GN hopes free taxi vouchers will curb drunk driving
14,000 vouchers being printed for Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay
The Government of Nunavut is hoping these taxi vouchers will inspire people not to drink and drive. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Thousands of vouchers for free taxi rides are being handed out this month to reduce impaired driving in three communities, thanks to the Nunavut Liquor and Cannabis Commission.
The vouchers are meant to ensure people have a safe ride home, and to prompt a discussion about the importance of not drinking and driving, said NULC director Dan Young.
“We have printed about 14,000 taxi vouchers which will be distributed in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet [and] Cambridge Bay,” he said in an emailed statement regarding the annual campaign.
“Not all will be used, but we will track the numbers to determine if we will issue more in this season.”
He said the vouchers are being distributed by RCMP, municipal bylaw officers, liquor inspectors and at NULC stores. Vouchers were also distributed at bars in Iqaluit last week.
In Iqaluit, impaired driving has been a headache for municipal officials over the past few months.
Between January and October this year, RCMP laid 98 impaired driving charges, according to an update provided last month to city councillors.
“Both my colleagues here at council and community members are quite fed up with it,” Coun. Kyle Sheppard said at a November council meeting.
“There’s been a lot of complacency developed with people who do drink and drive, due a lack of monitoring the roads adequately in the evenings.”
Municipal enforcement in Iqaluit conducted sobriety checks on the first two weekends of December.
City spokesperson Kent Driscoll said municipal enforcement officers are helping to hand out the vouchers.
“The NULC provides the vouchers to municipal enforcement, and they are distributed during joint road safety initiatives over the holiday season,” Driscoll said in an emailed statement.
Young said it’s too early to see whether the vouchers are having an impact this year. RCMP in Nunavut have not yet responded to an inquiry about the impact.
The vouchers are valid until March 31, 2024, Young said.
“NULC won’t directly see results related to reductions in drinking and driving,” he said. “There is a time delay between these vouchers being distributed, used, [and] invoiced by cab companies to the NULC.”
Oh yes that’s the answer more free S$$$ 😂
Can’t wait to die please stop wasting my tax money 😂
Vouchers hopefully will help, but don’t forget to enter the cost of these vouchers, from wherever they originated, as the additional cost of the drink in northern communities. Next time the discussion of alcohol cost to community life comes to the table, put it in on the top.
This is nothing more than another end run around the problems created by the opening of the beer and wine stores.
The sales of alcoholic beverages of any kind is the problem.
This latest initiative will cost $8.00 * 14,090 or $114,000.00
I’m just shocked there was no drunk driving before the B&W.
That’s truly impressive.
What we do in the name of the drunken driver. But at least it could save an innocent person from injury or death. Now, if we could help sober people and children, and those otherwise abused by the drunks, give a voucher of some kind, a small gift to some with not much income.
Sober people benefit too. Taxi vouchers aren’t *for* drunk drivers – they are to help lower their numbers so the rest of us have a safer place to live. Also, nothing says you need to drink before using one of these things.
Yes anyone can use them. Free taxi ride, great. But , the motivation to give out vouchers are from alcohol abuse, like drunk driving. Say what you like, it’s all about drunk driving idiots in the first place. Not that people that using the vouchers are idiots, I think they smart, but it’s the drunken driver idiots that this idea is born from.
“Now, if we could help sober people and children… give a voucher of some kind, a small gift to some with not much income.”
.
Geez is it that easy to forget about the $6,000 per year Canada Child Benefit? The $500+ GST rebate?
It’s getting worse in the north. Alcohol rules the people. It’s drowning the flock. The government spends more time on alcohol issues than anything else. That’s why so many around the country and the world got no respect for the pathetic life up in the great white north. Burp!
Quit treating people like children. If you can afford to drunk you can afford to take a cab. If you can afford a car you can afford to take a cab.
If you choose to drink and drive it’s because you’re an idiot and no amount of voucher will stop you from drinking and driving.
All the money wasted on this could gave gone towards additional sobriety checks.
This is a good thing, and something they’ve been doing for a while. I remember them handing these out at the Storehouse years ago, long before the B&W store. Sure, vouchers aren’t a “silver bullet” that will solve all drinking issues – nothing is, including prohibition. However, anything that nudges people to choose a safer way home than driving drunk is helpful, especially this time of year. Oh, and as to the cost, the article says its the NULC who pays for these vouchers. That means it’s not actually tax dollars at work (one of the comments higher up). It’s a cost that gets passed on to BW store customers or lowers profits the GN gets at year end. That type of expense is fine with me, especially if it helps keep streets safer for my kids.
How you feel about the alcohol abuse in the north? The number of people that just can’t hold their liquor? Do you ever think that there’s a major problem , as by the money , time and useless talks and strategies used over and over to no good results?
The people of the north are treated like children, because they demand to be treated like children. We need to go back to having penalties and not just incentives, especially when ever increasing incentives just lead to an endless spiral downwards of responsibility for oneself and one’s choices.
“The people of the north are treated like children, because they demand to be treated like children.”
*BOOM*
I hope to see this in your quotes of the year, Nunatsiaq. It’s about as close to a ‘silver bullet’ analysis as you can get.
Plenty of Transit in the South offers free rides on certain holidays like New Years for the same reason. Drunk driving kills people everywhere. It is a good thing that we are taking measures to reduce that by offering alternatives. The cost is pretty small relative to the costs of healthcare when someone is in an accident from a DUI not to mention the social costs.
I would love to see this extended throughout the year – with vouchers available at the bars when someone drinks too much so they can get home safely and retrieve their vehicle the next day. I have seen too many people and especially Southerners drive home when they are clearly intoxicated because they had to get their vehicle home.
The vouchers don’t go far enough. We also need donations to pay good babysitters, as the same parents out ready to drink and drive, would not have their kids left home alone. Come on any other suggestions, we’ll fix this society yet.
How about the marijuana users , they should be allowed to use the taxi vouchers too .
The answer you seek is in the quote.
“There’s been a lot of complacency developed with people who do drink and drive, due a lack of monitoring the roads adequately in the evenings.”
Everyone knows bylaw isn’t around so take that money and put a couple of officers on night shift
What’s the point of this, who thought of this?, they’ll just start driving from home after using the vouchers. There goes my Nunavut tax deductions and I don’t even live in these three communities 🙁