Skip to main content

Canada puts $2.5m into tackling drug-impaired driving

The government of Canada is investing CAN$2.5 million over five years to tackle drug-impaired driving in the province of Prince Edward Island. The move is part of a CAN$81 million package to support public and road safety activities. Funding will help train more police officers in standardised field sobriety testing and drug recognition expert evaluation. The money will also be used to purchase approved drug screening devices and develop standardised data collection and reporting practices to analyse
August 21, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
The government of Canada is investing CAN$2.5 million over five years to tackle drug-impaired driving in the province of Prince Edward Island.


The move is part of a CAN$81 million package to support public and road safety activities.

Funding will help train more police officers in standardised field sobriety testing and drug recognition expert evaluation. The money will also be used to purchase approved drug screening devices and develop standardised data collection and reporting practices to analyse trends of drug-impaired driving.

Bill Blair, minister of border security and organised crime reduction, says the government wants people to understand the dangers of driving while impaired by alcohol and drugs.

“Stronger penalties and law enforcement alone can’t resolve the problem; public education and awareness are important pieces of making it socially unacceptable,” he continues. “Today’s investment ensures that frontline police officers have the tools they need to detect drug-impaired drivers to keep our roads safe.”

Related Content

  • How can US transportation be ‘re-envisioned’?
    October 17, 2019
    In her address to this year’s ITS America Annual Meeting, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, called for a ‘re-envisioning’ of transportation. Her speech is below – and ITS International asks a number of US experts what they would like to see ‘re-envisioned’…

    I would like to welcome  ITS America to the nation’s capital.

  • ‘One in four drivers still using handheld phones while driving’
    September 21, 2017
    New research by UK motoring association the RAC reveals that nearly one in four drivers still makes or receives calls while driving, despite the doubling of penalties for the offence in March 2017, to six points and a £200 fine. In September 2016 the RAC revealed that the illegal use of handheld mobile phones at the wheel had reached epidemic proportions. Days later the Government announced the penalty for the offence would increase to six points and a £200 fine in a bid to stamp out the dangerous habit.
  • Promoting understanding of the need for enforcement
    March 15, 2012
    Changing needs of mature and emerging economies are demanding more rigorous enforcement services. Gatso’s managing director Timo Gatsonides spells out the challenge to Jason Barnes. As geographical markets mature and saturate, it might seem that the only thing for suppliers to do is to look further afield in search of new opportunities. The automated enforcement market in north western Europe could be a case in point, but Gatso’s managing director Timo Gatsonides begs to differ. The sheer number of new syst
  • Report urges US$25 billion transport improvement plan
    August 6, 2014
    The One North report, produced by the city regions of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield in the UK, puts forward a strategic proposition for transport in the north of the country. The US$16.8-US$25.2 billion plan urges major changes in connectivity and capacity between the northern cities over the next 15 years and proposes optimisation of strategic highway capacity, a new high speed trans-Pennine rail route and improved city region rail networks interconnected with HS2 services, new inte