Given recently released numbers from Statistics Canada, it is unsurprising last week's provincial budget includes a significant bump in spending for corrections and policing. The new statistics show Saskatchewan's incarceration rate continues to rise.
The numbers are disturbing. Saskatchewan ranks second among the provinces with 195 incarcerated people per 100,000 population.
Also disturbing is the disproportionate number of Aboriginal inmates, which was the subject of a scathing report by the federal Office of the Correctional Investigator two weeks ago (see Crime Diary, March 20, 2013, Yorkton This Week).
While overall provincial spending is up for 2013-14 by only 3.1 per cent, the Ministry of Justice received an increase of 5.3 per cent for a total of $542 million.
Approximately 15 per cent of the ministry's overall budget is dedicated to increasing the capacity of prisons, policing and the courts.
More prisons are not the solution to crime, though. The demographics of the prison population, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, tells that story in spades.
If governments want to reduce crime, they must address risk factors for criminal activity including substance abuse, school absenteeism (which leads to low levels of education), employability and mental health issues.
That is not to say, however, that Saskatchewan did not need to increase its justice and correctional capacity. In a province growing as fast as this one, it was necessary and inevitable, regardless of what party controls the Legislature.
Justice problems feed on each other. For example, the high number of people being held in remand (more than 500 at any given time), can be partially attributed to the fact the courts are overcrowded.
There are some things the system could do, and does do to an extent, to immediately alleviate some of these problems-such as releasing non-dangerous offenders on conditions-but ultimately we must address the risk factors.
I see it every week in Yorkton court. When mothers are stealing food to feed their children, that's not a crime problem, it's a social problem. When addicts are stealing electronics to sell for drugs, that's not a crime problem, it's a health problem.
More supports are needed outside the justice system.
There are some positives with respect to alleviating root causes of crime both in the Justice increases and other parts of the budget.
The government committed an extra $700,000 to its Building Partnerships to Reduce Crime initiative. There is $800,000 for women's shelters and $1 million to Parkland College for a new trades and technology centre, a project specifically targeted at improving Aboriginal participation in the workforce.
The budget also commits to more day care spaces and pre-kindergarten programs, something Dwayne Reeve, director of education for the Good Spirit School Division, said is a good step toward decreasing absenteeism and improving student engagement in the latter years of K-12 education.
Dare I say that the Saskatchewan Party tends toward a kinder, gentler brand of conservatism? Is that why the founders named it that instead of the Conservative Party of Saskatchewan or something along those lines?
Certainly, the members are not nearly so prone to compassionless vitriol as their conservative brethren in Ottawa and Edmonton, but before I go too far out on that limb, there is significant criticism that the budget simply does not go far enough.
The Saskatchewan School Boards Association was very quick to blast the numbers saying it does not represent a net increase to education, but barely keeps up with the increased enrolment of a growing population and certainly does not give schools the tools they need to meet the expectations of the government's 2020 goals for high school grad rates and improving student outcomes.
The no net increase argument has also been leveled at health spending.
Finally, the budget does not address the issue of revenue stabilization.
I am not an expert on economics, but there seems to be something intrinsically wrong with the fact the Province's primary source of income is still taxes paid by individual citizens while corporations, particularly those that funnel billions of dollars out of the province skate by with one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world.
I simply don't buy the argument that if we made corporations pay their fair share, they wouldn't do business here. In my considerable exposure to capitalists, it has become abundantly clear to me that if there are profits to be made, they will come.
That may not be true of all industries, but it is certainly within the government's prerogative to look at incentives for those on a case-by-case basis.
To its credit, the current budget does defer a corporate tax cut until next year and perhaps the government can be persuaded in the future to take a serious look at a fairer, more reliable, revenue system.
Then there is the tobacco and alcohol cash grab. These "sin taxes," as they are commonly referred to, as well as, lotteries and casinos, have the greatest economic impact on the people who can least afford them. They further impoverish people who are already struggling with the risk factors at the root of crime.
The Sask Party talks a lot about balance in this budget. Perhaps the balance is that it takes away with one hand what it gives with the other.
Time will tell if 2013-14 is a starting point for addressing crime. My positive takeaway is that the current budget does seem to indicate Saskatchewan conservatives are at least open to listening to reason.
