Manitoba's stricter drunk driving law likely to result in about 4 lifetime suspensions a year on average
Family of woman killed by drunk driver calls new law 'pretend legislation'
A new Manitoba law aimed at punishing the drunk drivers who cause the most harm to human life will result in an average of nearly four additional people receiving lifetime licence bans every year, according to a CBC analysis of years' worth of data.
People convicted of impaired driving offences that cause bodily harm or death will now receive a lifetime licence suspension if they've been convicted of two such offences within a 10-year period, under a law that took effect last week.
The estimated number of driving bans due to the new legislation is based on the number of people who received a 10-year licence suspension — the previous punishment for two of these offences — within a decade.
CBC News filed a freedom of information request to get the number of impaired driving suspensions over the past 19 calendar years, after Manitoba Public Insurance refused to provide this information.
The average of nearly four new lifetime suspensions a year proves the government's legislation — championed as an important deterrent to drunk driving by justice minister Matt Wiebe — is inconsequential, said a mother who lost her 24-year-old daughter to impaired driving in 2022.
"Why would you spend the time, the energy, the money to present legislation that's not going to make a difference?" Karen Reimer said.
"It's pretend legislation to look like Manitoba is moving toward tougher laws against impaired driving."
In an interview Wednesday, Wiebe said the province will develop new drunk driving legislation this fall that he hopes will include tougher penalties. He doesn't know when the bill will be introduced.
No answers for family, PCs on statistics
Reimer's daughter, Jordyn, was killed in the early hours of May 1, 2022, in a two-vehicle collision at a Winnipeg intersection while she, as the designated driver, was on her way to pick up a friend.
Late last year, Tyler Scott Goodman was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to impaired driving and failing to stop at the scene.
In March, Karen Reimer spoke at a public hearing regarding the government's legislation, where she asked for statistics on the number of people who were convicted twice of impaired driving causing bodily harm or death within 10 years.
She never got an answer from the NDP government, nor did the Opposition Progressive Conservatives, who asked the same questions during question period.
The annual average of nearly four new lifetime suspensions is around what she suspected, Reimer said on Wednesday.
"I don't think that we can say it's going to make a big difference if it's only going to be affecting four impaired drivers a year."
From 2006 to 2024, a total of 72 people were convicted of impaired driving causing bodily harm or death twice within a 10-year period, according to MPI figures.
Of those, 15 were convicted twice in a decade of impaired driving causing death.
In 2024, four people received 10-year bans as a result of impaired driving causing bodily harm. Nobody got the same ban for impaired driving causing death. In 2023, one person received each of these penalties.
Ontario ban after 1 conviction
Reimer wants Manitoba to adopt the same legislation as Ontario, which, starting this year, slapped anyone convicted of impaired driving causing death with a lifetime ban after one conviction.
"We're talking about the privilege of driving. And if you've killed somebody, I think that you lose that privilege," Reimer said.
PC justice critic Wayne Balcaen put forward an amendment to Manitoba's bill that would follow Ontario's lead, but the government turned it down.
He said the Tories still voted in favour of the NDP's bill because it is an improvement over the previous law, but thinks the government missed an opportunity to create impactful legislation that would shape driver behaviour forever.
Balcaen also proposed a lifetime ban for anyone convicted of impaired driving if a person under the age of 18 was also in the vehicle.
"The idea behind that is [the youth] don't have the choice," he said.
Wiebe said the government's new law will take an average of nearly four dangerous drivers off the road every year — and that's a good thing.
"We want to spare those families and those communities the heartbreak of knowing that their loved one was seriously injured or killed because something wasn't done," the justice minister said.
He said the government, while evaluating new legislation, is exploring which further penalties could be imposed provincially, since impaired driving laws are under federal jurisdiction.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving is involved in the province's consultations.
Eric Dumschat, MADD's legal director, said the organization advocates for lengthy licence suspensions, with the possibility of the driver getting their licence back if they use an alcohol ignition interlock device.
He said people issued lifetime driving bans sometimes choose to drive anyway, since they're already subject to the longest possible ban.
Reimer said she wants the government to develop stronger legislation with an all-party committee, along with victims' families, MPI and MADD.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from The Canadian Press