Commissioner’s Update Stakeholders: April 9, 2025
As you are likely aware, a federal election will take place on April 28, 2025. It is important to note that during an election period, the Caretaker Convention is in effect. This means that government acts with restraint and confines itself to conducting necessary government business.
As an operational department, many of our functions must continue. We look forward to the ongoing collaboration on a number of important priorities to continue to meet our objectives. Below are some of the key updates since my last message.
Culture at CSC
Building and sustaining a healthy, respectful, and inclusive organization remains a key priority. In 2024, we released the results of our first-ever audit of our organizational culture and I wanted to provide an update on what we have been working on.
Some of the current focus includes:
- engaging supervisors and managers in conversations about how we can better support these important roles
- enhancing onboarding practices for those on the frontlines to make sure everyone feels supported from the time they join our organization
- expanding on successful wellness initiatives that meet the needs of staff, given the challenging roles they perform
- refocusing the way we respond to incidents and investigations to maximize learning opportunities
- focusing on ways to increase safety and improve culture in maximum-security institutions, including enhancing inmate accountability
Evolving culture will take time, commitment, and purposeful action. To guide our culture journey, we have created a Culture team. The Culture team has started a Community of Practice, which regularly convenes culture change agents from across the country to reduce silos, coordinate efforts, and collaborate on key initiatives.
CSC's Departmental Results Report
The 2023 to 2024 Departmental Results Report was released in December 2024.
Over the years, we have seen a shift in the women offender population. Women, and especially Indigenous women, are the fastest growing population in corrections with increasingly diverse and complex needs. I recognize that this has put some pressures on our population management and interventions. Despite the increase in population and its changing profile, we are seeing good results for women:
- 96.2% of women offenders have not been readmitted to federal custody within five years after the end of their sentence
- the median number of days spent in SIUs was 6
- 82.1% of women offenders completed vocational training prior to first release
You can access the full report here:
Final report of the Structured Intervention Unit (SIU) Implementation Advisory Panel
The SIU Implementation Advisory Panel published its final report, marking the end of their mandate, following years of oversight. You can read the final report and the Minister’s Statement on the Public Safety website.
- Minister McGuinty welcomes final Structured Intervention Unit Implementation Advisory Panel report
- Solitary Confinement and the SIU in Canada’s Penitentiaries - The Final Report
I would like to thank the panel members for their work and insights, which will continue to be considered as we move forward. Thank you again to everyone involved for their steadfast commitment to implementing this historic transformation, which contributes to our overall mission to rehabilitate those in our care. The ongoing work to support our SIUs is acknowledged and appreciated.
National Ethnocultural Advisory Committee
I was pleased to meet with the National Ethnocultural Advisory Committee on March 27. Advisory members and senior executives took the time to discuss several initiatives currently underway that will have a positive impact on our services and interventions for ethnocultural offenders.
Seeking advice from our advisory members is an important part of getting a diverse range of perspectives to better our anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. I encourage you to learn more about CSC’s ethnocultural committees and advisory members:
Break the Cycle: Volunteers offer Black offenders the tools to heal and give back
As part of the celebrations throughout Black History Month, I wanted to highlight the impressive and important work being done in the Quebec Region with the Break the Cycle initiative. This volunteer-led initiative gives Black offenders the opportunity to give back to their community as part of their healing and rehabilitation journey.
Break the Cycle takes offenders from minimum-security institutions on escorted temporary absences to volunteer at their church’s local food bank. While the initiative is open to everyone, the focus is to offer culturally adapted rehabilitation solutions for Black offenders.
I encourage you to read more in our “Let’s Talk” article:
Health Centre of Excellence
As many of you know, CSC is working to design, build, and operationalize a Health Centre of Excellence (HCoE). It will replace the health services currently offered at Shepody Healing Centre, on existing CSC property in Dorchester, New Brunswick. This facility will serve as a national resource for the organization. The HCoE, a bilingual facility, will strengthen CSC’s capacity to address the health needs of federal offenders, contributing to better public safety outcomes.
I encourage you to read more about the HCoE and next steps:
In December, a call-out for participation was launched to allow people to apply to be part of the HCoE Public Advisory Group. The group will provide a forum for feedback and consultation. Members of the group will offer informed input and bring forward the perspectives of their respective organizations and/or communities for the duration of the project.
Taking action against illegal drone activity
You may have seen our new web page and social media posts to promote drone awareness around our institutions.
Work continues to prevent the introduction of drugs and contraband into our institutions. We are procuring and testing different drone detection technology at our sites, and we are now using body scanners and will be installing more at additional sites. We continue to invest in intelligence activities.
This public campaign is another way to support the efforts of our frontline staff. You will continue to see posts on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. I encourage you to consider sharing these in your local networks to increase public awareness of illegal drone activity near CSC properties.
Policy updates
An Interim Policy Bulletin was implemented to reflect revisions related to post-use of force physical assessment requirements to align with professional practice standards for health care professionals.
In conjunction with the development of a new National Pathways Initiatives Handbook, modifications were made to Guidelines 702-1: Establishment and Operation of Pathways Initiatives to incorporate operational changes, to streamline existing direction to ensure it remains in line with best practices and legislative requirements, and to clarify responsibilities throughout the policy.
The full list of our policies, including those updated and archived, can be found here:
Black History Month
A number of stakeholders were involved in the celebrations and events throughout Black History Month. A huge thank you to everyone who led or participated in an effort to celebrate the achievements of Black communities in Canada, listen to their stories, and learn more about their history and contributions. I want to thank CSC’s Ethnocultural Advisory Committees for their great work and contributions in helping us address, and take into consideration, the diverse needs of offenders.
CSC continues to celebrate and embrace commemorative dates, months, and events all across the country. You can read my weekly messages to employees and inmates for more on CSC’s participation and acknowledgement in key events and dates:
New episodes of “Prisons Inside/Out”
In Episode 13, we talk about how inmate voting works in federal institutions with staff and offenders
In Episode 12, we speak with Daniel Kletke, a supervisor at the National Monitoring Centre, to learn how he and his team manage this crucial and dynamic responsibility.
In Episode 11, we visit Drumheller Institution in Alberta to meet the dedicated CSC staff making mealtime happen each and every day.
You can listen to all previous episodes of the “Prisons Inside/Out” podcast on our website here:
I want to thank you all for your contribution and am looking forward to continuing to progress on a number of major initiatives.
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.
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