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Changes to impaired driving laws
Alberta’s impaired driving laws changed effective December 1, 2020. A new Immediate Roadside Sanctions program will keep our roads safer by providing serious and immediate consequences for all impaired drivers.
Read Freeing up police and courts to make Alberta safer for more information.
Additional resources:
Overview
Provincial limits for alcohol
The Immediate Roadside Suspension Program applied to occurrences on or before November 30, 2020 when law enforcement had reasonable grounds to believe that you operated a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration between 0.05 and 0.079 (equal to or exceeds 50 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, but less than 79 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood).
Sanctions
Repeat alcohol driving occurrences show a pattern of high-risk driving behaviour and therefore the penalties escalate with each prior occurrence.
First occurrence since September 1, 2012
You would have received:
- an immediate three-day driver’s licence suspension where you were unable to drive under any circumstances
- a three-day vehicle seizure
Second occurrence since September 1, 2012
You would have received:
- an immediate 15-day driver’s licence suspension where you were unable to drive under any circumstances
- a seven-day vehicle seizure
- remedial education requirement of the Crossroads course
- The Planning Ahead course may also be accepted in lieu
If the remedial education requirement is not completed within 6 months of the suspension issue date, you will immediately receive a new indefinite administrative suspension for non-compliance and remain suspended until the remedial education course is completed.
Third (and subsequent) occurrence since September 1, 2012
You would have received:
- an immediate 30-day driver’s licence suspension where you were unable to drive under any circumstances
- a seven-day vehicle seizure
- remedial education requirement of the IMPACT Program
If the remedial education requirement is not completed within 6 months of the suspension issue date, you will immediately receive a new indefinite administrative suspension for non-compliance and remain suspended until the remedial education course is completed.
New program
The Immediate Roadside Suspension Program has been discontinued as of November 30, 2020 and has been replaced by the Immediate Roadside Sanctions (IRS) Program of IRS: WARN.
Any occurrences that occur on or after December 1, 2020 will now be administered under the IRS: WARN Program.
Contact
Connect with Driver Fitness and Monitoring:
Driver fitness monitoring contact form
Phone: 780-427-8230
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Hours: 8:15 am to 12 pm, and 1 pm to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
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