Act Now is hoping that government will live up to an election promise made by Tony Wakeham to expand the province’s ankle monitoring program to those on bail on charges of serious and repeated intimate partner violence.

A petition containing some 1,500 signatures calling on government to make good on that commitment was presented in the House of Assembly last week.

Janet McNaughton of Act Now says expanding the program should not require a great deal in added resources.

“Prince Edward Island has a small, in-house unit that does their ankle monitoring. It’s a person who is a former probation officer who is in charge of it, and then there’s maybe three people – well, six – because it’s 24 hours.” That’s a “major investment” she admits, “but, you save money in terms of court time because breaches pretty much disappear.”