Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press During question period on Thursday, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, reiterated that the measures currently in place are sufficient.
CAQ elected officials rejected a proposal on Thursday to lower the tolerance threshold for drunk driving.
They voted against a motion from the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) which calls for administrative sanctions for motorists whose alcohol level is between 50 mg and 80 mg per 100 ml of blood (between 0.05 g/L and 0 .08 g/L), i.e. in the interval preceding the application of the penalties currently provided for in the Criminal Code.
The 67 CAQ deputies present at the Salon Bleu unanimously rejected this proposal, putting an end to a debate in which the government showed no openness.
During question period on Thursday, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, reiterated that the measures currently in place are sufficient.
“Quebec is one of the toughest jurisdictions in Canada when it comes to impaired driving,” she said. We have the longest, most restrictive rehabilitation program, the most severe mandatory ignition interlock program, the most severe vehicle seizures, zero tolerance for new drivers. »
Amendment
Liberal MP Monsef Derraji, author of the motion, still intends to propose an amendment to a bill on road safety tabled by Ms. Guilbault, the study of which continues.
“We will continue the battle,” he said in a press briefing.
Québec solidaire (QS) and the Parti Québécois (PQ) supported the motion, said Mr. Derraji to underline that the government is isolated.
“The reserve of political courage is running dry among the Caquists and I think they need a little more political courage because they are going to find the three years they have left in power very long,” he said.
As he has done in recent days, Mr. Derraji recalled that the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) recommends lowering the threshold to 50 mg and that a recent survey shows majority support of the population to this tightening.
The PQ did not intervene on Wednesday during a debate on this PLQ motion. MP Pascal Bérubé said Thursday that his party would vote in favor.
“We don’t want to achieve an abstention, because there we will be told: “You are not taking a position,” he said in a press briefing. But we will vote in favor to open the discussion, then invite the government to support its position. So, that’s the choice we made. We will vote in favor. »
Press officer Emmanuel Renaud clarified that the PQ are in favor of the principle of lowering the threshold, without however making it a formal electoral commitment.
PQ MP Pascal Paradis noted Ms. Guilbault's closure during the debate on the motion on Wednesday. “Whether it was brought into the public debate in the right way ? The question arises,” he told reporters. We would have been ready to have the discussion, but now we see that the government has closed the door. »
The issue resurfaced in the news last week following a new controversy surrounding the political financing activities of the Coalition Avenir Québec. Elizabeth Rivera and her husband, Antoine Bittar, whose daughter Jessica died in 2017 in an accident involving alcohol, called for a tightening of the criteria leading to sanctions, as part of the study of Ms. Guilbault's bill .
Tolerated blood alcohol levels around the world
United States: 0.08g/L
Singapore: 0.08g/L
Malta: 0.08 g/L
Angola: 0.06g/L
France: 0.05 g/L
Italy: 0.05g/L
Australia: 0.05g/L
Russia: 0.04g/L
Chili: 0.03g/L
Japan: 0.03g/L
China: 0.02g/L
Sweden: 0.02 g/L
Cuba: 0.01 g/L
Brazil: Zero Tolerance
Hungary: Zero Tolerance
Slovakia: Zero Tolerance
Source: World Health Organization