The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) criticized Transport Minster Geneviève Guilbault for not being informed in relation to drunk driving and road safety.
The Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) is in favour of imposing administrative penalties on drivers whose blood alcohol level is between 0.05 and 0.08, according to information obtained by “Le Devoir.”
Guilbault had opposed the addition of this measure to a bill that she had piloted, and recently admitted that she had not read this notice.
“I think that a minister who admits to not reading expert opinions before making decisions simply does not have the credibility to ensure road safety,” said MNA Monsef Derraji in a press scrum in parliament.
It’s “the scandal of drunk driving with this CAQ government,” he added.
Coroner Yvon Garneau asked the Transport Ministry and SAAQ in October 2021 to carry out an analysis on this potential regulation that was requested by groups and relatives of victims of drunk driving.
The SAAQ sees administrative sanctions for blood alcohol levels between 0.05 and 0.08 as a “positive measure,” it said.
“While the debate was truly unavoidable in the assembly, was she so negligent as not to read the study commissioned by her ministry?” noted PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in a press scrum. “Or she is lying, and we cannot trust her word.”
He is calling for a parliamentary committee to discuss tightening the standard, roadblocks and other preventive measures.
“The CAQ government does not want to be confronted with experts or science (…), it makes the debate difficult because there is no transparency,” said St-Pierre Plamondon.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews