The previous government made significant commitments to correctional mental health, and Correctional Service of Canada was challenged sometimes to keep pace with some of the political commitments that were being made.
One of those challenges has been in concluding agreements with provincial and territorial health providers. In spite of all of the goodwill, we've only seen one new agreement concluded, and that's for two beds at the St. Lawrence treatment centre operated by the Royal Ottawa Hospital group in Brockville. There has been a renewal of the long-standing agreement with the Pinel Institute in Montreal, but there's still inadequate space right across the country.
For Atlantic Canada—I was just in the Atlantic region—the need there exists, and it's not being met. Patient advocates in provincial forensic systems across the country are raising concerns that they are losing jurisdiction when patients or their clients achieve a federal sentence and they no longer have access to the kind of advocacy they were being provided. There is no agreement in place in British Columbia or in Alberta.
For women it's particularly a problem. The regional psychiatric centre in Saskatoon, operated by Correctional Service of Canada, continues to be the only site available, federally or nationally, for significantly mentally ill women who are serving a federal sentence.
Remember, it's not just people who were mentally ill at the time of sentence. That's one problem, but the significant problem is the mental health of individuals who are serving a sentence, because they may become ill or their illness may become more acute while they're in custody. This is something that is well known and well documented. There are lots of good recommendations and lots of good how-to discussions, but it hasn't been done.