Evidence of meeting #4 for Public Safety and National Security in the 43rd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was offenders.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chairperson, Parole Board of Canada
Yes, Mr. Chair, for the record.
It was a life sentence with no full parole eligibility for 15 years. Offenders are allowed to apply for day parole three years before their full parole eligibility date. He became eligible for day parole in 2016. When day parole was granted, it was 2019.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you for that clarification. Thank you, Mr. Harris. That was truly a point of order.
Mr. Shipley, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Doug Shipley Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is for Ms. Kelly.
We're here today because of the tragic death of a young 22-year-old woman. We're here to get to the bottom of how this happened and try to make sure this never happens again, obviously.
I'm going to quote from Ms. Oades' opening remarks so I'm not mistaken at all. This tragic death is partly because during the hearing, “the parole officer presented to Parole Board members a release plan that included an element that would allow this offender to solicit women for sexual purposes.”
This is something we have not heard anything on. I need to know, and I'm sure the family needs to know, what has happened to the parole officer. Is the parole officer still employed?
Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
The parole officers directly involved in this case are currently not supervising offenders.
Conservative
Doug Shipley Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Have they been disciplined? Are they still employed?
Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
We're waiting for the board of investigation to complete their work. Once they've completed it and we have all the facts, if we need to undertake another investigation, we will do so.
Conservative
Doug Shipley Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I would like to give the rest of my time to Mr. Paul-Hus.
Liberal
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It was officer Sophie Grégoire who did the strategy report. Could you tell me which supervisor authorized this strategy?
Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
It was someone from the Correctional Service of Canada.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Could you give us the person's name?
If you don't know it, you could send it to us.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you.
In 2018, the Auditor General did a study on the Correctional Service of Canada. He identified several shortcomings, including a lack of risk analysis. He pointed out gaps in the expertise of the people who were assessing risk.
What are your comments on that?
Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
It was said that there were gaps in expertise. Parole officers always do a risk assessment. For offenders, that assessment is ongoing.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
The competence of the people doing this work has been questioned by the Auditor General.
Do you agree with his findings?
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
It was in 2018.
You don't have the information right now. Since time is short, I'll ask you another question.
Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
Indeed, I don't have that information. However, I can tell you that our parole officers receive 4.5 weeks of training. In addition, we offer them five days of continuing professional development every year, and we put a lot of emphasis on risk assessment.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Excellent.
You were present when we considered the report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator. We talked about resource allocation.
It is said that 6% of the Correctional Service's budget is allocated to services in the community, while 40% of inmates are on day parole. What can be done? It isn't a question of money. It's a question of resource allocation. More and more inmates are being released, while there is a problem with monitoring in the community.
Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
Let me try to explain that. When I appeared before you, I said that it was 6.43%. That is the allocation to community infrastructure. It includes our residential community centres and health services. However, the percentage I gave you did not include the community parole officers assigned to manage cases. When we include them, we get 11.3%.
As I explained to Ms. Michaud, there is a resource formula for parole officers. The formula takes into account the time during which they are available for work. It includes sick leave, statutory holidays, the time required to write reports, the time needed to complete supervision activities, and the time required to travel to where the offender must be supervised. The formula tells us the number of parole officers we need in the community. We review the formula once a year. So we can see that, if parole officers take more sick leave than anticipated this year, we have to readjust the formula.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
I think you could be a little more detailed than that. The question warranted it.
Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
The biggest....
Although the formula is also based on the number of offenders in the community, the most important factor is the level of supervision of the offenders, that is to say whether they must be seen eight times, four times or once a month, for example.
Conservative
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Thank you, Chair.
I too would like to start by extending my sympathies to Ms. Levesque's family and by acknowledging that this was a tragedy, but also one that was extremely rare. I think everyone has acknowledged that, including the correctional investigator when he appeared here.
I also want to start by acknowledging the good work that parole officers do in the community.
Ms. Kelly, I know that you would agree with me on that, that they do yeoman's work to keep us all safe.
I want to talk about the cuts that were made under the deficit reduction action plan under the previous government. A report was done in 2015 by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It's called "The Impact of the Harper Government’s 'Tough on Crime' Strategy". It concluded that according to front-line workers, “the Harper government’s 'tough on crime' strategy and restrictive budgetary measures undermine public safety."
Over $200 million in cuts were made. I saw the impact in Winnipeg where police liaison officers with the community were cut. There was reduced frequency of contact between offenders and parole officers. There was a lack of community programs. Even a family violence program was cut.
Ms. Kelly, I'm not asking this question to insult the work done at Corrections, but I've heard from front-line officers and I heard when I visited facilities that DRAP, as it was known, had a huge impact on being able to deliver programs. Can you talk about that?
We've tried to reinvest in corrections. I think there was $343 million in the last budget. It's hard to catch up when we are coming from so far behind.