Nunavut plans tough new rules for driver’s licences, impaired drivers

New licensing and driving regulations are designed to keep Nunavut’s roads safer. (FILE PHOTO)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Big changes lie ahead for Nunavut residents who want drivers’ licenses and for those with licences who don’t obey the rules of the road.

That was the message from James Demcheson, manager of motor vehicle safety and inspections for the Government of Nunavut, to municipal officials who attended last week’s Nunavut Association of Municipalities’ annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay.

Soon it will take two years for drivers to get their licenses to give new drivers the chance “to get used to a variety of driving conditions,” Demcheson said Oct. 9 at the NAM meeting.

Nunavut does not currently have a graduated licensing system. However, such legislation is currently under review, Demcheson told the mayors and SAOs.

In Nunavut, the licensing process is much easier than in Quebec.

There, before you are fully licensed, you must take a mandatory driver education class, apply for a learner’s permit, pass a knowledge test and a road test — and then drive under a two-year “probationary license.”

In Nunavut, if you want to obtain a Class 5 learner’s permit, you must be at least 15 and pass a written test and vision assessment.

If you’re at least 16, and have practiced driving for a minimum of four weeks with a licensed driver, you can then apply to upgrade your licence designation.

And, once you have taken and passed the road test, and meet the age requirement, you’re eligible for a “Class 5” Nunavut driver’s license.

Nunavut’s new graduated licensing system will also be accompanied by tougher measures, such as fines, demerit points and license suspensions, to cut down on impaired driving, Demcheson said.

These new measures will lower the acceptable blood alcohol content for drivers from .08 per cent — the level under the Criminal Code of Canada for impaired driving offences — to .05 per cent, he said.

Most jurisdictions in Canada already have administrative consequences, such as license suspensions, for drivers whose blood alcohol content reaches .05 per cent: That’s reached, for a man, after three drinks in two hours, and after two drinks for women in the same period — or even less.

And most provinces have adopted a zero per cent blood alcohol content requirement for drivers until they reach a certain age or have completed the graduated licencing program.

But Nunavut has nothing like that in place yet.

New measures to keep Nunavut’s roads safer will also include bans on texting, eating and talking on cell phones while driving, Demcheson said.

Other new measures under consideration include:

• by-law and regulation making powers for communities;

• regulation of construction vehicles on roads;

• measures to deal with impaired ATV drivers;

• mandatory training for truck drivers; and,

• vehicle owner liability, versus driver liability alone.