Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise to speak in support of this bill. As I said before question period, I really want to stress that the title of the bill really does stick in my throat, the drug-free prisons act. There is very little in the legislation that would actually make our prisons drug free.
We really have to stretch it to see how the government came up with such a heading for legislation. The only thing I can think of is that it appeals to the Conservative base and it is one of those grandiose announcements that the government can make without really taking any concrete steps to make anything happen.
The bill would codify into legislation a current practice of the Parole Board. It is because of this that we support it. All the bill would do is add a provision to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to make it clear that the Parole Board may use positive results from urine tests or refusals to take urine tests for drugs when making its decisions of parole eligibility.
It is always good to codify things and put them into legislation. As the board was already doing this, and we know board members take many things into consideration, it is really good to have this here. However, let us not kid ourselves. The bill would do very little, if anything, to make our prisons drug free.
I would like to talk about this. Often members from the other side will use all kinds of hyperbole to deflect. Let me stress that the NDP is very firm in its support for any measures that will make our prisons safe. That is what it is all about for us. On the other hand, the Conservative government, which purports to do the work, has ignored recommendations from corrections staff and the Correctional Investigator that would decrease violence, gang activity and drug use in our prisons.
Once again, we go back to the point of the title of the bill. Is it just pandering to the base or is it real action? I will point out some of the issues here.
One of the key things to remember is that we are talking about addiction. We know, and research shows us, that this is a health issue. As a health issue, it needs treatment and resources.
At the very time the government is cutting rehabilitation programs and the funding to tackle the addictions issue, it puts forward a bill called the drug-free prisons act. It often reminds me of when I was teaching. I do not think there was a teacher or parent who did not want to have drug-free schools. We all want that today, but just our wishing it and saying that phrase does not make it happen.
When we look at drug addictions, whether they are in schools or prisons, we have to pay attention to a sound body of research, specialists and front line service providers who know that this is a serious issue and that it needs a multi-pronged approach. Just saying “thou shalt not do drugs” does not make people stop doing drugs. It takes rehabilitation programs, community support programs, treatment centres, counselling and I could go on, but I will not.
What we want to look at is how over the last year, the Correctional Service of Canada has admitted that $122 million of Conservative spending on interdiction tools and technology to stop drugs from entering prisons since 2008 has not led to any reduction in drug use in prisons.
We are talking about real data and real evidence. We know the government has an allergy to listening to front line service providers, specialists and scientists and also to paying any attention to researchers. However, what we have is very clear. Spending $122 million led to net zero results.
We know, from a public safety committee study that was done in 2012, that drug-free prisons are unlikely to be achieved in the world. Yet, the government insists on continuing to use that slogan to put forward suggestions that will not lead to drug-free prisons. At this stage, the goal is unrealistic. Although laudable, and we should have lofty goals, the role of the legislators is not to have those lofty goals in legislation, but to put forward concrete resolutions and suggestions that will help.
I want to acknowledge at this stage the work done by my colleague from Surrey North. He sat on the committee that examined this whole issue. It came up with 14 recommendations, and I do not see any of them reflected in the legislation that has been put forward. This once again lends credence to the fact that even when the Conservatives have committees at which they call witnesses, the majority of whom are usually the government's, and experts who tell them how they can work toward having fewer drugs in prisons, the Conservatives would rather not take any of those steps. Instead they use the slogans in the House to pander and make it look as if they are doing something when they are not doing too much.
Also, it is absolutely asinine, a word I do not use lightly, to keep spending money on something that does not work. We have evidence that it does not work just to keep focusing on detection or prevention of entry of drugs into the prisons. Of course we should work on that, but if that is the only game in town, the only tool they are giving front line service providers, then they are failing them very much. Instead, the government has a pretty miserable track record when it comes to public safety.
By the way, if putting people in prisons were going to solve problems, we should pay attention to what happened in the United States where it has packed prisons. It cannot keep up with building prisons. However, has that decreased crime or drug abuse? No.
The public safety adopted by the government has led to more prisoners with addictions and mental illness in our prison system, without the needed supports to tackle those issues, which we know we have to tackle in the framework of health.
I have also noticed that CSC has had its budget cut by 10%. CSC has had $295 million cut from its budget. Here is another one that is going to absolutely shock members because when we hear the rhetoric from my colleagues across the way, one would think that they were the bee's knees when it comes to fighting crime and taking a handle on what is going on in our detention centres. However, under the government's watch, the budget for fighting substance abuse, for which we know there need to be monies allocated, went down by $2 million.
When we think about it, out of the total budget, what prisons spend on substance abuse are $11 million. At the same time that the government is going on about having drug-free prisons, its only solution to is to codify something that the Parole Board already does, while it has reduced the budget from $11 million to $9 million. That is a huge percentage when we think about it. We are not talking about a small reduction. This is the same government that in 2007 removed harm reduction because it did not matter. For the Conservatives, it is not about actually tackling public safety or safety in our prisons, it is all about the sound bites, what sounds good, what will appeal to their base and what makes them look as if they are doing something when they are actually not doing anything on this file, or next to nothing.
As the budget is being cut for substance abuse programs, we also know that there is a very high percentage of prisoners waiting for services. This is going to shock members because it shocked me. Many of them wait for so long that they cannot even be released or go on parole because they have not had the necessary treatment and support they need to fight their addictions. When they finish their time, they go back into society without having had any effective treatment for substance abuse or how to deal with mental health issues that we hear so much about. How is that all about public safety?
Then they become repeat offenders and the government uses the words “repeat offenders” almost like dirty words. However, in very many ways the government is creating repeat offenders because we have a penal system that is based on a rehabilitation system. We believe that with counselling and support rehabilitation is possible, not for everyone but the vast majority. Where rehabilitation is possible, we should be investing in it because in the long term it will save Canadians money. Instead, the government does not provide support for prisoners to take control of their substance abuse, to receive the health care support they need, the prevention, counselling, et cetera, while they are in prison. They are released and, lo and behold, the Conservatives get to stand at other press conferences to talk about all the repeat offenders, all the drug addicts, all the people who have mental health issues, while they themselves are responsible for the release of many prisoners who have not received the rehabilitation they need.
This should be a major concern to us because, as we know, last year Canada recorded the largest prison population ever in federal prisons. This shocked me as well. There were 15,097 prisoners. We have heard a lot about double-bunking and the lack of space in some of our prisons. This is at the same time the government has introduced mandatory minimum sentences and, once again, has taken the flexibility away from judges, who can make rulings based on the full context and what has gone on. Due to minimum sentencing, experts are imagining and projecting that our prison population will increase by huge numbers.
At the same time, with very little invested in harm reduction and with people double-bunking, it does not take a rocket scientist to recognize that if prisoners are double-bunked, there is going to be a little more physical contact, and that is actually going to increase the violence.
We are hearing huge safety concerns from our corrections officers. We also know that as the budget is reduced and the population is increased, there will be a greater number of people who finish their sentences without receiving any of the supports that are absolutely critical to their rehabilitation and their reintegration into our communities. Once again, the government is actually not worrying about public safety but is putting public safety in jeopardy with such irresponsible actions.
I would really urge the government to, first, call this bill what it is. It is certainly not a drug-free prisons act. Making pronouncements does not make it so.
Second, I would urge the government to take a look at the study that was done by the government, take a look at the recommendations that the study put forward, and then bring forward policy and legislation that will actually ensure our communities are safe.