A $1-million price tag on milk for inmates at three Ontario institutions is providing new fodder for supporters of Canada's threatened prison farms.
They say the cost of replacing milk now produced at one of the country's six prison farms undercuts the case made by the Conservative government for closing down the farms, which are staffed by inmates.
"It makes no sense," Dianne Dowling of the Save our Prison Farms campaign said Tuesday.
"(Inmates) are producing food for the system. They are keeping themselves busy with good honest work."
The estimated cost of replacing milk from Frontenac Institution, where the dairy herd is slated for auction next month, is contained in a government tender notice under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In the notice, Correctional Service of Canada solicits bids for milk for 11 facilities in the three Ontario areas of Kingston, Campbellford and Gravenhurst. The notice pegs the value of the contract to taxpayers at $990,000, excluding GST.
Other tenders, for produce such as eggs, have yet to be issued.
Corrections spokeswoman Christa McGregor said the government did not expect food-procurement costs would rise as result of the closures.
She also said no decision had been made on selling the land itself - some of it prime agricultural lands - in areas already under severe development pressure.
Latest figures show the farms generated revenues of $7.5-million, but had expenses of $11.6-million, for a loss of $4.1-million.
McGregor had no estimate of the net cost or savings of ending the program.
Armed with the new tender information, supporters of the system planned townhall meetings Tuesday night in Athens, Ont., and again next week in Napanee, Ont., both in Conservative ridings.
Five years ago the government bragged that its dairy herds "continued to win awards for high production yields" and the farm operations provided "concrete training" opportunities for almost one in five male offenders.
A glowing article in the January 2006 edition of Correctional Service Canada publication "Let's Talk" extolled the virtues of the 400-hectare Frontenac Institution farm.
The most important virtue, according to the article, was "the positive changes it makes in inmates' lives."
However, following a strategic review in 2008, the government decided the farms in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick were no longer useful.
"Over the last five years, less than one per cent found work in the agriculture sector," McGregor said.
Supporters argue the government is ignoring the rehabilitative and healing effects that the system offers low-risk inmates before release.
They say it's immaterial whether released inmates go on to be farmers because a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility are among skills developed through the farming program.
Unionized government employees, the National Farmers Union and political opposition members have all decried the pending closures.
The government has shown no sign of listening and the horse may have already left the barn. Some heavy equipment from the Prairie farms has already been sold.