האגודה הישראלית לחקר יחסי עבודה

A group of OPSEU-represented correctional services officers and union leaders held a rally Thursday outside Sault MPP David Orazietti's office on Great Northern Road.

Orazietti currently serves as Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

The province has stated it spent $8.5 million on strike preparations.

However, a list obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom of information request shows the province paid $44 million in strike preparation costs.

The list shows more than $8 million was spent on correctional facility infrastructure, with about $5.5 million of that amount spent on permanent upgrades, such as electrical improvements, program spaces and washroom improvements.

But the list also shows nearly $32 million was spent on one-time expenses such as accommodations for correctional facility managers and private security.

Managers would have had to be on site around the clock if OPSEU correctional workers had gone on strike.

"They spent 44 million dollars on a strike that never happened," said OPSEU Local 616 executive board member and correctional officer Michel Bisaillon, speaking to SooToday at the Thursday rally.

"What we're out here to do is to keep this story alive, to let this Corrections Minister (Orazietti) know we're not letting this go."

"It's the summer, but we're not shelving this story, someone has to justify this."

"At the end of the day, if you divide this money ($44 million) among all the corrections officers, we could've gotten a 10 percent raise," Bisaillon said.

"This government has wasted more taxpayer money claiming it's fighting for the taxpayers when it's really not, and what could prove this more?"

OPSEU is also still protesting what it calls a shortage in money for training, proper equipment and proper care for inmates.

"If there is an explanation, let Minister Orazietti give it to us," said Jeff Arbus, OPSEU regional vice-president.

Terms of the deal which averted the strike in January include referring all future Correctional Services issues to arbitration.

The deal also included a 4.4 percent raise for correctional services workers (the arbitrator determined salaries for Ontario correctional services workers were below that of their federal counterparts and police officers), and a 3.4 percent raise for probation officers.

Orazietti was not at his office when OPSEU workers were protesting, but spoke to SooToday in a telephone interview late Thursday.

"It would have been irresponsible for the government to ignore preparing for a strike in the event OPSEU correctional workers had chosen not to show up for work (in January)," Orazietti said.

"I can't speak to what was released by the previous minister and ministry (regarding the reported $44 million spent on strike preparations, much more than the government's publicly-stated figure of $8 million)," Orazietti said.

"I was Minister of Government and Consumer Services (at the time)."

"Whatever those costs are, certainly they have been fully disclosed," Orazietti said.

"This looks like it will be the last time you will see these types of costs incurred in terms of strike preparation because the Correctional Services workers contracts will now be moving to arbitration…until now there has always been a strike possibility, so we're certainly pleased to see this very significant change in the way collective bargaining in Corrections has evolved," Orazietti said.

Orazietti was named Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services in June, five months after the strike was averted.

Orazietti added the government has hired approximately 1,000 new correctional officers since 2013, with plans to hire 2,000 more over the next three years, along with mental health nurses, and is considering purchasing such items as body scanners in each provincial jail.