I thank you for your question.
I think we have two different approaches to the reality of drugs in prison. Our government, the Conservative government, is saying we need to eradicate this issue. Unfortunately, we've seen the opposition, the NDP, say to give them more needles. This is not what this government intends to do. If we find an individual who has a drug addiction problem in our facilities, we want to give him the opportunity to get therapy. Correctional Services Canada provides a range of internationally accredited substance abuse programs to offenders whose dependence on substances is related to their criminal behaviour. We're offering a helping hand to those inmates in facilities so that they can get drug-free and maybe resolve an issue they had before entering our facilities. We've seen that 75% of the inmates who enter our facilities have a drug issue-related problem.
As I just indicated to our colleague, through our random testing we found that 87% tested drug-free. For those who test positive, we now offer them therapy. By participating in substance abuse programs and aftercare, offenders learn to manage their patterns of substance abuse, with the ultimate goal of decreasing the chance that they will reoffend. That's also why, with the support of the committee and the bill that is in front of you, if an inmate is found to test positive before parole, we want to empower the Parole Board to say to that individual, “You are not in a state where you have a chance to successfully reach the goal of your rehabilitation program, which is to be drug-free.” That's why we want to give the opportunity to those inmates to stay in our facilities, so that they can have access to those therapies.