1996 to 1997: Duties of family justice counsellors and probation officers are separated

In 1997, the Corrections Branch went through the first major reorganization in approximately 20 years. As part of the reorganization, the Family Justice Services Division was created with 31 family justice centres throughout the province.

Services included:

• Dispute resolution
• Parenting after separation educational programs
• Child custody and access reports

Due to geography, community size and resource limitations, it was not possible to establish full-time family justice counsellor specialists in every community. Instead, staff were employed half-time as family justice counsellors and half-time as probation officers.

By the end of 1999, family justice and probation functions were separated by phasing out positions that delivered both. For family justice counsellor positions, staff needed 80 hours of dispute resolution training before being hired.