CHRISTOPHER PIKE
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page has put a price tag on the Tory's touger sentencing law, and it's a big one.
According to a dense report released by Mr. Page this morning, the Harper government's Truth in Sentencing Act will cost Canadians an additional $5.1-billion by 2016, or about $1-billion a year over five years.
In 2009-10, corrections cost $4.4-billion; by 2016, the report projects, they will cost about $9.5-billion.
Mr. Page says the act will cost the federal government alone about $1.8-billion in new-facility construction costs, or an average of $363-million a year over five years. Provincial construction costs are projected to be even higher.
"It's a lot of money in a period of time we're generating deficits," Mr. Page told a news conference Tuesday.
The act limiting the credit a judge can allow for time served will add about 159 days to inmates' average sentences, Mr. Page said, bringing their average time in federal custody to 722 days from 563.
Mr. Page's report says the number of inmates in federal prisons at any one time will increase to 17,058 from 13,304. That increase will require construction of 4,189 additional federal prison cells, he says.
And Mr. Page cautions that's only the federal tab.
"If you look at average head counts, they are twice as big in the provincial system - 26,000 every year versus 13,000 at the federal level," he said.
"The provinces and the territories carry the weight of the correctional services system in Canada so the impact is going to be enormous on the provinces and territories."
Mr. Page said he knew incarceration was expensive but, when it came to calculating the figures and the total costs, he said "you get to big numbers in a hurry. Originally, I was shocked how big it was."
The bill, a cornerstone of the Tories' tough-on-crime agenda, became law in February. But the government has been criticized for launching its initiatives without carefully considering the costs.
Mr. Page, whose relationship with the Harper administration has been strained at best, said the government has been less-than-forthcoming in its estimates.
"One of the major concerns we have ... [is whether]sufficient funds [have been]been set aside in the fiscal framework, have we provided the full kind of transparency we need to parliamentarians?
"On the transparency side, the answer is no. The government has not been transparent and debate has been impaired as a result of that."
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Correctional Services Canada did co-operate and because of that he doesn't understand Mr. Page's estimates, especially figures suggesting around a dozen new prisons could be required.
"If he wasn't getting any information from Correctional Services Canada, he must be making this up," Mr. Toews told reporters.
Mr. Toews said he is sticking by his government's estimates that the program will cost approximately $2-billion over five years, which will include adding some new prison cells.
"I've seen nothing that would change my mind in that respect," said Mr. Toews.
"Our goal is to protect Canadians, to keep streets safe. We want to keep dangerous repeat offenders off the streets and we are prepared to pay the cost in order to do that."
Mark Holland, the Liberal MP who asked for the costing, said he was shocked by Mr. Page's findings.
"This figure for one bill is enormous, and we have to remember this is one bill," Mr. Holland said. "When you start thinking about all of the other [crime]bills - 13 - this can crush Canada's budget, it can destroy and cannibalize the other departments.
"How are we going to afford our health care? How are we afford education? How are we going to afford our military if we have these failed Republican policies eating away at all the other departments?"