TORONTO - Ontario could be the first province in Canada to force inmates to earn their keep by picking up garbage along highways and clean graffiti from city walls if the Progressive Conservatives take the reins of power.
Opposition Leader Tim Hudak is making a bold play for votes ahead of the Oct. 6 election by vowing to make thousands of provincial inmates work for their perks if he becomes Ontario's next premier.
In what's being billed as a Canadian first, inmates in Ontario prisons would be forced to perform 40 hours of manual labour a week -- such as raking leaves and cutting grass -- to earn rewards like coffee and gym time, he said.
"Prisoners can watch TV, they can play cards, they can play poker at the same time we do -- after a good day's work," Hudak said.
The Tories, who've eclipsed the ruling Liberals in public opinion polls, said they would spend $20 million to put inmates to work outside prison walls.
Ontario prisons currently house 8,488 inmates. According to the government, 5,353 are awaiting trial, while 2,889 are serving less than two years for offences such as break and enter, assault and drug trafficking. The rest are serving federal or intermittent sentences, or are under hold orders.
Hudak said only those who are "found guilty and are serving in our correctional institutions" would be put to work.
His pledge harks back to former premier Mike Harris' "workfare" program, which forced able-bodied people on welfare to work for their benefits. It was among the main planks of his controversial Common Sense Revolution platform that propelled the Tories to power 16 years ago.
Hudak is trying to tap into the same vein of taxpayer outrage, accusing the Liberals of lavishing criminals with yoga lessons, cooking classes, writing workshops and premium cable TV channels -- all on the public dime.
"By putting criminals to work, the taxpayers dollars that used to be spent for that work would be spent on law-abiding citizens and benefits that matter to all of us, like health care," he said. "I'm not asking prisoners to anything more than what hard-working Ontario families do each and every day -- and that is, go to work."
Hudak said he has no plans to have prisoners manacled while they're doing their tasks, but security details will have to be worked out with correctional service officials and superintendents.
The Liberals condemned Hudak's "reckless" plan, warning it would put thousands of dangerous criminals -- including drug dealers and sexual predators -- in parks and neighbourhoods with children and families.
Criminals need to be behind "high walls and steel bars" to keep the public safe, said Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Jim Bradley.
"They cannot be in out in our neighbourhoods with our kids," he said.
But not all Liberals share those concerns. Jim Brownell, who represents the eastern Ontario riding of Stormont-Dundas-South-Glengarry, is giving Hudak's plan a thumb's up.
"I've always believed that folks in Ontario should be -- if they're able bodied and well enough to do work -- should be out working and contributing to their communities," he told Cornwall radio station CJSS.
"I think it's very positive."
Brownell said he's seen chain gangs working in the United States while heading on vacation to Florida. But he questioned whether it would be appropriate in Ontario to visibly label prisoners working in the community.
Hudak's predecessor John Tory -- now a radio talk show host -- also diverged from the party position, saying forced labour is "going at the problem the wrong way."
"If we're going to spend the money on chain gangs, I'd rather spend the money providing courses for people because the objective really has to be -- other than for the real bad apples that are going to keep offending over and over again -- to try and get people who often don't even have Grade 12 out of prison and into a job, so they might stay on the straight path," he said during his show on Toronto radio station CFRB.
British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the federal government all have work programs for prisoners -- but they're all voluntary, the Tories said. Some pay the inmates for the work they do while other programs help prisoners earn early release.
Manitoba has been using prisoners to help with sandbagging efforts during the floods, while B.C. inmates help with prison laundry, cleaning and kitchen duties.
Voluntary federal work programs for inmates generate about $70 million a year, according to the Tories.
Party officials say they'd aim to make the program revenue-neutral by having the inmates do work the province usually pays for, or solicit contracts from municipalities and other groups. It doesn't require new legislation, as the province already has the power to force prisoners to work.
Critics say the move will kill jobs by replacing workers with unpaid prison labour, but Hudak insists there's plenty of work to go around.
"Despite whatever contracts may exist, municipalities or different ministries, there's a heck of a lot of garbage along our roads," he said.
"We're seeing more and more graffiti in our cities, even our small towns. I think it makes a lot of sense to ask prisoners who have taken from society to give something back."
But some are questioning the Tories' commitment to seeing the program through.
Many prison work programs were casualties of the Tories' war on government spending during the Harris years, said Don Ford, a spokesman for the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union.
The Harris cuts closed many institutions that had work programs where inmates canned food, worked with the Transportation Ministry and even planted flowers on the grounds of the Ontario legislature, he said.
"We're all in favour if inmates are out doing work that might actually be a transferable skill when they get out of jail," he said.
"What we don't want to see is ...(to) put people out of work by using what's in effect free labour out of the jails."
