Changes to N.B.'s impaired driving rules take effect Jan. 1
Penalties can start at roadside, letting drivers avoid the courts and a criminal record
New rules governing impaired driving in New Brunswick come into effect on Jan. 1.
The amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act give police two ways to deal with impaired drivers.
Most will be diverted from the court system — thereby avoiding a criminal record — by using the new administrative penalty, known as the immediate roadside suspension.
Under the new rules, penalties begin below the Criminal Code threshold of 0.08. Anyone whose blood-alcohol content is between 0.05 and 0.08 will have their licence immediately suspended for seven days and their vehicle impounded for at least three days.
Drivers who have a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or greater, or who refuse to give a breath sample, will receive a three-month licence suspension and have their vehicle impounded for at least 30 days.
They will also have to use an ignition interlock device for 12 months. The system requires the driver to blow into a mouthpiece and if alcohol is detected, the vehicle will not start.
Currently, the only option for police officers is to charge drivers criminally and send them through the already-clogged court system, which often takes several months or longer. If convicted, the driver faces a minimum fine of $1,000, a 12-month licence suspension, a mandatory re-education course, nine months in the ignition interlock program and a variety of other fees.
Under the new rules, police officers can — and in some cases, must — still use the Criminal Code to charge drivers.
"What's really important to understand here is that the criminal route is not going away in this province," said Cpl. Hans Ouellette, a spokesperson for the RCMP in New Brunswick.
"You can still be held liable criminally for drunk driving. That does not change under the Criminal Code of Canada," he said.
For example, drivers who cause serious bodily harm or death during a collision, and those with a passenger under the age of 16 in the vehicle, will still be charged criminally, Ouellette said.
The new rules will get impaired drivers off the road more quickly — and free up officers' time, meaning they can get back on patrol more quickly, he said.
Other provinces with similar rules, like British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba, have credited similar legislation with a reduction of impaired driving collisions, Ouellette said.
MADD Canada applauds changes
Steve Sullivan, the CEO of MADD Canada, is pleased with the changes. He said it's a more efficient use of police resources, while still providing a deterrent for the public.
"They instill meaningful consequences for impaired drivers right away," said Sullivan. "They don't have to wait six months or eight months or nine months to see what happens in a criminal case. They get these penalties right away. And they're meaningful penalties. They impact people's life and hopefully, ultimately their behaviour."
The new system will cut down on police time in processing impaired driving cases, freeing up officers to get back out on the road to do more enforcement, he said.
"What ultimately changes people's behaviour is their perception of getting caught," said Sullivan. "So if they see that police are more active, then that will have an impact on their behaviour."
Sullivan suspects drivers will prefer the new roadside sanctions, since they do not include a criminal conviction.
"And we know that the criminal record is often the thing that the drivers will fight the most. And that's why there's so many cases in the courts."
Sullivan also said "there's no one piece of legislation that's going to solve impaired driving. If that was the case, we would have already dealt with that. … So this is a part of the solution, but it's not the entire solution."
Easing a clogged court system
Public Safety Minister Robert Gauvin said the new rules will help ease the burden on a clogged court system.
He said other provinces with similar programs have effectively reduced the number of court cases.
"Other places in the country like B.C. and Manitoba have brought this forward. And in Manitoba, for example, you have an 80 per cent decrease in court cases. So it is working over there," said Gauvin.
"The goal is to take impaired drivers off the road quicker. Because in New Brunswick in the last four years, if you rewind four years, we have 150,000 more people here, so the risk on the roads are bigger right now just because of the numbers. So you don't want to add to that impaired drivers."
While the changes taking effect Wednesday only deal with alcohol, Gauvin said the government is willing to talk about changes related to drug-impaired driving.
"This program is more concentrated on alcohol, but those are certainly conversations that we are willing to have in the future because that's another thing altogether."
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With files from Information Morning Fredericton, Moncton