Corrections guru to stay on the job until the end of the year

Sapers completing report on institutional violence

Ontario’s independent corrections guru Howard Sapers is still on the job.

While the terms of his employment with the new Progressive Conservative government changed in what he admitted was a “brutal” sounding cabinet order in council, he is under contract until the end of the year.

As reported by the Star on Tuesday, a flurry of Liberal appointees were defenestrated by the Tories at Premier Doug Ford’s first cabinet meeting on June 29.

“The order in council, it sounds brutal, right — ‘the order in council was revoked’ but the mechanism is that the term is still two years,” Sapers said. His work as Ontario’s $330,000-a-year independent adviser on correctional system reform has led to improvements to jails, including the curbing of segregation in provincial facilities.

Former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne appointed him in 2016 to a two-year contract with an option for a third year.

“The idea of having an opportunity to review it after the end of 24 months was something that both myself and the (previous) government wanted to do and the current government has respected that.

The third year optional was at my request and the government’s,” he said.

“I’m on the job until Dec. 31 and there will be between now and then discussions about anything going forward. From my standpoint nothing ’s changed.”

Sapers is completing a report on institutional violence that will be delivered to Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Michael Tibollo within the next few months.

“I’m in the process of writing those recommendations,” he said.

The Tories, who have pledged to cut $6 billion annually from the $150-billion provincial budget, moved quickly to get rid of Liberal appointees serving in various roles.