Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews, outside a Conservative Party caucus meeting on Parliament Hill, June 16, 2010.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
It is unfathomable that the Canadian government would be preparing to more than double annual spending on the country's jails at a time when almost all other government departments are being held in check, or cut. Never mind deficit reduction. Never mind health care or education. Never mind the environment. Only one thing matters: to be seen as tough on crime.
If the Truth in Sentencing Act costs what Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, thinks it will, the act is reckless and ridiculous. Mr. Page's estimate is that the costs to run the federal and provincial jails, now at $4.4-billion a year, will rise to $9.5-billion by 2015-16. Sixty per cent of the extra costs, or $3.1-billion a year, would be borne by the provinces. And that's just one of many crime bills.
If the government didn't know what the new law would cost, its managerial incompetence is inexcusable. If, as is more likely, it knew but didn't say, its stealth is unjustifiable. Why would Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has been promoting government-wide restraint in the name of deficit control, allow jail budgets to go wild? Why would the government not tell the truth about the Truth in Sentencing Act?
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Mr. Page "must be making this up." But where are his detailed projections? Initially, he said the new law would cost at most $90-million over the next two years. Now he says it will be $2-billion over five years. The crime legislation may make the billion dollars spent creating a federal gun registry look like petty cash by comparison.
If Mr. Page is wildly wrong, the government should blame itself. It provided limited information to Parliament, and Correctional Services Canada failed to meet with officials from Mr. Page's office during his review. Mr. Page said he is not aware of the government's estimates of the costs of the bill, or its methods for calculating those costs.
Are Canadians walking the streets in fear? Of course not. Crime is falling. Even if it were rising, an expenditure of billions annually to take away the near-automatic two-for-one credit for time served before trial wouldn't make sense. The principle is sound (the routine double credit was too rich a bonus), but any good idea needs to be weighed against other good ideas, and the best idea, at this time, is not to spend new money unless that expenditure is vital. Even in a booming economy, though, such a massive jail expansion would be the wrong way to go. Truth in Sentencing needs to be accompanied by Truth in Budgeting.