PROVINCES TO SHARE COST OF ACT

The Conservative government's tough-on-crime agenda looks like it will
be tough on the Saskatchewan government's bottom line, according to a
report on the federal Truth in Sentencing Act released Tuesday by
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.

The report estimates the additional cost of the act - which eliminates
the practice of inmates receiving double credit for time served before
sentencing - will be $5 billion annually by 2015-2016.

More than half those costs will be borne by the provinces.

Page's report estimates the cost of new facility construction related
to the bill for Saskatchewan could be between $340 million and $560
million over that period.

Based on modeling done by the Parliamentary Budget Office, annual
costs - including construction, lifecycle capital and lifecycle
operation and maintenance - could potentially rise to a level between
$250 million and $350 million annually for a number of years.

The Saskatchewan Party government budgeted $98 million for adult
corrections and $13.8 million for major capital projects for the
2010-2011 fiscal year.

The Sask. Party has been strongly supportive of the federal
legislation and has downplayed the possibility of extra costs.

The Opposition NDP said the report raises a serious question about
whether the government understood the impact of the legislation when
it offered its support.

"We should not be making public safety decisions based on cost
necessarily but we should be aware of what those costs are because, is
the public any safer?" said NDP house leader Kevin Yates in an interview.

Other provinces are pushing Ottawa to pick up the associated tab.
Yates said Saskatchewan should do the same.

"This change in law, which pushed hundreds of millions of dollars of
cost on to provinces, should be paid for by the federal government in
transfer payments," he said.

The report said costs will rise in tandem with inmate counts that will
increase on both the federal and provincial levels.

Provinces are responsible for remand centres and for housing inmates
sentenced to less than two years in jail.

Page - an independent officer of Parliament - noted in his report that
he had little co-operation from the Conservative government in
preparing his report.

Conservative Public Safety Minister Vic Toews - who earlier estimated
the cost of the legislation at $2 billion - disputed Page's numbers
Tuesday.

Sask. Party Corrections Minister Yogi Huyghebaert told reporters he's
not certain about the budget officer's report either.

He said Toews had suggested to him that provincial inmate counts - and
costs - may actually decline because more inmates will plead out
sooner to avoid remand time and more will serve federal time.

Nevertheless, if costs go up for the province, "we'll be there," said
Huyghebaert. "Our number one concern is public safety."

Saskatchewan's provincial corrections system is already overcrowded,
with provincial ombudsman Kevin Fenwick warning this spring that
packed conditions, combined with a lack of programming, were a "recipe
for disaster."

And the Truth in Sentencing law is only one part of a Tory anti-crime
agenda which includes plans to eliminate conditional sentences and
impose mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offences that are
expected to swell provincial corrections numbers.