Impaired Driving (N.W.T.)

*Generally, the Criminal Code is the basis for impaired driving charges, but there may be supplementary sanctions under provincial law.

In the Northwest Territories, impaired driving is defined as operating a conveyance – including cars, trucks, vessels, snowmobiles, aircraft and off-road vehicles – after consuming alcohol, drugs or a combination of the two. If you are caught with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08, you can be charged under Canada’s Criminal Code and face fines, licence suspensions and jail sentences. Even a small amount of drugs or alcohol in your system can result in an automatic 24-hour licence suspension.

The Northwest Territories governs its roads and highways under the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA). This legislation lays out the rights and responsibilities of drivers in the territory and includes laws to combat impaired driving. If you are caught driving impaired, you can typically expect to be charged under the Criminal Code, with penalties that start with fines and can include life in prison for impaired driving causing death. There can also be supplementary charges under the MVA.

You can be charged under the Criminal Code if you drive with a blood alcohol concentration equal to or over 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, or .08. However, alcohol is not the only substance that can impact your ability to drive. Cannabis and illegal drugs can impair your ability to operate a vehicle. So can over-the-counter drugs and prescription medicine, especially when combined with alcohol.

While cannabis is legal in Canada, you can be charged if you operate a motor vehicle while under the influence. It is an offence to have between two and five nanograms of THC – the primary psychoactive component of cannabis – per ml of blood when operating a vehicle. Operating any conveyance, such as an automobile or off-road vehicle, with a reading of five ng or more THC per ml of blood is an even more serious offenceAn indictable offence with a maximum punishment of five years or more.. The combined prohibited levels of alcohol and cannabis are 50 mg or more of alcohol per 100 ml of blood and 2.5 ng or more of THC per ml of blood.
Recognizing “young people form the largest segment of Canadian drivers involved in fatal motor vehicle collisions and subsequently test positive for alcohol or drugs,” the Northwest Territories amended the MVA to expand zero alcohol tolerance laws for drivers aged 21 and under.

Novice drivers caught with any drugs or alcohol detected in their systems will receive a 30-day administrative licence suspension/disqualification. They face the same consequences as non-novice drivers for operating a motor vehicle with a BAC at or over .08.

The zero-tolerance policy also applies to drivers of specified commercial vehicles caught with drugs or alcohol in their system. Drivers of tractors, including a combination of a tractor and one or two trailers, straight trucks, taxis, single vehicles with three or more axles, buses, emergency vehicles or school buses, can receive a three-day administrative licence suspension.

Police have the right to demand a breath test from you at a roadside stop, even without reasonable suspicion that you have consumed alcohol following the introduction of mandatory alcohol screening (MAS). Prior to this change to the Criminal Code in 2018, police were only permitted to demand a breath test at a roadside stop if there was proof you had been drinking.

You do not have the right to consult a lawyer before providing a breath sample, and you cannot avoid criminal charges by refusing to provide one. Under the Criminal Code, you will face the same penalties for failing or refusing to comply with a peace officerPeople involved in upholding justice's demand as you would for an impaired driving conviction.

In July 2022, the Northwest Territories RCMP announced that they had begun using roadside screening devices for cannabis. A driver can be asked to provide an oral fluid sample to determine if they are under the influence of THC.

If you have been convicted of impaired driving, you may be eligible for the Alcohol Ignition Interlock Program. Participation in the program can shorten your driving prohibition. Ignition interlock devices are like breathalyzers installed on your vehicle, preventing it from operating if alcohol is detected. The device requires you to provide breath samples randomly while the vehicle is running. If you fail to give a sample or your blood alcohol concentration exceeds the allowed limit, the device will log the event, give a warning and trigger an alarm that will sound until the ignition is turned off. Those eligible for the program are responsible for the cost of installing and using the interlock.

Impaired driving has two separate layers of consequences in Northwest Territories. The first is the criminal charge under the Criminal Code of Canada — the same offence, penalties and mandatory minimums everywhere in Canada. The second is Northwest Territories’s own administrative layer — licence suspensions, vehicle impoundment and program requirements that are not a criminal conviction and can apply even before, or without, a criminal charge.

For the criminal charge and the penalties that apply everywhere in Canada, see Impaired Driving.

Roadside suspensions: the general 24-hour rule

If a police officer reasonably believes a driver's ability to drive is affected by alcohol, a drug, or fatigue, the officer can suspend the driver's licence on the spot for 24 hours — no test is required to trigger this. If alcohol was the stated reason, the driver can ask for one voluntary breath test within 2 hours of the suspension starting. The suspension is lifted if that test shows less than 50 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood (0.05%).

Zero tolerance for novice, young, and commercial drivers

Two separate rules apply here. Anyone holding a learner's or probationary ("novice") licence — at any age — is held to zero tolerance. Separately, anyone under 22 is also held to zero tolerance, regardless of what licence they hold. For either group, any alcohol or drug detected on a roadside screening test, or refusing that test without a reasonable excuse, triggers an immediate 30-day licence suspension.

Commercial-vehicle operators who are not novice drivers and not under 22 face the same zero-tolerance trigger, but a shorter 3-day suspension.

The "warn" range

For drivers who are not covered by the zero-tolerance rule above, a roadside screening device reading of "warn," or a confirmed blood-alcohol result of 50 to 79 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood, brings a 24-hour suspension the first time. It rises to a 30-day suspension if the driver had a previous suspension, disqualification, or driving prohibition within the prior two years. This "warn" range is a lower, separate administrative threshold than 80 mg per 100 mL (0.08%) — the level covered next, which independently triggers both a Criminal Code charge and its own, separate territorial suspension.

80 mg% or higher, or a failed or refused test

At 80 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood (0.08%) or higher — or if a driver fails or refuses to give a breath, blood, or oral fluid sample, or refuses a drug recognition evaluation — the territorial Motor Vehicles Act imposes an immediate 24-hour suspension, then a temporary driver's permit valid for up to 7 days, followed by a 90-day suspension. Novice drivers in the same circumstances go straight to a 90-day suspension. This administrative suspension is a separate, independent consequence from the Criminal Code charge that the same 80 mg% reading can also trigger — the two run in parallel, neither depends on the other, and the territorial suspension applies whether or not the driver is ever charged or convicted in criminal court.

Requesting a review or appeal

A driver given a 30-day suspension — either the zero-tolerance suspension for novice or under-22 drivers, or the escalated warn-range suspension — can ask the Registrar to review it, but the request must be made within 10 days of being served notice. The 90-day suspension works differently: there is no Registrar review for it. The only recourse is an appeal to an independent adjudicator, and that appeal must be filed within 30 days of notice.

A driver may have short deadlines to seek review or appeal of an administrative suspension. The page should be checked against the current statutory notice and review provisions.

If you're convicted of the criminal charge

If a driver is later convicted of the Criminal Code impaired-driving offence, the territorial Registrar adds its own driving prohibition on top of anything a court orders: 1 year for a first conviction, 3 years for a second, 5 years for a third, and an indefinite prohibition of at least 5 years for a fourth or later conviction, or where the offence caused a death. This territorial prohibition runs at the same time as — not instead of — any driving prohibition a criminal court imposes. The two are separate orders from separate authorities: the court's prohibition is part of the criminal sentence, while the territorial prohibition is an administrative measure and is not itself a criminal penalty.

Ignition interlock

The Registrar can require a driver to install and use an alcohol ignition interlock device — a breath-testing lock fitted to the vehicle — as a condition of getting a licence back after a 90-day suspension, a refusal-based suspension, or a related conviction. Reinstatement fees, towing and storage costs, interlock costs, or program fees may also apply.

Vehicle seizure

If a driver is caught driving while prohibited under the territorial Motor Vehicles Act, or driving while disqualified under the Criminal Code, and that prohibition or disqualification came from a Criminal Code impaired-driving offence, police can seize the vehicle being driven for up to 30 days.

These territorial measures operate alongside the Criminal Code process, not instead of it. A licence suspension, vehicle seizure, or ignition interlock requirement under the Motor Vehicles Act is not a criminal conviction and does not create a criminal record. If a court also imposes its own driving prohibition after a conviction, that court order is separate from the Northwest Territories's own suspensions and prohibition described above.