The provincial government is taking aim at impaired driving with new legislation to be introduced Monday, but some opposition politicians believe the changes are missing the mark.
The proposed legislation would expand police powers in cases where a person has a blood alcohol level between 0.05 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood and 0.08 milligrams, which is the limit for criminal charges.
If a person had a blood alcohol reading within that warning range police would be able to suspend the driver on the spot for three days and seize the vehicle as well. If a person had a second offence in that range the seizure and suspension would last 15 days and the offender would have to take a remedial course before getting his license back.
More details on the bill are expected Monday when it is formally introduced.
Under the current legislation police are empowered to suspend a driver’s license for 24 hours but don’t have the power to seize a vehicle.
When introducing the proposed changes, government house leader Dave Hancock said impaired driving rates and fatalities have remained stubbornly high in the province.
“The message isn’t getting out there. We still have too much of a problem with impaired driving and with people driving under the influence,” he said.
Bringing in tougher penalties at a lower limit would force Albertans to change their thinking about alcohol consumption and driving.
“At .05 people are going to have to have a very, very clear thought about whether or not they should have anything to drink before they drive. If we want to make our roads safer this is what we are going to have to do,” Hancock said.
Cpl. Don Murray, head of the St. Albert RCMP’s traffic section, said he would welcome any new changes to the law that could reduce impaired driving.
“My advice to anybody is if you know you are going to be driving, why would you have anything to drink at all,” he said.
He said the detachment encounters many drivers who are impaired, but not over the legal limit. He also said an officer has to have a reasonable suspicion that someone is impaired in order to issue a 24-hour suspension, regardless of the driver’s actual blood alcohol limit.
Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson said the proposed legislation is targeting the wrong people and the government should focus on the people who cause the real damage at two and three times the legal limit.
“I don’t understand why they are trying to solve a very serious problem by going after the people who aren’t causing the deaths and aren’t causing the maiming on our city streets,” Anderson said.
He said cracking down on impaired driving is a worthy goal, but this is not the way to do it. He said the Wildrose favours increasing checkstops across the province so more impaired drivers are caught.
“I don’t think I have been through a checkstop literally in the last decade in this province,” he said.
NDP leader Brian Mason also said the proposal was missing the point.
“I think the government is barking up the wrong tree. It is not the people who have had one glass of wine who are killing people out there,” Mason said.
Murray said he still wanted to see the full piece of legislation, but he doesn’t believe focusing on drivers with lower levels of impairment will be a problem.
“I don’t see how dealing with people on the lower end of the scale is going to take our attention away from someone on the higher end,” he said.
Similar legislation was introduced in British Columbia in 2010 and the province has since seen a reduction in alcohol-related fatal crashes.
