Public Safety Canada's Response to Recommendations made in the Office of the Correctional Investigator's 2024-25 Annual Report
The Office of the Correctional Investigator's (OCI) 2024-25 Annual Report includes 21 recommendations, two of which are addressed to the Minister of Public Safety. The remaining 19 recommendations are directed to the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).
This Annual Report focuses on six investigations conducted by the OCI. The recommendations largely focus on the following key areas: CSC's Regional Treatment Centres, individuals with cognitive deficits, community discharge planning for individuals with significant mental health issues, release options for older and long-serving offenders, Therapeutic Ranges, Intermediate Mental Health Care, assessment and treatment of trauma for women, and culturally- and trauma-informed mental health and wellness for Indigenous peoples.
Opening Message from the Minister
It is my honour to table in the House the Office of the Correctional Investigator's Annual Report for 2024-2025. In this report, the Correctional Investigator, Dr. Ivan Zinger, announced his upcoming retirement in January 2026. Dr. Zinger's 30 years of public service, including over eight years as the Correctional Investigator, has been marked by exceptional human rights work, and an admirable dedication to serving Canadians. I would like to thank the Correctional Investigator for the invaluable contributions that he has made as Ombudsman by ensuring the fair and humane treatment of incarcerated individuals.
This year's report touches on a number of key issues, largely around access to, and the quality of, mental health care in federal corrections. Our government is committed to strengthening the federal correctional system, which includes working with CSC to provide a safe and secure environment for inmates and staff at federal correctional institutions. Ensuring that inmates have access to effective mental health support is important, and it positively contributes to the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, which in turn reduces the risk of reoffending and keeps our communities safe.
We are also committed to ensuring that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) continues to reflect the needs and realities of the federal inmate population, understanding that it is ever-changing; this includes ageing and long-serving offenders.
We acknowledge that there is more work to be done in these areas, as well as continued work to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous and other racialized individuals in the federal correctional system. We remain strongly committed to continuing our work with CSC, and continuing to leverage the OCI's valued findings to seek improvements.
I look forward to working with the Correctional Investigator for the remainder of his tenure, and his team, to ensure a safe and humane correctional system that supports rehabilitation and reintegration.
The Hon. Gary Anandasangaree
Minister of Public Safety
Response to Recommendations
Recommendation 2
I recommend that the Government of Canada/Minister of Public Safety reconsider its recent $1.3 billion investment in a replacement facility for RTC Atlantic (Shepody). Instead, efforts and funding should be redirected to support CSC in reallocating its current resources toward facilitating the transfer of individuals with serious mental illness to provincial psychiatric hospitals. This includes supporting the creation or expansion of bed space in provinces facing capacity constraints.
Response: Rejected
Narrative Response
The Health Centre of Excellence (HCoE) in Dorchester, New Brunswick, will be a modern, bilingual, purpose-built health care facility that will support CSC in advancing its patient-centered health care model and will set the standard for health care in federal corrections. It will increase bed capacity to better meet the health needs of an increasingly diverse and complex inmate population at both the in-patient and intermediate mental health levels of care. It will also support the provision of care to unique segments of the inmate population including those who have mobility issues; those requiring access to 24-hour care; women; and the Older Persons in Custody (OPIC) population. This facility is necessary in order to address the needs of inmates with mental health issues in the near and long term.
CSC engages with external hospitals to negotiate partnerships to enhance CSC's capacity to treat individuals with more complex mental health needs. Admissions to external health care facilities are based on a standardized referral process, initiated by CSC, to address specific clinical needs. They are voluntary and require informed consent. It is important to note that CSC cannot compel external hospitals to enter into partnerships with CSC.
In 2024, CSC committed to engaging with forensic psychiatric hospitals to explore opportunities to establish Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) for mental health assessment, treatment and inpatient care for CSC's inmate patients. Health Services reached out to 11 external hospitals and all but one declined entering into a partnership for the provision of external psychiatric beds at that time. One external hospital indicated they would be open to future discussions around entering into such a partnership.
That said, the development of the HCoE is not being pursued to the exclusion of CSC's ongoing partnership engagement. CSC Health Services continues to focus on partnerships in several key areas: access to community hospital beds, including forensic psychiatric beds; external health care services to meet specific health care needs; and specialized care for vulnerable subgroups (e.g., care for older inmates, care to gender diverse inmates).
CSC will continue to ensure that the highest standard of care, in line with community standards, is provided to individuals under CSC's care.
Recommendation 4
The Minister of Public Safety immediately review and assess release options (e.g., medical and/or geriatric parole) for older and long-serving patients who do not pose undue risk to public safety, advance legislative amendments to the CCRA, accordingly. CSC should actively invest in community corrections to create bedspace in long-term, hospice and retirement home settings, with a target of 200 beds in five years.
Response: Accepted in-principle
Narrative Response
It is important that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) reflects the needs and realities of the current federal inmate population, including those who are older, require a higher level of medical care, or are approaching end of life. Contingent on their individual risk to public safety, there is a recognition that a federal institution may not always be the most appropriate setting for particular inmates.
The CCRA currently contains provisions that allow for federal inmates to access appropriate medical care in the community through temporary absences. Both escorted and unescorted temporary absences may be authorized for an unlimited period of time if it is for medical reasons. In addition, Section 121(1) provides the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) the ability to grant parole at any time to an offender in exceptional cases, including those who are terminally ill and those whose physical or mental health is likely to suffer serious damage if continued to be held in confinement.
Public Safety Canada is cognizant that older federal inmates and those approaching end of life are a demographic with unique needs and characteristics, and that the services and infrastructure of federal institutions may not always be the most appropriate or sufficient for this population, therefore the Public Safety portfolio will continue to explore ways to strengthen all forms of conditional release.
In addition, as part of CSC Health Services partnership plan, CSC will continue to seek out partnerships focused on post-release services to ensure continuity of care, including working with provinces and territories on barriers to accessing provincial health care faced by offenders upon release, and to explore palliative care options in the community.
- Date modified: