A New Day is a good program.
The public, politicians, program participants, facilitators and even a Department of Justice report all attest to this fact. So why does the Department of Justice seem hell bent on destroying it?
Right now, A New Day is facilitated through the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre as a full-time program with group and one-on-one counselling sessions. The department is currently looking for somebody to take over once the contract is up in June. But in issuing a new request for proposals earlier this year, it made some curious changes to A New Day. It would become part-time, as needed, with group sessions only. Even more curious, the department wasn't going to require bidders to have expertise in counselling. The department has since augmented the request for proposals to require bidders to have counselling experience and the part-time, as needed aspect is now changed to “all-inclusive hourly rates for the facilitators.”
Yellowknife Centre Julie Green thinks the department is breaking A New Day. Yellowknifer agrees.
It's mind-boggling that, considering how much money it costs to send domestic violence offenders through the court system again and again, bureaucrats would think paring down this program is a good use of resources.
At this point if A New Day is going to be saved, there is going to have to be a big, unequivocal push from politicians to force the hand of the Department of Justice, because as it looks right now, department bureaucrats seem to have buried their heads in the sand.