Prisons or poverty? The choice is clear

Since 2006, the Harper Government has drained its own coffers.  It cut the GST by two percentage points, creating an annual revenue loss of $12 billion.  It trimmed corporate taxes, from 18 to 16.5 percent, effective 2011, and made other smaller tax cuts, which taken together deprive it of a substantial amount of revenue.  Yet the government somehow manages to find money for its favourite expenditures: war and crime.  Significant amendments to the Criminal Code will cost Canadians an estimated $1 billion annually over five years.  This, despite evidence that building massive prisons has already proven ineffective and breathtakingly expensive in the United States because every dollar spent on prison is a dollar not spent on the factors that contribute to criminal behaviour.  This commentary argues that instead of focusing on the consequences of crime, the Harper government should tackle the causes − including the problems of persistent poverty and growing inequality.

This commentary was published as an op ed in the National Post on March 15, 2011.

ISBN – 1-55382-504-7