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Editorial - New approach, but will it help?

Monday the Government of Saskatchewan announced it will be testing a new collaborative approach to tackle the continuing problem of impaired driving.

Monday the Government of Saskatchewan announced it will be testing a new collaborative approach to tackle the continuing problem of impaired driving. The program will be tested from the August long weekend until Labour Day, with five pilot projects designed through collaboration between various government ministries and agencies, law enforcement and Crown corporations.

“Saskatchewan has a problem with impaired driving and it’s important we approach this issue with all the tools at our disposal, because even one death or injury from impaired driving is too many,” Minister Responsible for Innovation Saskatchewan Tina Beaudry-Mellor said in the release announcing the pilot projects. “Government, law enforcement and Crown corporations have come together on these five pilot projects that present innovative ways to look at a critical problem facing our province.”

In the coming together process a fairly common theme apparently arose, using the idea of a ‘carrot on a stick’ to entice people to opt for safer ways home if impaired, rather than to climb behind the wheel of their car and head down the road where they become a very real threat to others.

Some of the programs have more in common with a Kindergarten class incentive than one likely to make a difference in reducing impaired driving.

For example, the idea of positive ticketing with the project aim for police officers to give a ‘positive ticket’ to sober/designated drivers at scheduled police check stops and/or routine traffic stops. The tickets will encourage recipients to speak about their experience on social media and the carrot is that eligible drivers could win one of 25 $150 VISA gift cards.

The idea of positive messages is hardly new. The message to not drink and drive is all over media, but obviously it is not being effective as impaired driving in this province is still high.

A Mothers Against Drunk Driving study, based primarily on 2014 numbers show the Canadian average is 13 per cent of crash deaths involving alcohol alone, with Saskatchewan numbers double that at 27 per cent. Another program looks to mimic the photographs of diseased lungs on cigarette package, a program with some initial shock value although how effective it is now is a question.

The Saskatchewan pilot will be targeted at packaging innovation by placing children’s drawings on brown liquor store bags, to get people to consider and discuss the consequences of impaired driving.

It might seem a tad ironic the programming is coming along not so long after the province opened the door to alcohol being available at a far broader number of outlets as the Saskatchewan Party moved to open the door to private business sales outlets in communities such as Yorkton, Canora and across the province.

However, while there is an irony in the situation, the issue of drinking and driving is not a new phenomenon, and in fact has been a long term issue in the province.

While these programs seem to lack the impact to affect the change needed, maybe a new, more subtle approach will accomplish more than higher tickets and jail time.

Of course what is ultimately required is an attitude change where we recognize when we risk driving impaired we are essentially a deadly weapon heading down the road.