83. (1) The Service shall, to ensure a safe and healthful penitentiary environment, ensure that all applicable federal health, safety, sanitation and fire laws are complied with in each penitentiary and that every penitentiary is inspected regularly by the persons responsible for enforcing those laws.

    (2) The Service shall take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of every inmate and that every inmate is

adequately clothed and fed;

provided with adequate bedding;

provided with toilet articles and all other articles necessary for personal health and cleanliness; and

given the opportunity to exercise for at least one hour every day outdoors, weather permitting, or indoors where the weather does not permit exercising outdoors.

Corresponding Act: Sections 68-75 General - Living Conditions

Allan v. Canada (Commissioner of Corrections) - (1990), 38 F.T.R. 176, [1990] F.C.J. No.845 (F.C.T.D.)

- This was an application where an inmate sought an order to compel the CSC pursuant to the Penitentiary Service Regulations to either supply proper recreational clothing and footwear to inmates or to allow the applicant the use of monies held in trust by the institution for that purpose. In dismissing this application, the court was of the view that although there was a duty on those responsible for the operation of the institution to provide recreational clothing and footwear, that duty was imprecisely defined by the regulations. Unless it could be determined to be unfulfilled, which the court did not find to be established here in light of the provision of common user equipment in the institution, then reasonable discretion on the part of administrators in meeting their duty must be recognized and the court ought not to intervene. Moreover, there was insufficient evidence that the inmate's request for special orthopedic footwear was refused by the institution.