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This article was published 12/2/2015 (2046 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Nearly 15,000 federal inmates in Canada are getting used to the taste of powdered skim milk as the federal government phases out the use of fresh milk in all its prisons and psychiatric centres.

The change has some opposition MPs and the John Howard Society crying foul and dairy producers in some provinces complaining about the loss of business.

Correctional Service of Canada spokeswoman Sarah Parkes said powdered milk was tested out in federal facilities on the Prairies and in B.C. over the last few years, and last August it was decided to expand it to the rest of the country.

Most of that switch is occurring this month after a new contract with a Winnipeg-based milk supplier kicked in Feb. 1.

Medallion Milk Co. on Wilkes Avenue won the contract, which was tendered in December and awarded in late January. It is worth $3.7 million for a one-year contract.

"This is part of the government’s efforts to improve the efficiency of service delivery and to reduce the deficit," Parkes said in an email.

Parkes said the cost savings aren’t yet known, but on Jan. 29, Conservative MP Rob Anders said in the House of Commons it would be more than $6 million, in a planted question to Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney.

The two were reacting to comments made by Quebec NDP MP Réjean Genest to a Quebec farm publication that inmates were now to be served a low-quality product transported over great distances. "I don’t even put powdered milk in my coffee," he told La Terre de Chez Nous. " I think this lacks decency for them."

Blaney told the House, "Our government is an ardent defender of Canadian dairy industries. The only thing that is indecent and shameful is the NDP putting criminals ahead of taxpayers and victims. Federal penitentiaries are for rehabilitation, not gourmet restaurants."

John Hutton, executive director of the John Howard Society of Manitoba, told the Free Press Wednesday finding ways to save money on the backs of prisoners is an easy target.

"It’s hard to generate public support for people who have broken the law," said Hutton.

But Hutton said the government increased its own costs for food for inmates when it decided to shut down prison farms in 2009. Ottawa said shutting the farms saved about $4 million each year, but Hutton said Ottawa was never upfront about what it was losing by not having the produce, meat and dairy they supplied.

The farm at Rockwood Institution supplied fresh milk to Rockwood and Stony Mountain, he said.

Hutton said the government would find it more cost-effective to re-examine its own law and order agenda, which he says costs far more than fresh milk without any discernible outcome. Policies that put more people in prison longer and deny parole to more people come with a high cost and no studies show they keep society safer, said Hutton.

Hutton also worries the move to powdered milk is a nutritional concern for inmates, noting skim milk is considered less nutritious than milk with a higher fat content.

Medallion Milk’s owner, Adam Pankhurst, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Medallion’s website says its powdered milk is better than instant milk because the process in its plants uses a low temperature. The milk is also reconstituted over a longer period of time, which makes it taste better. "Because powdered milk is given so much time to settle, the milk tastes much better and is virtually indistinguishable from fresh milk," Medallion’s website says.

It says powdered milk is also more nutritious than instant milk, with a cup of powdered skim milk providing 25 per cent of daily needs of vitamin A, almost a third of the daily calcium requirement and half the requirement for Vitamin D.

Parkes said CSC policy requires all meals to meet appropriate nutrition standards and all menus are reviewed and approved by registered dietitians.

"The use of powdered milk is more cost-effective than the use of liquid milk and meets nutritional requirements in accordance with Canada’s Food Guide," said Parkes.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

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