For many years now, the Union of Safety and Justice Employees has been insisting that the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) undertake a comprehensive review of the Community Parole Officer Resourcing Formula (CPORF). We have repeatedly signaled to CSC that the current resourcing formula is inadequate to properly staff Community Parole Offices, which results in USJE’s members consistently going above and beyond to protect public safety. This is a practice that is not sustainable as it leaves staff increasingly vulnerable to psychological injury.
USJE’s major concern is that the current resourcing formula integrates a LEAN method approach, which means that there is rarely a sufficient number of staff, or sufficient time, to undertake the crucial work required to supervise federal offenders in the community, and ensure the safety of the public.
Despite USJE’s best efforts to have a productive dialogue with CSC on the creation of a better funding formula, CSC insisted on pursuing a formula review that was too narrow in scope and didn’t properly acknowledge the significant concerns of many Community Parole Officers.
Consequently, USJE formally withdrew from the CPORF Working Group, as we no longer had confidence that the results from the activity of the CPORF Working Group were producing meaningful recommendations or change. If USJE had continued to participate, it would have constituted an endorsement of the approach that CSC has been utilizing.
During last year’s round of bargaining, PSAC/USJE negotiated a Joint Workload Review to address workload related issues for all Parole Officer related work in the Institution, Community and Community Correctional Centres (CCC). Preparations for the methodology for this review are in the early stages and USJE-CSC will have another meeting in June.
Recently, CSC has been sharing messages regarding the Case Management Network which was recently established by CSC after USJE withdrew from the CPORF Working Group. This new Network is one that USJE does not endorse, nor will it promote. Further, the Network is not one for which USJE will have formal representation.
In 2021, USJE engaged a leading academic, University of Montreal Professor Angelo Soares, to assess the current use of the CPORF tool and the challenges it has presented in the field when it comes to properly resourcing Community Parole Offices.
We expect Dr. Soares to share a report with USJE and CSC in 2025 that will reveal some of the fundamental flaws with resourcing formulas informed by LEAN that ultimately “staff to the minimum’ and do not adequately account for the complexity of the casework Supervision teams, and the time and energy involved in a dynamic workplace where resource levels can fluctuate quickly.