Thank you very much.
As illustrated by the chart on page 2 of our submission, Canada has one of the worst impaired driving records relative to any other developed country. The percentage and number of impaired driving deaths and injuries in Canada is increasing. The current levels of deaths and injuries now exceed those of 1999.
The impaired driving provisions in Bill C-2, which came into force this last summer, plug long-standing loopholes in the federal law. However, these provisions will not significantly reduce the number of impaired driving deaths, injuries, and crashes in Canada. To achieve this goal of reducing impaired driving deaths requires far broader changes to the Criminal Code, namely laws that will have a major deterrent or preventative impact on impaired driving.
We propose three such measures: the enactment of a streamlined summary conviction Criminal Code 0.05 BAC impaired driving offence; the enactment of a Criminal Code provision authorizing random breath testing for screening drivers; and amendments to eliminate a reduced mandatory driving prohibition for impaired driving offenders in provincial and territorial ignition interlocks.
In the time I have available I will address only the issue of random breath testing.
Millions of Canadians continue to drink and drive in Canada because they can do so with little fear of being stopped or, if stopped, detected and charged. The estimated 10.2 million alcohol impaired driving trips made in 2006 resulted in only 60,000 charges and roughly 32,000 convictions. This translates to one charge for every 168 impaired driving trips and one conviction for every 313 impaired driving trips. Put another way, on average you would have to drive drunk once a week every week for more than three years before you'd be charged once. You'd have to drive drunk once a week every week for six years before it was likely that you would be convicted.
In response to similar problems, numerous jurisdictions around the world have introduced random breath testing. Every systematic review of the research indicates that the introduction of random breath testing results in significant and sustained reductions in impaired driving deaths, injuries, and crashes.
As with any new enforcement technique, random breath testing would be challenged under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I'll briefly outline some of the points that indicate, at least to me, that random breath testing is wholly consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
First, Canadians cannot board planes, enter many court rooms or government buildings, or observe parliamentary proceedings without being scanned and subject to random physical searches of their persons and belongings. If random searches are warranted and justified in these circumstances, then a far more compelling case can be made for RBT, which poses a far more widespread risk.
Driving is already a heavily regulated licensed activity occurring on public roads, and happens to be the number one criminal cause of death in our country. Drivers are already required by common law and statute to stop and provide documentation when requested to do so. Drivers expect to be asked routine questions about licences, vehicles, and sobriety. The Canadian courts have consistently upheld the constitutionality of this random stopping, searching, and questioning of drivers. The introduction of RBT is merely an extension of these routine interventions.
When I first appeared before this committee on behalf of MADD 10 years ago advocating for substantive changes to the federal impaired driving laws, those changes were not made and, as we predicted, impaired driving deaths, injuries, and crashes increased. Doing nothing or doing little is a choice, but unfortunately it's a choice that will leave this country with one of the worst records of impaired driving of any comparable developed democracy.