Political deck-stacking in a complicated era
Peter Mackay said how the political deck is stacked federally and provincially can determine what gets pushed ahead, and that’s when funding can get creative. To say HMP is a provincial responsibility isn’t written in stone when the political parties are the same colour in both seats of power.
At the time when there were Tories in both Newfoundland and Labrador and Ottawa, the scene was complicated by the ABC campaign and our frosty relations with then prime minister Harper.
But there’s now a Liberal government in the province and one in Ottawa.
“It comes back to political will,” Mackay said. “It’s political will that gets these things done.
“There is a Liberal government in Newfoundland and Labrador and a Liberal government in Ottawa. If those two entities can’t work it out, then our system is failing. If it is a priority for them and they want to get it, it would get done. They would get it done.”
Mackay, a former Crown prosecutor in Nova Scotia, agrees HMP is long past its usefulness.
“We did a prison tour when I was in Opposition way back in the 1990s. I think that was when I first set foot in it. That is 20odd years ago now and it was old then. I can’t imagine it has gotten any better…,” he said.
“Look — the levels of government partner all the time, every day, on projects. This game — and I have played it myself where you blame the other level of government — that only goes so far. If you want to get it done, you will get it done. You will find a way. That’s where ACOA used to be very, let’s say, creative about funding. There are legitimate and legal ways to do it. … But partnering so that all levels of government come together to meet a significant public infrastructure need to get it done.
“It is sort of like when you are friends with somebody versus strangers. When you are of the same political strategy, it is much easier to get things done and to move the levers of government.”
Prisons in the news
Justice Minister Andrew Parsons said he’s been trying to put prison issues on the public agenda with visits to the facility and media photo-ops on creative programming like gardening, so that people who have never set foot in a courtroom might empathize. It’s not about being soft on crime, but reducing the rate of reoffending, he said.
Recent inmate deaths at HMP and the women’s prison in Clarenville — two in each — have catapulted the facilities back into the news since The Telegram began looking into the history of funding requests.
The former provincial PC government had identified a possible new location and developed some blueprints and Parsons still pegs hopes on some federal co-operation.
“I think there is willingness to partner with us. They worked with us on (Memorial University’s $325-million) core science facility,” Parsons said.
Turned down
In a January 2014 letter obtained under federal Access to Information legislation, then Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Steven Blaney got around to thanking then Justice Minister Darin King for his congratulations the previous fall.
“I am aware of your province’s announcement of plans to build a new prison,” Blaney said in a letter copied to the minister then responsible for ACOA, Rob Moore, and to Mackay, then minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.
“I understand that replacing Her Majesty’s Penitentiary is an important issue for Newfoundland and Labrador, as it will significantly improve the safety of inmates and staff, and provide enhanced rehabilitation services to offenders. Although we are not in a position to support a capital contribution, we look forward to continuously strengthening our collaborative relationship through our unique partnership.”
Five years earlier, the Consumers Health Awareness Network of Newfoundland and Labrador had begged then Attorney General Rob Nicholson to approve funding for a new prison, arguing that 66 of the 165 inmates in April 2009 were federal prisoners (The province receives payments from Ottawa for the accommodation of federal prisoners).
The premise was that based on the fact many prisoners suffer mental illness, the overcrowded, outdated facility was not equipped to accommodate inmates’ needs, but that the province couldn’t do anything about it on its own.
“I understand that replacing Her Majesty’s Penitentiary is an important issue for Newfoundland and Labrador, as it will significantly improve the safety of inmates and staff, and provide enhanced rehabilitation services to offenders.”
Then Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Steven Blaney Steven Blaney in a letter