Editorial
Drunk driving fight must include hospitality industry input
The Redford government has announced plans to toughen up drunk driving penalties in the province, all in an effort to reduce the carnage that impaired motorists continue to cause across this province, including in West Central Alberta.
Under proposed legislation tabled in the legislature last week, the province may soon allow licence suspensions and vehicle seizures for drivers whose blood-alcohol level is found to be above 50 mg per cent.
Premier Redford said making life tougher, particularly financially, for impaired drivers might just convince more of them to stay off the roads if they are under the influence.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has come out in support of the proposed changes, applauding the province for putting forward the tough new rules.
“I think putting teeth in legislation like this will encourage people to take the issue (of drunk driving) much more seriously and look at ways to get home sober and not get behind the wheel at any level of impairment,” said MADD president Wayne Kauffeldt, who lost a teenage daughter to a drunk driver.
While few would likely argue against more being done to stem the drunk driving carnage in this province – Alberta, incidentally, has one of the worse per-capita impaired driving rates in Canada – any changes aimed at reducing impaired driving should not unfairly target companies conducting legitimate and lawful businesses.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is calling on the premier to ensure that consultations are conducted with bar and restaurant business owners to ensure companies are not ruined by the new legislation.
“Like other Albertans, small businesses support the enforcement of strong laws to punish drunk drivers and renewed efforts to find effective prevention strategies,” said CFIB spokesperson Richard Truscott. “But while it's not clear if the new law in B.C. had a meaningful impact on the impaired driving issue, it most definitely has significantly impacted many small businesses in the hospitality sector that are already struggling with a weakening economy and ongoing labour shortages.”
The CFIB is prepared to undertake “meaningful consultation before any new laws are passed to ensure effective enforcement strategies to combat impaired driving without such a negative impact on small businesses.”
Drunk drivers continue to make victims of families and friends across this province and country – and the Alberta government should be applauded for stepping up the fight against those same criminal and careless motorists.
However, at the same time Premier Redford needs to make sure that businesses, and in particular those in the hospitality industry, are not inadvertently also made victims in this stepped-up drunk driving war.
