Justice committee  For example, they show the differences between metropolitan census areas and the others.

Justice committee  This is an observation, true, that we made, looking at where there was a sharp decline in cases of impaired driving by province. It was where there was a prevention campaign and also a zero tolerance program being implemented that we noticed the biggest decline. We could only make the association.

Justice committee  You're right. It is a difficult thing to do because, when the police are coming into contact with a person who could have been intoxicated by both alcohol and drugs, they will be reporting by the substance they think is impacting the impairedness of the driving of the individual the most.

Justice committee  They are.

Justice committee  You're right; they're not necessarily. This is why we hold off from specifying that as the exact question being asked to people. It's probably the best way. When we compare it to how other countries are doing that and how we should be measuring it, it's probably best to have self-reported behaviours in order to do that properly.

Justice committee  That's a very good question and this is what we'll be following very closely. It's hard to say if the legislation that is to come will have an impact on the behaviours of Canadians. However, this is certainly something we'll be looking at and be able to report back when it is legalized.

Justice committee  We can make a distinction using self-reported information from sample surveys. However, police statistics deal only with drugs as a whole. There is no way to distinguish whether cases involve cannabis or another drug like cocaine. We cannot make that distinction.

Justice committee  Yes, that is a possibility.

Justice committee  These are based on data from a household survey, which did not exactly ask the people if they'd been driving drunk or anything. This is not how it's being addressed. The question would be as follows, “In the past 12 months, have you driven a motor vehicle under the influence of an illicit substance such as marijuana or hashish?”

Justice committee  Good afternoon. Let me first thank you, the chairs and the members of the committee, for this invitation to present the most recent statistics on impaired driving in Canada. Today, I am going to give you an overview of the most significant and most recent indicators, derived from various sources of data on the issue.

Justice committee  Good afternoon.

Justice committee  The information is there to make the calculation if someone is interested. We can split the amount of administrative costs per jurisdiction. One can look at the caseload and make their own calculations. We have to keep in mind that this is an aggregate survey. When we are asking respondents—meaning, legal aid plans—there are only 13 respondents across the country, and they are providing the information for all activities in their jurisdictions.

Justice committee  Unfortunately, we can't. The only breakdown information we get for those who are refused is about the reasons why they were refused, like—

Justice committee  Yes, and for both, for those who were refused and those who were accepted, the 65%, we don't have demographic information on the person who was requiring or demanding. This is what the redesign of the survey is going towards. We want to have more information about the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals who make the application for legal aid.

Justice committee  No, we don't.