The Alberta Government is looking at changes to their impaired driving laws which has caused rumours that drunk driving will be largely decriminalized in 2018.

Last November, the NDP Government passed Bill 29, which updated Impaired Driving regulations to include cannabis in preparation for the national legalization of marijuana in July.

Bill 29 also introduced an immediate 90 day suspension for impaired drivers and participation in a provincial interlock program. That move has some people wondering if the door will be left open for the government to decriminalize drunk driving in the future.

Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt said she has heard some concerns surrounding the issue but right now there isn't much information.

"At this point there's rumours and there's hearsay. We know that some sources are reporting that this might possibly be the direction in which the NDP government is going. That's not set in stone and officially we haven't heard anything from the government."

Karen Harrison, President of the Calgary Chapter of MADD Canada, has also heard the rumours of decriminalization but believes it's being taken out of context. She said MADD Canada and the Alberta Government are looking at laws already adopted in another province.

"They spend a lot of time studying what B.C. has done in terms of how they control their impaired driving. Not the ones that blow over .05 and greater, we're talking about the ones that blow up to 0.05 and also test positive between two and five nanograms."

Under the possible changes, police would be given authority to hand out automatic suspensions, vehicle tows or hefty fines instead of criminal charges when they pull someone over in these instances.

Harrison said that since B.C. adopted these rules, they've seen a 50 percent decrease in impaired driving charges.

She said MADD Canada and the Calgary chapter would like to see those changes take place in order to help the courts deal with more serious offenses.

"What this does is it unclogs the court system and gives the police officers the ability to actually do their job and give them some teeth to lay the law down. Really, what better way to teach a lesson then hitting people in the pocketbook."

Harrison said often serious drunk driving cases are being dropped because of the backlog at the courts.

Although the topic still needs to be discussed with MLAs and stakeholders, Pitt said there are still some who are concerned over any decriminalization.

"I've received some emails and it's a lot of, 'Are you kidding me? This can't possibly be true' kind of stuff. I can't see this going over well with regular Albertans."

The Alberta Legislature is expected to be back in session by the end of February. Right now there's no timeline as to when these changes will come before the Legislature.

 

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