Family mediation program ends early

The New Brunswick government is defending a decision to stop funding a mediation servicefor families going through separations or divorces.

The pilot program was set up about a year and a half ago to help clear a backlog of family court cases by giving families the option of settling issues outside the courts. The program was supposed to run for three years.

But Family Service Moncton, which landed the contract, has already spent the $700,000 set aside and the province decided not to allocate any more money.

Justice Minister Marie-Claude Blais said the decision was based on results.

"Do they keep people away from the court? Do they satisfy what needs to be done? Those are questions we need to ask ourselves and look at," she said.

"There was less than 200 mediated agreements as a result. So we have to look at the result too, in order to make sure that these people don't end up in court at the end."

'In the next budget exercise we'll come, and we'll look at how we can provide a mediated service, and what is the best approach.' Justice Minister Marie-Claude Blais

While the program was in operation, about one third of its cases were settled out of court.

Still, Blais contends it's not the most effective system.

"We have to look at it. In the next budget exercise, we'll come and we'll look at how we can provide a mediated service and what is the best approach," she said.

Moncton lawyer Sheila Cameron, who helped author areport in 2009 that looked at backlogs in accessing family justice, hopes the government comes up with a replacement program soon.

The report offered 50 recommendations, includinghaving social workers provide mediation from the courthouse.

"It should have happened two and a half years ago, because I suspect if you go back and count up all the dollars that were wasted in the last two and a half years, that was the money we could have used to provide the better service," Cameron said.

The Access to Family Justice Task Force report, released in June 2009, said that the family justice system had deteriorated over the previous 15 years.

The report attributed the worsening state of the system to a variety of factors, including an almost 50 per cent jump in people without lawyers, an escalation in the number and complexity of hearings in child protection cases and "perceived procedural requirements."

It saidfamilies were facing unacceptable delays in seeing their cases resolved because the system was overwhelmed by paperwork and by procedure.

Court workers, including social workers, were spending most of their time on paperwork rather than resolving family disputes, andthe best interests of children were secondary to "excessive procedural demands," the report found.