QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Justice
Women in Prisons in Canada
May 28, 2026
Welcome, minister. In the last two decades, as you know, the number of women in federal prisons has doubled. I recently visited prisons in Edmonton, where corrections is spending millions to convert a prison for men to incarcerate yet more women, most of whom are Indigenous.
Punitive bail and sentencing approaches criminalize those unable to access adequate housing, health care and social and economic supports. They have produced skyrocketing rates of incarceration at staggering financial costs: It’s as much as half a million dollars per woman per year for Indigenous women because of their simultaneous overclassification.
The human costs are even more devastating. Most women in federal prisons are Indigenous, mothers and survivors of violence.
Minister, before passage of Bill C-14 and Bill C-16, which entrench such approaches, what concrete steps are you taking to reduce the numbers of criminalized and incarcerated women, especially Indigenous survivors of violence?
Thank you. On these issues, I expect there are things that we disagree upon and things that we agree upon.
The opportunities that we have should be grounded in the notion that despite the fact that we have had a changed posture compared to the previous government when it comes to matters of criminal law, the goal is not to have more people incarcerated. The goal is to have less crime that demands incarceration over time.
Part of that will involve strengthening the penalties that are included in the Criminal Code, but it will also include working with community organizations to ensure that they have funding to deliver programming that is aimed toward prevention, particularly trying to catch people earlier in life and to examine opportunities to prevent youth who are at risk, knowing the social determinants of crime, health and justice that we can examine.
Specifically, we’re also seeking to do a better job of measuring the impact of some of the measures that we’re putting in place. We’re working to fund activities by provincial governments which, of course, are the custodians of the majority of data, particularly when it comes to bail, in order to help them better measure what is actually happening when bail decisions are taken. How do bail decisions taken today compare to bail decisions that will be taken after there has been enough time for the justice system to respond to some of the measures included in these bills?
There is no fixed set of policies that will be in place by X date that I can point you to because this is going to be a continuing conversation that will evolve over time, including policy areas ranging from housing to mental health and promoting the health —
Thank you, Mr. Minister.
