Provinces want feds to help pay for overcrowded jails

OTTAWA — The provinces will ask the Harper government this week to help them pay for the federal law-and-order agenda, which they say will put extra strain on their overcrowded jails.

Provincial public safety ministers and justice ministers, who gather Wednesday in Fredericton for their annual meeting, will make the pitch to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.

"Any and all of their agenda will have an impact on our jails," said New Brunswick Justice Minister Michael Murphy, the meeting's chairman.

The provinces run jails, which house offenders serving sentences of less than two years. The federal government is responsible for prisons, reserved for terms of two years or more.

Ontario, which has been scrambling to calculate how much federal tough-on-crime initiatives will cost the province, also will push Van Loan for funding. British Columbia is expected to raise concerns, as well.

"It's very important to understand that Ontario has supported many, many of the initiatives of the federal government," said Rick Bartolucci, Ontario's community safety minister, echoing the sentiment of most provinces.

"But Ontario has advocated for resources to implement those changes, because they do cost money."

Bartolucci said Ontario estimates its bill at $19 million for one federal initiative alone: an omnibus bill, passed last year, that would make it more difficult to get bail, and would impose mandatory incarceration for a variety of gun-related crimes.

Van Loan told Canwest News Service he will not be taking his chequebook when he meets with his provincial counterparts — and that they can expect to absorb any extra costs themselves, because they will benefit from several new and proposed laws that will put more offenders in prisons and jails.

"I think the real question is: Can we focus on keeping our communities safe and keeping the public safe? And I hope that will be the main focus of the provinces, as well," he said.

At least one federal initiative, which became law last week, will be "a huge benefit" financially to the provinces, because it will send more people to federal prisons, who are currently being detained in provincial facilities, awaiting the conclusion of their trials, Van Loan added.

The new law will eliminate a judicial practice, when sentencing offenders, of giving a two-for-one credit to compensate for time already spent in custody.

"The provinces are saving significant money," said Van Loan. "There will be far less demand on their correction systems."

Van Loan has refused to reveal the total tab for the federal law-and-order agenda, which would put more people in jails and prisons and keep them there longer.

Among other things, the government has proposed legislation that would impose minimum mandatory sentences for a variety of crimes, including financial fraud and drug trafficking.

Automatic incarceration takes away discretion for judges to impose lesser sentences as they see fit.

The government is proposing other measures that will also keep offenders imprisoned longer. A bill introduced this week would repeal accelerated parole, which permits an offender serving time for a non-violent crime to be released on day parole after serving one-sixth of his sentence.

The government introduced another bill in June that would severely restrict a judge's discretion to hand out conditional sentences, in which offenders serve their time at home rather than in jail.

Van Loan said he expects that eliminating accelerated parole would cost the system about $60 million, but he has repeatedly declined to disclose the cost of any other measures, saying they are "cabinet confidences."

Van Loan's predecessor, Stockwell Day, stated publicly soon after the Conservatives came to power in 2006 that the government has set aside as much as $245 million over five years to pay for additional prison cells at the federal level.

For three years, provinces have been pushing for extra cash for their overcrowded jails, but they are expected to sharpen their lobbying this year, because several bills have become law, or are on the verging on passing.