“OTTAWA (CP) - The government's new gun laws will require spending $246 million to house the extra criminals expected to be hit by the mandatory minimum sentences, Justice Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday.”
“Toews told the Commons justice committee that he expects an extra 270 criminals will be nailed each year by the new laws once they have been in effect for five years. It will cost $246 million for new prison space and $40 million a year extra in operating costs to keep them behind bars.”
Why?
Why will it cost $40 MILLION a year to house 270 people convicted of using a firearm in the commission of a criminal act?
At a cost of roughly $14,000.00 per year, Canadians will provide medical and dental care, clothing, entertainment, housing and three squares a day to people who’ve demonstrated their decision not to be a part of this society.
Why?
An individual electing of his or her own free will to flout the system of laws that seeks to establish and maintain a climate of peace and security enabling Canadians to enjoy life and prosper in safety will receive greater benefits (taxpayer dollars) than will an individual suffering the ravages of a life destroying illness or injury.
What these figures mask is the mismanagement and corruption that pervades the Canadian criminal justice/penal systems, just as the draconian measures put into law many years ago masks the ineptitude and mercenary attitude that Canadians and in particular Ontario’s politicians exercise when faced with a commitment to assist sick and injured Ontarians.
I live on $11,000.00 a year, benefits I receive from the Ontario Disability Support Program. From this amount, all costs (housing clothing and food) are paid by the taxpayer on my behalf.
I have no delusions regarding the dynamic involved.
I am grateful that Canadians embrace the concept that people who’ve contributed to the society in which they’ve lived and participated for many years, when struck by devastating illness and disease deserve the support of Canadians who have been thankfully untouched by these dreadful circumstances.
Is the benefit amount I receive adequate to my needs?
Not if you compare the recommendations of Health Canada with respect to daily food intake. According to Health Canada a single person should be eating a diet that costs approximately $160.00 per month. A diet that delivers required nutrients capable of sustaining health. A matrix of vitamins and minerals, fibre and chemicals provided through a complex of fruits, vegetables, meat, grain, and dairy products.
What the benefit amount I receive (as is received by other folk eligible for the maximum benefit amount) translates into, is very limited amounts of meat and dairy products, frozen or canned fruits and vegetables and an abundance of starch-based foodstuffs that fail to make the grade in terms of Health Canada’s food list.
Does the paltry $427.00 monthly allowance for “shelter” actually pay the rent on a single bedroom apartment…. anywhere in Canada?
NO
I’m grateful that I can afford to buy second hand clothing (‘second-hand’ everything for that matter…) don’t get me wrong, I’m long past the point in my life where I could give a **** about designer labels or making some phoney ‘favourable’ “first-impression” that’s supposed to tell people who I am…
I can’t afford cable television service, but that’s no big deal, the artistic barrel from which this “bubble-gum-for-the-eyes”, as Buckminster Fuller once termed television…has been empty for years. If you think that ‘South Park’, ‘The Simpson’s’ and ‘The Trailer Park Boys’ represent the pinnacle of twenty-first century artistic endeavour then you’ll be happy with what’s on the tube, and more than happy to be ripped off for your cable or satellite service.
Criminals munch on snacks you’ve paid for while watching cable-TV in the air-conditioned comfort of one of Canada’s penal institutions.
Our approach to so many different social structures is cost driven…not service driven. Because it costs “X” amount to hire a prison guard…because it costs “Y” amount to treble or quadruple the costs of “administration” of our nations penal holiday getaways…. That’s why it’s going to cost “X+Y+Z” to pamper these criminals at taxpayers expense while the sick injured and elderly are thrown scraps.
When some genetic throw-back, arms him or herself with a firearm they’re saying…. “Screw you and your legal system, I’m getting “mine” and if you get in my way I’m prepared to kill you…”
And taxpayers are more than prepared to be held hostage to this nonsense than they are to hold the governments of this country accountable for how taxpayer’s money is spent.
When you’re considering donating to Goodwill or Salvation Army or the Untied Way or any other charitable organization, including those never-ending pleas from little-league baseball and cub-scout canoeing charities, remember how little concern is demonstrated by our governments for these efforts while money is lavished on drunken after-hours attendees prepared to take your life if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time… perhaps just passing by….
Goodwill, The United Way and the Salvation Army etc. should be paid by provincial and the federal governments for furniture clothing and everything else that can be donated to the Canadian penal system.
Canadian penal systems should be funded through charity not through taxpayer’s held hostage by criminals (both the ones in the prison and those “managing” the system…) Ideally we should put the penal system on a paying basis where inmates are compelled to earn their keep. And if they don’t, then they receive a minimum and spend their days in a six by six cell.
There are plenty of doctors, lawyers and other professionals who’ve turned to crime and now sit behind bars in Canada’s luxurious prisons who could be given the opportunity to serve their fellows “inside” and if they choose not to…. Their benefits and the limited freedom they have should be cut even further….
Reform not more money.
Accountability not free-wheeling politicians and bureaucrats wasting millions……
The only reason it will cost as much as the Honourable Mr. Toews predicts it will cost is because we let these morons away with it.