OTTAWA - Courts, police forces and jails could be overwhelmed if the federal government ever lowered the criminal drunk-driving threshold, says an internal study by the federal Justice Department.
Cutting blood-alcohol limits for Canadian drivers to the level established in many other countries would likely double the number of cases in a justice system already struggling with the current caseload, it warns.
"The implications for this possible impact are wide-ranging since more Canadians may end up having a criminal record, police may require more resources to focus on impaired driving crime, the courts may require more resources to process cases, and correctional services will require additional resources to deal with those convicted," says the analysis.
A copy of the draft report, dated February this year, was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
The research was ordered by the department's criminal law policy section as Ottawa was being pressed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and others to tighten Canada's blood-alcohol limits for impaired driving.
The current drunk-driving threshold is 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, or .08 per cent -- a level normally assessed through police-administered breathalyzer tests at roadside. Drivers with levels above this threshold are subject to criminal charges and severe penalties, including jail time.
But the standard, set in 1969, is out of step with much of the world. Australia, Germany, Italy and more than a dozen other countries set it lower at .05 per cent, a level that can leave drivers significantly impaired, according to abundant medical evidence.
The internal study by Andre Solecki, of the department's Research and Statistics Division, mined existing justice databases but also contacted eight police forces -- from Vancouver to Toronto -- for raw data.
The analysis of 2007 statistics showed a national rate of 241 impaired-driving incidents for every 100,000 people under the existing law, with about 80 per cent of the offenders male.
But the rate varied regionally, with central Canada the lowest.
"In sum, impaired driving is reported by police as being a largely male problem," Solecki writes.
"Geographically, the territories, the Western provinces, and the Atlantic provinces all reported impaired driving rates higher than the national rate; Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba all reported rates below or close to the national average."
The national data also showed an 80 per cent conviction rate, with about one in 10 sent to jail. Most of the rest were fined. The numbers showed strikingly different regional variations in how many charges are laid.
Among the study's main findings is that lowering the threshold would send an estimated 9,429 extra people to jail -- and severely tax the justice system to put them there.
The study echoes warnings by other groups, and by the House of Commons justice committee, that Canada's court system is ill-prepared for such a radical legal recalibration. But the author does so by drawing on detailed police data not otherwise available.
Canada's provinces already impose a lower threshold of .05 per cent, which allows police to seize licences and tow vehicles without charging the operator with criminal drunk-driving.
A spokesman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving was dismissive of the claim Canada's justice system cannot absorb a surge of new charges under a tougher threshold, noting that many other countries are able to enforce higher standards.
"Those excuses that ... it would jam up the system, that's crap," said Andrew Murie, chief executive officer. "It's never happened anywhere else in the world.
"When these new sanctions are brought in, there's a surge and then it levels off. ... At the end of the day, the net effect is that you have less charges in the system. (Drivers) adjust their drinking levels to these new rules."
Last year, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson accepted the recommendations of a Commons justice committee report that eschewed lowering the blood-alcohol threshold in favour of empowering police to conduct random breath tests for drivers, an approach also preferred by provincial and territorial ministers.
Justice ministers meeting in Vancouver earlier this month discussed enacting such legislation federally. Currently, police can require a breathalyzer test only if they have reason to suspect a driver has been drinking. Under a random breath-test regime, as in Ireland and Australia, police could require all drivers to blow into the device even if there is no reasonable suspicion of alcohol consumption.
That approach is opposed by groups such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, who say such increased police power invites abuse. They also warn of constitutional challenges under the Charter of Rights.
The Conservative government has taken other tough measures against impaired driving through its Tackling Violent Crime Act, which closed some legal loopholes, increased maximum sentences and imposed mandatory penalties.
A Justice Department spokesman, Christian Girouard, cautioned that the Solecki study, which has not yet been made final, represents the views of the author and not the government.
