Correctional Service of Canada Transformation Team

Linking CSC Priorities to the Transformation Agenda: Continuing our focus on public safety for Canadians

Improving public safety for Canadians is at the heart of CSC’s work. “It’s all about public safety” is the mantra you will hear many CSC employees and partners echo, whether they are working in institutions or in communities across Canada.

The Service has maintained a consistent focus on achieving excellent public safety results on five corporate priorities since 2006-07. So how does this new CSC Transformation Agenda fit into public safety and our existing corporate priorities? The answer is simple: our fundamental priorities remain the same; achieving the transformation objectives is a continuation of that same important journey.

Focussing on the CSC Transformation Agenda will help us achieve our public safety goals for Canadians, better and sooner

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has been a strong supporter of CSC’s corporate priorities since he was appointed Minister; he recently reaffirmed his support when endorsing CSC’s Report on Plans and Priorities in March 2008. Similarly, the federal government endorsed the CSC Review Panel recommendations in Budget 2008, saying that this “fundamental transformation of federal corrections” will help us achieve better public safety results. CSC now has the stable funding and clear direction we need to focus on getting those results.

While the way we get there — the activities or deliverables — may change, the priorities remain consistent: safe transition of offenders into the community; safety and security for staff and offenders in our institutions; enhanced capacities to provide effective interventions for First Nations, Métis and Inuit offenders; improved capacities to address the mental health needs of offenders; and strengthened management practices.

The key themes identified by the Panel — offender accountability, eliminating drugs from institutions, employment and employability, modernizing infrastructure and eliminating statutory release and moving to earned parole — demonstrate clear continuity with these priorities. To highlight just one example, the transformation objective of eliminating drugs in institutions is implicated in not only the safety and security priority, but also in each of the other priorities.

This special edition of Let’s Talk proudly takes its place at the end of a series of issues focussing on the priorities, delivering on the magazine’s mandate to inform staff, partners and the public about CSC’s activities and goals for Canadians.

Correctional Service of Canada Transformation Team (left to right): Suzanne Laplante, Mary Beth Wolicky, Julie Blasko, Chris Price, Morris Zbar, Brenda LePage, Jim LaPlante, Denise Mainville-Vantour, Don Head, Richard Harvey, France Poisson, Phil Higo (missing from the photo).