Stockwell Day, the president of the Treasury Board and former Public Safety minister, visited Whitehorse Friday to announce more than $1 million in funding to a local program trying steer at-risk girls toward more positive life choices.

The SNAP (Stop Now and Plan) Girls Connection Program, which has been operating in Whitehorse since January, will receive $1.03 million over four years.

Program director Dale Cheeseman, with the Department of Health and Social Services, said up to 60 girls between the ages of six and 12, along with their parents or guardians, can participate.

The Girls Connection Program "aims to reduce aggressive and antisocial behaviour, teach anger and impulse control in both children and their parents,” according to literature.

"Parents are learning some parenting skills that go along with what children are learning, so it goes together,” said Cheeseman. "And hopefully, parents are reinforcing the skills we're trying to teach with kids.”

Girls who can benefit from the program will be referred by teachers, said Cheeseman, "and some conversations with the RCMP, but mostly it will come from the schools.”

Joined by Yukon Senator Dan Lang and federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq for the announcement in the foyer of the Elijah Smith Building, Day bristled when challenged by the media over the federal Conservatives' plan to expand current capacity at prisons across the country and build new ones.

"Everytime we talk about the rehabilitative aspect, how many millions of dollars we put into prevention ... without fail, on no occasion have the media present ever reflected those comments,” said Day.

"They always talk about the other aspect, the long arm of the law. And I don't think any of us are going to be naive and say that you should let violent, repeat offenders roam our streets ... so there is always going to be a necessity to incarcerate people.”

In January, the federal government announced $150 million to add 634 new beds at jails in the Prairies, Ontario and Quebec.

It's an incarceration expansion project the government estimates will cost $2 billion over the next five years and expand holding capacity in the nation's jails by nearly 2,700.

However, Friday's announcement is aimed at keeping kids out of jail and the next uptake, said Cheeseman, will be in September.

For more information, go to www.stopnowandplan.ca or call Cheeseman at Yukon Health and Social Services.