Crime Bill's Cost: $19 Billion

The provinces and, of course, the taxpayer get to cover the cost of the Tories' justice experiment.

A new study concludes that the federal government's omnibus crime bill will cost taxpayers $19 billion, with the provinces footing $14 billion of that. Now, the think-tank that produced the study was the left-leaning Quebec Institute for Socio-Economic Research, but given that the federal government has failed to produce any solid estimates for how much the bill will cost, this research will have to suffice for now. The think-tank found that provisions in the bill that will introduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug and sex offences will cost about $2.3 billion, as those provisions would lead to a larger prison population and thus, the need to build more prisons. The bulk of the bill's costs – $16.5 billion – will come from the end of the practice of judges granting two-for-one credit for time served in pre-trial custody. The federal government has estimated that it will only spend $78.5 million over five years on the bill, but has never produced figures showing how much the provinces would pay.