Bill C-240 Offender Rehabilitation Act

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C-240 An Act to Amend the Criminal Code, to Make Related Amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and to Amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

Short Title: Offender Rehabilitation Act

Bill Type: Private Member’s Bill

Bill Sponsor: Kelly DeRidder (Kitchener Centre)

Status: Introduced — 1st Reading, September 22, 2025. This Bill hasn't passed yet.

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WHO GAINS POWER

  • Sentencing judges gain authority to prescribe specific rehabilitation measures — training, employment programs, treatment or written acknowledgment to victims — as part of a custodial sentence
  • The Correctional Service of Canada gains a formal obligation to make court-ordered programs available and factor them into correctional planning
  • The Parole Board gains access to progress reports on court-ordered measures when assessing parole eligibility
  • Courts gain authority to treat large-scale fentanyl trafficking as an aggravating factor at sentencing

WHO LOSES POWER

  • Offenders lose the ability to serve a sentence passively — court-ordered measures must be pursued with "all reasonable efforts"
  • ⚠️ Treatment participation requires the offender's agreement — a judge can prescribe it, but cannot force an unwilling offender into a treatment program
  • ⚠️ All prescribed measures are subject to program availability and program director acceptance — a judge can order participation but cannot guarantee a spot exists

WHO GAINS MONEY

  • No direct financial benefit created by this Bill
  • Employment and apprenticeship programs may improve offenders' long-term earning capacity — an indirect economic benefit to communities

WHO LOSES MONEY

  • The federal corrections system bears the cost of making court-ordered programs available — no budget is specified
  • Large-scale fentanyl traffickers face harsher sentences, meaning longer and more costly incarceration

THE CATCH

  • The Bill's preamble explicitly criticizes safe supply programs — but the Bill itself does not ban or restrict them; that framing is political context, not legal content
  • ⚠️ "Quantities that indicate trafficking on a large scale" for fentanyl is not defined in the Bill — courts will determine what qualifies
  • ⚠️ No consequence is specified if an offender fails to make "reasonable efforts" — it is unclear how non-compliance affects parole or sentence conditions
  • The Bill amends three separate Acts simultaneously — Criminal Code, Corrections and Conditional Release Act and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
  • Writing to victims is listed as a prescribed measure — but only if the court orders it, not as a standard requirement

Source: Bill C-240 — Offender Rehabilitation Act, 45th Parliament, 1st Session