Justice committee  Mr. Chairman, if it's fine with you, I think the committee knows who I am and what I represent. I'd be glad to answer any questions and defer any time to Mr. Manson for his comments.

Public Safety committee  I'll have to get back to you. We can provide that to the committee, but I don't have those numbers available today.

Public Safety committee  What I will do, Mr. Chair, is provide the committee with a listing, for example, of the drug seizures that have occurred since we put in some of these measures, an indication around our urinalysis rates. We'll provide these statistics to the committee so it can see some of the ch

Public Safety committee  Sure.

Public Safety committee  It's partly no. Yes, it's partly no, but I just want to clarify as well that the 2% refers specifically to just correctional programming. We actually have additional money. When we talk about programs, we not only talk about our correctional programs, which is that 2% to 2.7%,

Public Safety committee  We had that system previously, when I first started. It's the earned remission system. We had that when I first started in corrections in 1978. Administratively it was a very burdensome system, as most of the provinces find now, because there is a level of subjectivity to that an

Public Safety committee  The cost of maintaining an offender in an institution is about $101,000 a year. The cost to maintain an offender in the community is about $25,000 a year. On average, it's $81,000 a year to maintain an offender.

Public Safety committee  I have no idea.

Public Safety committee  I think our human resource renewal agenda is positioning us well in terms of going out and seeking the right people, the best people, to work in our environment. There is absolutely no question in my mind about the women and men who work in the Correctional Service of Canada. I a

Public Safety committee  If the question is whether I need more money for programming, I—

Public Safety committee  Two per cent allows us to produce the kinds of results we're producing now. It doesn't allow us to meet all our needs; however, it needs to be recognized that—

Public Safety committee  I'm very much on the same track with you.

Public Safety committee  This is just a response to the points that were raised. There is absolutely no question that in order for us to be 100% effective, we need to be better plugged into or tied into the kinds of support services that social service agencies provide across the country. In some case

Public Safety committee  I think the one point that you raise around professional development is an issue. I would actually argue that the array of opportunities is probably more specific to us than in some of the general communities. There is one point I will add, because it is relevant. One of the cha

Public Safety committee  Let me address your math. One of the things we have, of course, is the issue of time. Because the average sentence length is just over four years, we have a certain period of time in which to address the needs of offenders. We don't have to address 22,000 individuals every year.