A new provincial law allowing police to seize johns' cars takes effect in Alberta, Monday, October 23,2006.

Manitoba began seizing cars in 1999 and Saskatchewan followed in 2002. Manitoba has seized 418 autos, Saskatchewan, 400.

Dianna Bussey, director of Salvation Army corrections in Winnipeg, says having to explain the missing vehicle seems to galvanize men's attitudes and leads to some signing up for the course within hours.

"It brings home the seriousness of it," says Bussey, who counsels prostitutes and leads johns through their course.

Men soliciting prostitutes would take days or weeks to sign up for a court-mandated awareness course call john school. Now, when police seize their cars, the johns sign up for the course in hours.

To get the car back and avoid jail time and a criminal record, the offender may be gven the option to do alterqtive measures, such as community work. In Edmonton, they will go to john school- a one-day session where they hear from ex-prostitutes and learn how prostitution tears families and neighbourhoods apart.

While the law was being proposed in Alberta, an anonymous questionnaire was circulated to 67 men at the john school. Seventy-eight percent said such a vehicle law would deter them from soliciting.