Some notes pecked out as I pass the time inside the lockup for the release of the latest series of chapters from the Auditor General:
Feeding prisoners
Correctional Services Canada, the federal government agency responsible for running the 51 institutions that house those serving federal prison sentences spends about $72 million a year on food, clothing and cleaning supplies. (The A-G is complaining about that — saying there's lots of room to cut that cost). Fo the fiscal year, 2007-08, CSC's managers budgeted $4.47 per inmate per day for food. Turns out, though, that those planning targets were not very realistic. It's costing about $9 per inmate per day to feed a prisoner. For those prisoners requiring a special diet for religious, medical or ethical reasons, it's costing $20 a day. And here's something you won't be surprised to hear: The number of inmates demanding those special $20-a-day diets is on the increase. Criminals may be dumb but they ain't stupid.
Overtime for prison guards
So here's an odd one. Over the last few years, Canada's prison population has remained the same, the number of prison guards has remained the same or increased and there has been no spike in the incidence of prison violence. Why then, the Auditor General, is overtime costs at our prisons spiralling out of control? (That would be Exhibit 7.3 of Chapter 7 of the A-G's December 2008 report). The overtime bill last year was $47 million. Two years ago it was less than $30 million. Here's the key graph from that report:
Crown Corporations
These tidbits come from the recently tabled (by Treasury Board President Vic Toews) annual report on Federal Crown Corporations:
- The federal government is divided up – for legal, corporate and reporting purposes — into 383 distinct units. (Combined, those 383 units will spend about $230 billion this year, incidentally). Government departments — Justice, Health, Natural Resources, and so on — are the biggest units and each one has a minister. There are 20 of those. There are 125 “shared governance” corporations, 76 wholly-owned subsidiaries of Crown corporations, 58 statutory and other agencies, 48 Crown corporations but just 2 joint enterprises in which the federal government (or one of those 383 units) is one of the partners. That's a whole lot of stuff for your correspondent to keep an eye on.
- John Baird, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities has the greatest number of “units” reporting to him. In addition to his own department, he has 76 Crown corporations, statutory agencies, and shared governance corporations which Parliamentarians expect him to answer for. Heritage Minister James Moore is second in that regard, with 47 such units. Toews is third with 42 such units.
New federal institutions
Some you've probably heard of, some you probably haven't, but here's a list of new federal institutions created between August 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008, listed according to the department responsible for the institution.
- Indian Affairs and Northern Development
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- Indian Residential Schools Truth Indian Affairs and and Reconciliation Commission Secretariat
- Registry of the Specific Claims Tribunal
- National Defence
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- Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
- Canadian Heritage
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- Registry of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal*
- Human Resources and Social Development
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- Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board
- Finance
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- PPP Canada Inc.