Saskatchewan RCMP will now administer a breathalyzer test at every traffic stop in their jurisdiction.
RCMP began the program on April 1 and say they will continue the practice on an ongoing basis.
The campaign is the result of powers given to police in 2018 changes to The Criminal Code. Those changes introduced a section allowing for mandatory alcohol screenings to be conducted on any driver of a motor vehicle without the need for reasonable suspicion.
“We’re asking our traffic service members to ask for a sample from everybody they stop. That way we’re not picking and choosing,” said Supt. Grant St. Germaine, the officer in charge of Saskatchewan’s RCMP traffic services.
Germaine said the campaign is driven by a desire to make the province’s roads safer.
According to a Statistics Canada analysis released in 2021, Saskatchewan had the second highest rate of police reported impaired driving per capita of any province in Canada (539 incidents per 100,000 population).
That’s more …