Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I stand in support of this motion. Mr. Speaker, the A New Day has a saying: we built it, they came and keep coming. Mr. Speaker, as of September, 299 men and 59 women were served through the program as of September 2016, and the number has risen as we are now in November.
Mr. Speaker, you see the intake we've had, yet we only have 2.5 people working there; two full-time positions and one part-time. Mr. Speaker, there are four stages of the program. The first stage is defining abuse and taking responsibility; number two is developing a relapse prevention plan; third, studying the effects of abuse; fourth, skills to repair and heal the effects of abuse.
Mr. Speaker, this is approximately 18 weeks to complete, depending on client participation. One thing the people at A New Day have noticed is that sometimes people can't complete the whole sessions, because they have to travel back to their home communities. But what they do notice is, when people do come back to the capital, they continue with the programs that they were taking.
Mr. Speaker, you know, we had a presentation this spring from A New Day and just with all the progress that they've made, at that time it was roughly a year and a half, it's pretty clear that the program is successful. Even if we could help a handful of people stay out of our correctional facilities, the cost savings there, that's one thing that the department needs to look at. How much have the numbers dropped in our facilities in the Northwest Territories in the last two years?
I'm hopeful that, you know, it's a small amount to look at the big picture of all the people that we're helping here. It's roughly $250,000 to keep the program operating, Mr. Speaker, and there are 350 people that this program is helping. That says a lot, Mr. Speaker, and for that I am in support of this motion. Mahsi.