OTTAWA -- Canadian prisoners will be paying more for room and board next year, Canada's tough-on-crime Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said on Wednesday.
Offenders serving two or more years behind bars now pay up to 25 Canadian dollars a week, which is drawn from the pay they receive while working in prison. However, those at the top three income levels (between 58 and 69 Canadian dollars every two weeks) will contribute about 30 percent of their stipend toward room and board, Toews announced at a news conference in Ottawa.
"This is reflective of the fact that the average Canadian pays about one-third or 32 percent of his or her income towards housing costs," he told reporters.
Public Safety Canada estimates that increasing the charges will save more than four million Canadian dollars annually.
Prisoners who work at facilities that specialize in textiles, manufacturing, construction and such services as printing and laundry will also no longer receive incentive pay for meeting production quotas because the jobs are highly sought after.
Prison inmates will also have to pay more for phone calls.
Toews said currently, Correctional Services' staff break down the costs associated with each inmate's phone usage when a monthly arrives and then recoup the costs.
The Public Safety department estimates the "you use it, you pay it" inmate telephone system will save more than 1.6 million Canadian dollars every year.
Beginning next year, prison inmates will also no longer simply fill out a request for goods not in stock or in the canteen of the facility and have a staff member go out and purchase the items. A schedule will be set whereby staff will buy products from an established list of suppliers or prisoners will be able to order from a catalogue.
"Institutional staff are not personal shoppers," said Toews, whose department estimates that measure will result in annual savings of more than one million dollars. (1 U.S. dollar = 1.0017 Canadian dollars)