“Mr. Speaker, I am returning to a question I raised regarding CORCAN last week. CORCAN is the inmate skills development wing of Corrections Canada. Last week, I asked why CORCAN employs 608 individuals, at a cost of $66 million in salaries alone, to train only 1,056 inmates in rudimentary tasks like farm chores, apple picking and sewing. The public safety minister responded to my question with a heartwarming story about a trip he took with the Governor General to a prison in Saskatchewan. That was a very unsatisfactory answer, so I am back again to point out that the per-prisoner cost of a CORCAN education per year is $62,000, which is half the tuition at Harvard University and is also more than the average Canadian earns in a year. At this price, one would assume that the investment is justified by astoundingly good public safety outcomes and a very low rate of recidivism for people who receive CORCAN training, but as it turns out, that is not the case. The government has defended CORCAN by pointing over and over again, when I raise these questions in this place, to a research report by Corrections Canada published in 2014 that found that former inmates who find post-release employment are less likely to reoffend. Of course that is true, but I am not sure that the government read the rest of the research report, because it concludes, based on measurable data, that “Involvement in CORCAN employment [while incarcerated] was not found to have a significant impact on the length of time that offenders retained their first job post-release” and that “CORCAN participation was not directly linked to reductions in recidivism.” In other words, CORCAN does not make a person any more likely to maintain employment after serving time in prison and therefore makes no difference to that person’s employment status and does not reduce their likelihood of reoffending. In fact, the research in the same study found “no significant differences” whether prisoners worked for CORCAN, worked a non-CORCAN job in prison or did nothing at all. Here is an interesting fact. Eight times as many prisoners, 7,944 to be exact, worked while incarcerated in non-CORCAN jobs last year compared to only 1,056 in CORCAN jobs, at a much lower cost. CORCAN is therefore as redundant as it is inefficient and expensive. Why are we spending $66 million to add nothing at all to the skills prisoners receive? The minister asked us to look at what he calls the remarkable success of CORCAN. I see no success whatsoever. Why does this program exist at all?”
Statement grade
A+
The average of Signal, Relevance, Respect and Clarity.
Average 99 / 100
A score under 50 is red. Choose a measurement to see where it lost points and why; choose it again to clear.
Claims 91%Reasoning 9%
This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. Speaker, Claims · 108 wordsthrough CORCAN, the Correctional Service of Canada actively enhances the safety and security of our institutions and our communities.CORCAN programming does that by providing offenders with a sense of purpose, promoting pro-social behaviour and allowing them to participate in meaningful work.This reduces the risk of violence among offenders in CSC institutions, thereby benefiting the safety of other inmates as well as our correctional staff.CORCAN’s public safety benefits extend much further than within our correctional institutions, as CORCAN actively enhances public safety by providing offenders with the employment skills and experience necessary to become productive, law-abiding citizens and skilled workers when they return to their communities.Reasoning · 14 wordsWe all want safer communities for our friends, our loved ones and our constituents.Partly on pointClaims · 88 wordsThat is why I am proud to acknowledge that employability-related training is available at all federal institutions.1This is in addition to the CORCAN-operated on-the-job training sites at 34 CSC institutions across the country and in six community-based operations.2Additionally, Correctional Service Canada provides apprenticeship opportunities to offenders through certain on-the-job training assignments in institutions, as well as through the CORCAN community industries program during transitional employment.Research clearly demonstrates that offenders who are employed in their communities are less likely to reoffend and return to federal custody.3Reasoning · 19 wordsThis is why vocational training for offenders remains so important.Not only is it our duty to do so, Claims · 148 wordsbut it is effective and it works.It provides offenders with knowledge and skills that are transferable to the workplace and are aligned with industry and the Canadian labour market.Vocational training also results in industry-recognized certificates that enhance the employability of offenders, thereby promoting greater rehabilitation.In fiscal year 2025-26, there were 20,714 certificates earned by offenders for their work in vocational training programs.4Further, staff and contractors, and general employment services available in the community, assisted offenders under community supervision to obtain 2,425 community job placements.5In response to the member opposite’s question, I would like to advise that offenders participate in training and work programs that are directly transferable and in line with the Canadian labour market.This includes areas of farming, construction, welding, manufacturing and work in the food industry, among others.6These are the skills being promoted by CSC facilities, including within CORCAN.
