Matt Gurney: Locking the Humboldt driver up is a costly waste — we need better options

During the day Friday in a court in Melfort, Sask., Sentenced to eight years behind bars the man whose carelessness destroyed the hockey team Humboldt Broncos, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu. Likewise, Sidhu takes responsibility for his actions and in such a way apologizes to the families of the victims. It is necessary to remember that his actions caused the death of 16 people.

As already mentioned, 8 years have been determined behind bars to the person responsible for the accident that ended with the lives of 16 people. 

Although he takes responsibility and even admits that he is guilty while he has also apologized to the families of the victims, it is not enough. Being that for some it has been a real nuisance for months since in itself it does not solve the problem. In such a way there are those who consider that better options than prison are needed for cases similar to this one.

An extremely expensive option

There is no doubt that Canadians need a better option than the prison for cases like this. Nor is there any doubt that the crime is serious and the consequences it has brought are indescribably devastating. In fact, the entire nation felt the pain of such a felt loss. But for some, there is the presence of a feeling that locking up this man simply aggravates the waste of lives lost and altered with even more waste.

Since in itself nothing is gained with the blockade of Shidu. Being that it is not a cheap option to take it into account. A year ago, the parliamentary budget officer published a report on the costs of incarcerating criminals in Canada. The cost to the taxpayer for enclosing a minimum security inmate is $ 47,370 per year. Let’s put that in perspective. Using the 2016 numbers, the average Canadian taxpayer paid $ 13,456 in income taxes. It will take every last penny of the income tax of 3.5 average Canadians to keep Sidhu behind bars for every year until he finally receives parole. This only by making an assumption that Sidhu is sent to a minimum security facility, which is by far the cheapest option for incarcerated offenders.

It should be noted that no one has claimed that Sidhu is an additional danger to anyone, so there is no reason to separate him from society to protect the public. He accepted the responsibility and did it immediately so that nothing was served there. As for the repairs, possibly locking it up does not repair the pain of the families, what is certain is that for the general public, keeping him imprisoned will actually make hundreds of thousands of dollars go back.

Source: Matt Gurney | National Post