Madam Speaker, my intervention is about corrections but I have to correct something that the hon. member just said a second ago, that our emissions were down 8%. Our emissions were up several thousand per cent last year, 2023, because our forests were on fire. We became the world's third largest emitter. The lousy forestry practices of the government are a substantial contributor to that ecological catastrophe.
\nI am here to follow up on a question I raised on September 27 regarding a conflict of interest in which cows have been purchased from members of an advisory group styled \u201cprison farm advisory panel\u201d in Joyceville, Ontario. This panel was set up by the Liberals as a first step in fulfilling their 2015 election promise to reopen the prison farm at Joyceville, which at that time had recently been shut down. The minister's approval of the panel's request to include cows in their plan for a reopened prison farm was contingent on the panel's assurance that this would be an achievable goal at \u201cno extra cost\u201d within the farm's original $4.3-million budget.
\nHowever, following a litany of errors, the costs of constructing the cow barn have ballooned to $16 million. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that in order to create a situation in which these cows would be purchased and thereby financially benefit the members of the advisory panel, it has been necessary to spend many millions of dollars that would not have been spent had the project actually been about what it was supposed to be about, which was providing job training to inmates.
\nThe entire reason for reopening the farm, the entire ostensible reason, was that the newly elected Liberal government rejected Corrections Canada's rationale for shutting down the farm. The rationale was that, in the form in which it then existed, the prison farm was not teaching marketable job skills to inmates and thus was not helping them to reintegrate into the community. The Liberals brushed this reasoning aside.
\nImmediately following the 2015 election, the then-minister of public safety, Ralph Goodale asked Corrections Canada to outline options and recommendations for reopening the prison farm.
\nIn a November 2015 briefing note, the CSC responded that prison farms did not enhance offender employment. CSC pointed out that prison farms are actually counterproductive. They actually lead to less employment and more recidivism because they direct financial resources away from more effective offender training programs. CSC was particularly opposed to reintroducing dairy operations. Instead, CSC recommended that if a prison farm program did have to be opened, it should have minimal start-up costs, no expensive equipment or infrastructure, and must at a minimum break even.
\nTo achieve these goals, CSC recommended small plot farming in lucrative specialty crops, such as lavender and garlic, which former inmates would be able to grow in small amounts with limited capital investment and to sell at venues such as farmers' markets that are open to someone with a history as an offender.
\nAll of this was ignored and, at present, the plan is to hand this $16-million barn over to McGill University. The barn will be staffed by four people, none of whom will be inmates. CSC has identified only two offender positions related to the dairy research and this is in basic data entry. Otherwise, prisoners will gain only generic soft skills from doing groundskeeping tasks such as whipper-snipping. These are activities that prisoners were already engaged in before this project came along.
\nWhy has so much money been spent on something that will achieve so little to prevent recidivism\u2014
", "fr": "Madame la Pr\u00e9sidente, mon intervention porte sur le service correctionnel, mais je dois corriger quelque chose que le d\u00e9put\u00e9 vient de dire, \u00e0 savoir que les \u00e9missions ont diminu\u00e9 de 8 %. Les \u00e9missions ont augment\u00e9 de plusieurs milliers de points de pourcentage l'an dernier, en 2023, parce que les for\u00eats \u00e9taient en feu. Nous sommes devenus le troisi\u00e8me plus grand \u00e9metteur au monde. Les mauvaises pratiques foresti\u00e8res du gouvernement contribuent grandement \u00e0 cette catastrophe \u00e9cologique.
\nJe suis ici pour revenir sur une question que j'ai pos\u00e9e le 27 septembre dernier concernant un conflit d'int\u00e9r\u00eats dans le cadre duquel des vaches ont \u00e9t\u00e9 achet\u00e9es \u00e0 des membres d'un groupe consultatif appel\u00e9 \u00ab groupe consultatif sur les fermes p\u00e9nitentiaires \u00bb, qui est situ\u00e9 \u00e0 Joyceville, en Ontario. Ce groupe consultatif a \u00e9t\u00e9 mis sur pied par les lib\u00e9raux comme premi\u00e8re \u00e9tape pour remplir leur promesse \u00e9lectorale de 2015 de rouvrir la prison agricole de Joyceville, qui, \u00e0 l'\u00e9poque, venait d'\u00eatre ferm\u00e9e. Pour que le ministre approuve la demande du groupe consultatif d'inclure des vaches dans le plan de r\u00e9ouverture de la prison agricole, ce dernier devait lui garantir qu'il s'agissait d'un objectif r\u00e9alisable sans d\u00e9passer le budget initial de la ferme, qui \u00e9tait de 4,3 millions de dollars.
\nCependant, \u00e0 la suite d'une litanie d'erreurs, les co\u00fbts de construction de l'\u00e9table ont explos\u00e9 pour atteindre 16 millions de dollars. Il n'est donc pas exag\u00e9r\u00e9 de dire que, pour en arriver au point o\u00f9 ces vaches seraient achet\u00e9es et, par cons\u00e9quent, profiteraient financi\u00e8rement aux membres du comit\u00e9 consultatif, il a fallu d\u00e9penser des millions de dollars que l'on n'aurait pas d\u00e9pens\u00e9s si le projet avait vraiment respect\u00e9 sa mission premi\u00e8re: offrir de la formation professionnelle aux d\u00e9tenus.
\nLa seule et unique raison justifiant la r\u00e9ouverture de la ferme, la seule et unique raison apparente, c'est que le gouvernement lib\u00e9ral nouvellement \u00e9lu a rejet\u00e9 le raisonnement invoqu\u00e9 par le Service correctionnel du Canada pour fermer la prison agricole. Selon le Service correctionnel, sous sa forme actuelle, la prison agricole n'enseignait pas aux d\u00e9tenus des comp\u00e9tences professionnelles monnayables et, par cons\u00e9quent, ne les aidait pas \u00e0 se r\u00e9ins\u00e9rer dans la soci\u00e9t\u00e9. Les lib\u00e9raux ont balay\u00e9 ce raisonnement du revers de la main.
\nImm\u00e9diatement apr\u00e8s les \u00e9lections de 2015, Ralph Goodale, alors ministre de la S\u00e9curit\u00e9 publique, a demand\u00e9 au Service correctionnel du Canada de pr\u00e9senter des options et des recommandations pour la r\u00e9ouverture de la prison agricole.
\nDans une note d'information de novembre 2015, le Service correctionnel du Canada a r\u00e9pondu que les prisons agricoles n'am\u00e9liorent pas l'emploi des d\u00e9linquants. Le Service correctionnel du Canada a soulign\u00e9 que les prisons agricoles sont en fait contre-productives. Elles ont pour effet de r\u00e9duire le nombre d'emplois et d'augmenter le taux de r\u00e9cidive parce qu'elles privent les programmes de formation des d\u00e9linquants de ressources financi\u00e8res plus efficaces. Le Service correctionnel du Canada \u00e9tait particuli\u00e8rement oppos\u00e9 \u00e0 la reprise des activit\u00e9s laiti\u00e8res. Il a plut\u00f4t recommand\u00e9 qu'un nouveau programme de prisons agricoles comporte des co\u00fbts de d\u00e9marrage minimes, ne n\u00e9cessite pas d'infrastructure ou d'\u00e9quipement co\u00fbteux et, au minimum, fasse ses frais.
\nPour atteindre ces objectifs, le Service correctionnel du Canada a recommand\u00e9 la production, sur de petites parcelles de terre, de cultures sp\u00e9ciales lucratives comme la lavande et l'ail, que les anciens d\u00e9tenus pourraient cultiver en petites quantit\u00e9s avec des investissements de capitaux limit\u00e9s et vendre \u00e0 des endroits comme des march\u00e9s agricoles qui sont accessibles aux personnes ayant des ant\u00e9c\u00e9dents de d\u00e9linquants.
\nTout cela a \u00e9t\u00e9 ignor\u00e9, et, \u00e0 l'heure actuelle, on pr\u00e9voit remettre cette \u00e9table de 16 millions de dollars \u00e0 l'Universit\u00e9 McGill. Le personnel de l'\u00e9table sera compos\u00e9 de quatre personnes, dont aucune ne sera d\u00e9tenue. Le Service correctionnel du Canada n'a pr\u00e9vu que deux postes de d\u00e9linquants li\u00e9s \u00e0 la recherche laiti\u00e8re, et ce, dans le domaine de l'entr\u00e9e de donn\u00e9es de base. Autrement, les prisonniers ne d\u00e9velopperont que des comp\u00e9tences g\u00e9n\u00e9rales li\u00e9es \u00e0 l'entretien du terrain, comme l'utilisation d'un taille-bordure. Cependant, ce sont des activit\u00e9s auxquelles les prisonniers participaient d\u00e9j\u00e0 avant la mise en \u0153uvre de ce projet.
\nPourquoi a-t-on d\u00e9pens\u00e9 autant d'argent pour quelque chose qui fera si peu pour pr\u00e9venir la r\u00e9cidive...
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