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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT Department of Justice has established a mediation program for couples undergoing divorce, which includes six mediators and a flexible budget of $60,000.

Minister of Justice Jackson Lafferty unveiled the new program on April 23.

Margo Nightingale is one of six divorce mediators in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Justice announced the start of its free divorce mediation program April 23. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

"This is our first year using this model (a board of six mediators), so we have $60,000 in the budget but we will be looking at the resource requirements as we go throughout the year. It's not really a hard-and-fast number," said Megan Holsapple, spokesperson for the Department of Justice.

"You get eight hours of mediation, plus two hours of pre-mediation meetings so you'd get an hour and your spouse would get an hour - just to talk about what you are hoping to get out of it," said Holsapple.

Free to NWT residents, the program should offer a more amiable alternative to couples considering divorce, according to Karan Shaner, assistant deputy minister for the department.

"Mediation is part of a suite of alternative dispute resolutions," said Shaner. "The people come to their own agreement with assistance of the mediator - the mediator's job is not to take sides with either of the parties but to ensure that the conversation continues and to facilitate discussion."

"There's still a role that the courts are going to play, because a mediation is certainly not appropriate in all circumstances, but what we are hoping is that it gives people more options, so that people don't have just the courts to turn to. They will have other alternatives," said Shaner.

The agreement reached in a mediation session is not legally binding, but it is something the couple can present to a lawyer and have made into a legally-binding agreement.

Shaner said it turns divorce into a simple process of lawyers submitting paperwork, rather than a long, costly and stressful matter for the courts.

"The court can be a very stressful factor that you add to an already very stressful and sometimes unhappy situation," said Shaner.

"I think that adding that stress into the family and into the home does have a serious impact on everyone in the home, especially the children."

Mediation has stresses of its own, said Margo Nightingale, one of the six mediators in the NWT. Having to talk to the person you are divorcing can be stressful all the same.

"There is still some stress in mediation, because for some people, having a conversation face-to-face is something they worry about," said Nightingale.

"But when you compare it to the court process, it's private. It's something that they control. It's something that they control the outcome of. Those three things aren't present in a court situation."

She said if a meeting between the two parties is impractical or not beneficial, there is something called "shuttle mediation" where the mediator relays the positions of the individuals back and forth without them having to meet.

Sometimes, though, the confrontation can help reopen lines of communication.

"In mediation sometimes people can maintain their relationships, whereas court can sometimes destroy that relationship," said Nightingale.

The process can also help flesh out and clarify what people actually want, Nightingale said.

"They may have said 'I want the house,' but if you want to get to people's interests it becomes important to then say 'why is the house important to you?' and it may be that you can find out that it's not the house, it's the fact that they're just worried about where they're going to live."

A pilot project was conducted between March 2005 and March 2008. The trial had a smaller budget and only one mediator, said Holsapple.

"During that time, 57 couples took part in it," said Holsapple.

"Two thirds of them were mediated with agreements on all issues. In one of the other cases, the couple got back together," she added. "A third of the group resolved a bunch of the issues, but not every single one. But that's still successful - it's a lot less to go to court about."