Scott Reid

[Correctional Service of Canada, May 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, with respect to the dairy barn at the Joyceville correctional institution that is scheduled to open in July, number one, what was the original budgeted cost? Number two, what is the actual cost? Number three, has dairy quota been made available by Dairy Farmers of Ontario? If so, what are the contract details and how much will that cost? Finally, will any of the milk that is produced be entered into the general supply for public consumption?

[Correctional Service of Canada, May 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, amidst all that, the parliamentary secretary made the point in his final remark that I was trying to make: 64 individuals over a four-year period got Red Seal certification. I can work out the math myself. This is about 20 people or less per annum in their entire system. There are about 10,000 incarcerated individuals in Canada. That is pathetic. I know there are other things the government is doing, and they are helpful and useful in their own small way, but someone is not going to get a job if they do not have a definable skill with an objective external certification, and 64 out of 10,000 over a four-year period is a disaster of a program.

The parliamentary secretary is trying to talk about thousands of certificates for one-day programs. They are not useless, but they are not something that is going to get anyone a job. That is why our recidivism rate is no better for those who complete these programs than for those who do not.

[Correctional Service of Canada, May 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, several weeks ago, I asked a question about Red Seal training programs in correctional institutions. The answer seemed unsatisfactory, so I am providing further details today about issues that I think ought to be dealt with.

There is no question that proper training, in a trade for which there is a market demand, helps incarcerated individuals to find employment upon their release. There is also no doubt that, when a former inmate finds employment, it reduces recidivism.

This is why Corrections Canada follows a mandate of “assisting the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into the community as law-abiding citizens through the provision of programs in penitentiaries and in the community.”

The programs are reasonably understood to include educational programs, programs that give job skills and programs that allow individuals to become productive members of society, thus the terms “correctional” facilities and “penitentiaries”. It is the idea that one is not being locked away forever but rather is being prepared, upon having done one's time, to be a productive member of society.

Our net results in Canada are singularly unimpressive. Offenders who have received training within our system have a recidivism rate that is no better than those who have not. To me, this suggests that our job training certification programs in our correctional institutions here in Canada must not be doing a very good job of giving our inmates verifiable, certifiable skills.

It is odd, then, to learn that our system has produced an impressive 112,000 vocational training certificates over four years, starting in 2020 and ending at the end of last year. With this in mind, I filed an Order Paper question about the details, and I received some interesting responses.

I asked this: How many certificates have been issued, broken down by region, over the past five years? What are the top categories of certification? How many provincial apprenticeship programs are engaged? How many Red Seal apprenticeship programs are engaged?

I will tell members the depressing results. Out of 112,181 certificates issued in 2020 through 2023, only 64 were for actually achieving a certified vocational Red Seal-approved apprenticeship program. There were zero provincial apprenticeship programs outside of the Red Seal program. The most common vocational programs were for WHMIS, which is the workplace hazardous materials information system; for working at heights; and for ISO 9001 training, for a total of about 17,000 certificates.

I looked into this, and these certifications are not properly understood as being meaningful certifications. They are, in fact, just one-day programs. The WHMIS program can be purchased for $7.95. That is not a very serious program.

I think this explains why, when I look to Out of Bounds magazine, a prisoner-published publication, I see the following comment from an inmate: “these generic skills don't qualify as job readiness skills on a resume. These are prerequisites of any job applicant in the same way appropriate dress and good personal hygiene are implicitly understood.” That is unsatisfactory.

Why is more not being done?

[Automated External Defibrillators, May 28th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the cheapest, easiest way to save human lives is by installing and making available automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, and by building the skills in the community that would make it possible for neighbours and families to use them quickly and efficiently. This was the conclusion reported in March by an all-party parliamentary group in the United Kingdom. It suggested a variety of policy changes that would lead to such things as defibrillators in newly constructed homes and buildings, training in the use of CPR and defibrillation as a part of drivers' licence testing, revising regulatory frameworks to streamline the introduction of new defibrillator technologies into the market and putting defibrillators into all police vehicles in the country.

Canada would profitably benefit from the establishment of a similar all-party parliamentary group with a similar mandate. Also, if we would take the simple and inexpensive step of putting an AED in every RCMP cruiser, we would save 300 lives per year, starting now. What are we waiting for?

[Health, May 24th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, pulmonary arterial hypertension, also known as PAH, is a disease that blocks arteries in the lungs, causing high blood pressure in the lungs and damaging heart tissue. Patients diagnosed with PAH have, on average, three years to live.

In the United States, a drug called sotatercept was recently approved by the FDA. This drug increases quality of life and lifespan for PAH patients and even, in some cases, reverses the damage caused by the disease.

When will this life-saving drug be approved for use in Canada?

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I want to take the opportunity to respond to the NDP member who spoke earlier with regard to leakage from abandoned wells.

I would just observe that Canada can adopt regulations and rules that will be a world standard. We talk about doing the same thing with our carbon pricing. Therefore, if we believe we can be a world standard with rules that are adopted with regard to carbon pricing, surely we can be a world standard with regard to leaky wells, and if that is so, then gas produced in Canada will be a superior substitute and better for climate change, producing less climate change due to less leaking methane, than in other countries. That is a very good reason to expand our industry here in Canada rather than to shut it down.

[Correctional Service of Canada, May 3rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, do you ever wonder why former inmates who have had vocational training while incarcerated are just as likely to reoffend as those who have not, despite the fact that Corrections Canada claims to have issued 112,000 vocational certificates in the past three years alone? Well, the answer is this: These vocational certificates are meaningless participation awards. In the same period, only 64 inmates in the entire country were able to complete a Red Seal apprenticeship program.

Why has Corrections Canada failed to introduce real vocational certification programs?

[Amendments to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, April 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I hope so. To remember an example from 2015, I proposed changes to the Standing Orders that would affect the election of the Speaker. The decision made at the procedure and House affairs committee caused parties to alter how they handled the vote in each case. Parties were encouraged to allow their members to vote freely. Since the report from the procedure and House affairs committee was a unanimous report, all the parties took it back and decided to make that decision.

That could happen again. That is actually what I would prefer to happen, if possible, but I cannot force that to happen. I think this model is worth examining. Of course, the committee records from that time are all publicly available. They might be helpful to all of us in this circumstance.

[Amendments to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, April 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I think that my hon. colleague is right. He used the word “strange”. In a way, it is strange to have a system that allows party line votes on a motion that would change that system to a consensus system. I do not have the magical power to change that. I am simply making an observation, and I hope that the spirit of consensus will prevail here.

[Amendments to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, April 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I actually have no comments on government legislation. As I observed in my remarks, my goal is to deal with programming motions of closure and time allocations, as they relate to motions to amend the Standing Orders, and absolutely nothing else.

There is an argument that, because of the volume of business before the House, we need to have a limited time for each debate. That is the basis on which each of the successive restrictions on the length of debates were justified in 1913, 1969 and 1991. That may or may not have legitimacy vis-à-vis legislation and other matters before the House; however, vis-à-vis discussions of the Standing Orders, I think there should be no programming motions whatsoever.

The only solution is consensus. That involves taking the time to find consensus and showing the willingness to compromise that may be necessary.