On April 1, 2026, National President David Neufeld and Regional Vice-President Zef Ordman conducted a site visit of Edmonton Institution (EI). This was President Neufeld’s first visit to Edmonton Institution and presented an opportunity to meet with several members of the USJE Local Executive (Local 31068), many USJE members throughout the institution, and members of EI’s management team. This visit also provided the opportunity to better understand the institutional history, culture, and the current working conditions of EI.
Edmonton Institution is situated near the Northeast boundary of Edmonton, AB. It is approximately 18km from the city center on the west side of Highway 15. It is a standalone Maximum-Security Institution that is based on a courtyard design model and has a rectangular shape. The institution’s inmate capacity is 324.
President Neufeld and RVP Ordman were greeted by USJE Local President Terry Hatto, and Local Vice-Presidents Peter Dodsworth and Logan Fines. The USJE representatives were given an extensive tour that included stops in several areas of the institution:
- the Stores Department
- the Administrative Building (Administrative Assistants, Records Management)
- the Structured Intervention Unit (SIU), and
- Unit 6.
Visits were conducted with Social Program Officers, the Institutional Employment Coordinator, a Behavioural Skills Counselor, a cleaner, Food Service Officers (kitchen), Correctional Educators (teachers) and the Parole Officer group.
President Neufeld and RVP Ordman were very appreciative of the time that the USJE members made during their busy workday to speak with them. The USJE members were very engaging and shared some of the real unique challenges they face working in a Maximum-Security Institution (ie. the high level of inmate violence; many inmates with institutional adjustment issues; the inmate population reflects a “high-medium” population which makes the cases more complex and high-need).
It was evident that the impending impact of the Comprehensive Expenditure Review (CER) was on the front of people’s minds and that many questions remain on how our institutions will become “more efficient and effective” with the cuts being proposed and implemented. This included:
- Where will the responsibilities of the librarians be put once they are eliminated from the institutions?
- How will EI be able to provide meaningful educational opportunities for inmates when being told that they must go from 5 teachers to 3 teachers?
- Members also had questions about the “efficiencies” that CSC intends to achieve around correctional programming and case management in waves 2 and 3 of the CER.
With the difficult level of work that comes in delivering interventions at the Maximum-Security level, it was evident that USJE members were already concerned about future workload level implications and their ability to properly prepare inmates for a lower security reclassification or release back to the Community.
During the tour, President Neufeld and RVP Ordman were able to spend time with the teachers and explain the Workforce Adjustment process. It was clear that this process has been particularly hard on the teachers, as they had been given “affected notices” back at the end of January and only recently learned about CSC’s plan to cut two teaching positions at the site. The teachers presented as a solid group that were trying to support each other during these difficult times. It was pleasing to see how proud the teachers were of their role in the rehabilitation of inmates and to hear of the recent successes they had achieved as an educational team.
President Neufeld and RVP Ordman also visited the kitchen to speak with the Food Service Officers about their work and USJE’s ongoing “Food Service Officer Campaign”. Issues relating to FOS safety, staffing, training, and equipment in the kitchen were discussed with the members. President Neufeld was pleased to hear that the institution had received new walk-in freezers, which fixed a long-standing equipment issue in the kitchen. Reported areas for improvement included a more extensive new employee orientation to the institution for FOS members, the need for more security cameras in the kitchen and an overall recognition for their contributions to institutional safety and security.
It should be noted that EI will be losing one cleaner (GS-BUS-04) and one cleaning supervisor (GS-BUS-05) position as a result of the CER. Essentially, the elimination of these positions will result in cutting this team in half and will put major stress on the institution to find inmate cleaners to do the same quality of work. When speaking to USJE members at the site, President Neufeld was told that it has been historically difficult to get inmate clearers to do this work at EI and that this decision will have an impact on the overall cleanliness of the institution.
The final stop of the day was a visit with the Parole Officer group. President Neufeld took the opportunity to speak about the purpose of CSC’s Parole Officer Workload Review and provide an update on its progress. It was interesting to hear directly from the Parole Office group and how their workloads are deeply impacted by the type of inmates they are receiving on their caseloads. As mentioned above, EI has been a site that tends to receive inmates that experience high institutional adjustment issues. It was clear that the Parole Officer group is stressed due to the complexity of these cases and the pressures that have come with a current pilot project at the site which seeks to move inmates to a lower institutional security level as quickly as possible. The Parole Officer group expressed their strong opinions on the importance of having interventions available (ie. programming, education) at EI in order to address the inmates’ behavioral issues and prepare them for release or movement to a lower security level. President Neufeld identified the importance of the Parole Officer group flagging these concerns through the Parole Officer Workload Review process.
During the visit, President Neufeld, RVP Ordman and the three Local Executive members were given the opportunity to meet with Warden Michelle Kendall, and Deputy Warden Matthew Ryder. This meeting focused on the work that has been done over the past several years at the site around improving the institutional culture and the overall working conditions. Warden Kendall spoke to her efforts to improve overall communication with staff and providing greater consistency on how problems are resolved at the site level. President Neufeld appreciated the openness during this meeting and the mutual desire expressed to be collaborative in building a stronger, healthier workplace. All parties agreed to the importance of having strong management/union relations and a willingness to work together through the challenging days ahead.
President Neufeld and RVP Ordman are extremely grateful to the local management and the Local Executive members of USJE Local 31068 for the welcoming and memorable visit.