.
I'm going to give the chair a notice of a motion:
That the Committee conduct a study into all aspects of mental illness in Correctional Service of Canada institutions with a focus on effective programming for inmates, the design of new and existing facilities to meet the needs of 21st Century correctional practices, and minimizing threats to offender safety and the safety of correctional staff and report its findings to the House of Commons.
We won't be dealing with that notice of motion today, but it sets aside my concern. Now I'll actually ask you some questions about this narrower aspect. But, again—