MLAs to cabinet: Don't scrap N.W.T. men's healing program

Regular MLAs went toe-to-toe with the N.W.T.'s minister of justice Wednesday to ensure funding continues for a pilot program offering counselling for men who use violence against loved ones.

Funding for the healing program, A New Day, is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2016.

The program provides free, culturally appropriate, individual and group counseling to men who struggle with anger or have used abuse in their relationships. The program is solely funded by the territorial government.

On Wednesday, regular MLAs asked cabinet members to commit another year of funding to the program.

They're afraid that without an alternative program already in place, stopping A New Day would create an unnecessary gap in service. The program was already put on hold once before, for eight months, when the program lost its original operator, The Healing Drum Society, in 2014.

All 11 regular MLAs stood together and passed Wednesday's nonbinding recommendation. Cabinet ministers abstained from the vote.

Louis Sebert, the N.W.T.'s minister of justice, said he will wait for an evaluation of the program to be completed before deciding on how to move forward.

He expects to receive the report next week.

"We need to learn what has worked and what might work better in order to have the most effective program we can," Sebert said.

"Not only is the existing contractor interested in continuing the program. Other potential partners have expressed interest as well."

In a letter Sebert sent Hay River North MLA Rocky Simpson in July, Sebert said the evaluation would consider "the most appropriate format" for the program.

"If contracted services are required, the GNWT will follow standard contracting processes to request bids from interested proponents," he wrote.

Huge disconnect on program usage

Sebert said 16 of 31 people have completed the full program since 2012 — at a combined cost of about $1 million.

Simpson disputed those numbers.

"Hundreds of men have reached out thousands of times," said Simpson.

"Over 300 men have accessed the counseling service and just because they haven't all graduated from the program doesn't mean there is no value in receiving counselling."

Regular MLAs also butted heads with the justice minister over whether the program was being offered in the correctional system.

After Sebert said, "The A New Day program is a voluntary program and is not accessible to those on remand," regular MLAs fired back at him, yelling, "Wrong!"

Simpson: "It's my understanding that twice a month A New Day goes to remand and provides counseling sessions for inmates… I recommend the minister check his facts on that."

Simpson also said extending the program through the end of 2017 would cost the territorial government about $250,000. The program includes two full-time and one half-time positions.

"Keeping one person locked up in jail in the N.W.T. costs over $100,000 a year, nearly half a year of funding for the A New Day program," Simpson said.

"If the program stops the propagation of intergenerational trauma in one family, the costs savings are exponential."

Sebert said he would share the completed evaluation of the program with regular MLAs.