Ottawa will pay $ 26 million to the Garda firm to monitor migrants deemed “at high risk” incarcerated in Quebec … even if they are only nine at present.
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A recent call for tenders makes it possible to lift the veil on the expensive surveillance and transport needs for these prisoners at the Immigration Surveillance Center (CSI) in Laval.
The Border Services Agency of Canada (ASFC) writes that it is looking for at least 40 employees of a private security agency to assist it “in the custody and control of its high -risk detained customers”, day and night.
The number of agents required by the federalum remains unchanged even if there are very few detainees.
This means that each of the nine detainees deemed at high risk incarcerated in Laval in mid-June was watched by five Garda agents, from morning to evening.
The contract finally awarded to the firm in March extends over a year and amounts to $ 26,089,003. This represents around $ 135,000 in public funds per position, according to our estimates.
On his website, Garda is currently looking to start detention agents “from $ 29.89 an hour”, or about $ 62,000 per year.
The ASFC justifies the number of guards requested by evoking the total number of prisoners at high risk who could theoretically be imprisoned in the Laval establishment.
“The contract corresponds to the recommendation to have a ratio of 1: 2 for guards and prisoners at high risk,” writes a spokesperson for the ministry in response to our questions.
More and more present
Garda has been present for years at the Laval surveillance center, where its workforce is much more numerous than those of the ASFC.
The Quebec security giant notably replaced the private agency Neptune in 2023, after several serious shortcomings of the latter, according to what Radio-Canada reported.
The Customs and Immigration Syndicat sees the federal reflex with a bad eye to turn to contractual workforce.
“It is our border services agents who are best trained to apply the law and have recourse to force, if necessary,” says Yanniv Waknine, one of the union’s vice-presidents.
He evokes the flight last December of three Chilean detainees who escaped the vigilance of employees of the Immigration Center, including many Garda agents.
A great power
The tasks of Garda detention agents for prisoners at high risk are to fulfill intervention reports about them, to carry out excavations, and to handcuff them, according to the call for tenders.
That the government delegates these responsibilities to a private company worries the observatory for migrant justice.
“They have a lot of coercive power on the detainees,” said the director, Amel Zaazaa, in an interview.
“In the call for tenders, it is clear that the government wants to put a distance and specifies that Garda World will be responsible if there are abuses,” adds Meritxell Abellan Almenara, researcher associated with the observatory.
Unexpected move
The recent decision of the provinces to no longer have migrants in their prisons forces the federally to renovate its three immigration surveillance centers (CSI), including that of Laval, “in order to host prisoners at high risks”.
Meanwhile, some of these detainees will be transferred to a wing of the provincial prison of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines.
About 200 migrants are incarcerated in Canada at any day given. This can be while waiting to be able to establish their identity because it is suspected that they will not present themselves to an appointment as an hearing or a procedure leading to their dismissal, or because they represent a danger to public security.
