On growth strategies

Yes, it's appalling that the Cons are looking to lock the federal government into millions of dollars of spending on prison expansion in Edmonton alone. But we shouldn't let them frame the numbers as being smaller than they actually figure to be.

Here's the story which made news yesterday:

According to the request, the Edmonton Max is planning a new maximum security housing unit at an estimated cost of $22.7 million, when adjusted for inflation.

The women’s facility is planning a new, 40-bed living unit.

The size of the proposed men’s expansion and the cost of the women’s unit will be announced next year, Andrews said.

So the $22.7 million number being tossed around only covers part of the planned expansion. (And for anybody looking to claim that the expansion could be based on a responding to needs, it's rather difficult to make that argument when we don't even know how many extra spaces to expect for the allotted money.)

Meanwhile, the other part of the Edmonton prison expansion carries a cost to be determined.

And more importantly, the same process is playing out across the country:

The work is part of a national strategy for prison expansion, (a spokesman for Correctional Services Canada) said.

So while the Cons are looking to rein in or even slash all other kinds of public services, we can look forward to massive piles of public money being used on prisons as long as they remain in power. And it's well worth asking whether Canadians share the Cons' desire to make that one of the country's few growth industries.