Most vulnerable will pay the most for federal budget cuts

When I was young, I used to accompany my father, Murray Sinclair, while he presided in court.

Frankly, I was too young to understand how historic it was to watch Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge, but I do remember a few things he used to do.

When an offender was found guilty and would stand to hear their sentence, he would ask them to turn to look at their loved ones; their colleagues, friends or family.

“I want you to look at who you’re leaving behind,” he would say. “And who will be waiting for you when you get out.”

On one occasion, I asked Dad why he did this.

“Because the thing that changes people is hope,” he told me.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and his federal cabinet have announced billions in cuts to the civil service and programs since the federal budget was released in November.

In total, $31 billion will be cut from 85 federal departments in areas such as health, the environment, foreign aid, tourism and scientific initiatives, including a Canadian-designed lunar rover module.

In all, 16,000 full-time equivalent positions are to be cut, resulting in deep gashes in areas such as the justice departments Indigenous rights and relations portfolio — jobs that were expected to be critical to the government’s plan to implement several “nation-building projects.”

At the same time, not everything has been cut. There’s $23 billion in new investment for departments such as finance, employment, housing, transportation, resource development and national defence.

The Carney government is framing this as an attempt to deal with the $78-billion deficit but as one can see: these funding “cuts” are really re-allocations to his government’s priorities.

Which brings me to hope.

A department severely hit by Carney’s budget-cutting measures is the Correctional Service of Canada, which has been told to find $132.2 million in savings and cut nearly 400 jobs by the 2028–29 fiscal year.

This resulted in CSC officials announcing plans last week to cut all prison librarian positions, meaning libraries at 38 federal corrections facilities will have no staff or support.

Starting April 1, federal prisoners will no longer have around 50 librarians, library technicians, and employment co-ordinators. Libraries in federal prisons will remain open, but inmates will be encouraged to be self-directed, use electronic and digital resources, and find employment resources on their own.

I hope I don’t have to explain just how vital librarians are; they do far more than show people where to find a book.

Librarians choose, buy, and organize materials, oversee and administrate space, and facilitate programs and initiatives related to education and literacy.

Librarians are teachers, writers, and leaders all at the same time.

Ask yourself if you remember the librarian from school and that’s all you need to know about how important they are.

Library technicians are equally as important. They facilitate the use of technology, instruct how to use it ethically and responsibly, and buy, operate, and maintain basically everything that isn’t simply a book.

One wonders how the CSC’s plan to rely on technology and digital media could even operate without a technician, in fact.

Who will make sure the databases, websites, or even the computers work?

It’s unlikely anyone knows what employment co-ordinators in federal prisons do, but they are the lifeline for helping incarcerated people connect to life after jail.

These individuals help facilitate training, the acquisition of skills, and network with employers to help individuals transition into a positive next step for their life.

Individuals who end up in federal corrections are more often than not disadvantaged, meaning they usually experience trauma that leads to lower levels of educational attainment, literacy and numeracy, and lack access to technology that leads them to use it and understand it less.

One doesn’t have to spend much time researching to see that prisons are also populated with Indigenous, racialized, and newcomer people more often than anyone else.

In other words, people who have historically experienced systemic marginalization, disenfranchisement, and trauma.

The ironic thing is that cutting these positions won’t make much of a dent on the funds CSC needs to save. The overall cuts represent around $5 million, or 4 per cent of the savings.

I wonder what the cost will be to society. I’ll bet it’s more than a Lockheed Martin F-35.

About 10 years ago, while touring prisons, I witnessed an incredible program created by a library technician at Stony Mountain Penitentiary. The men got to record themselves reading a book and the recording was sent to their children.

Some of the men told me they would end every reading with a promise that they would read to them in person one day.

Now there will be no one to record them.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca