OTTAWA - The Harper government's prison-sentencing laws will cost Canadians billions of dollars, including an estimated $2 billion for one piece of legislation alone, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews acknowledged Wednesday.
Toews, releasing cost estimates for the first time, said the government has a good idea of the overall cost of its aggressive law-and-order agenda, but it does not want to publicly release the numbers.
Toews held a media availability to dispute figures contained in a report, to be released next week by the independent parliamentary budget officer, which is expected to peg the cost of one single bill, which came into effect earlier this year, at as much as $10 billion over five years.
The controversial piece of legislation would eliminate so-called two-for-one credits, in which offenders are given sentencing reductions to compensate for time they spent in difficult pre-sentencing custody.
It is one of several pieces of legislation designed to put more people in prison and keep them there longer.
Liberal public safety Mark Holland asked Page to look at the costs of the government's sentencing bills, but the office focused on the two-for-one credit.
Other Conservative promises include imposing mandatory incarceration for drug-related crimes and ending automatic statutory release after serving two-thirds of a sentence.
Toews said the government is willing to pay whatever it costs. His $2-billion estimate for the elimination of the two-for-one credit is a five-year prediction, he said.
He added that the government has no immediate plans to build new prisons, but will renovate existing ones and rely more on double-bunking prisoners.
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