Impaired Driving (P.E.I.)

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

According to Statistics Canada, Prince Edward Island has consistently had the highest police-reported rate of impaired driving incidents among the provinces. In 2019, the province recorded the highest rate among the provinces at 645 incidents per 100,000 people, more than double the rate recorded in 2017. More recently, Statistics Canada data for 2023 confirmed PEI remained at the top of the provincial rankings, recording 515 incidents per 100,000 people. To address the problem, the province layers its own administrative measures on top of the Criminal Code process.

Even if you are not criminally impaired, you face an automatic 24-hour licence suspension if you have a blood alcohol concentration (B.A.C.) of .05.

With the introduction of mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) in December 2018, police no longer need proof to demand a breath test during a roadside stop. In the past, police needed reasonable suspicion, such as the smell of alcohol or slurred speech, to demand a test.

Failing to submit to a breath test comes with consequences. Refusal is a separate Criminal Code offence. A first conviction carries a minimum fine of $2,000. On summary conviction, the maximum can include a $5,000 fine, imprisonment for two years less a day, or both. The indictable maximum is 10 years.

If you are asked to provide a breath sample at a roadside stop, and your BAC is .05 or more, you face an immediate 24-hour roadside suspension of your licence. There will also be an administrative driving prohibition of 90 days that starts seven days after the 24-hour roadside suspension. 

Your vehicle will also be impounded for 30 days for your first or second charge of impaired driving within 10 years. If you are charged three or more times within 10 years, your vehicle will be impounded for six months. Your vehicle will also be impounded for six months if you have been charged under the Criminal Code with impaired driving causing a serious injury or death. You will be responsible for paying the towing and storage costs.

You face immediate roadside sanctions for driving impaired, and police can charge you with a criminal offence. A first conviction for driving with a BAC of .08 or more will result in a minimum $1,000 fine and a minimum one-year licence suspension. Under P.E.I.'s HTA, you will also be jailed for three days. It is important to remember that the court can increase the minimum punishments depending on the severity of the offence. You must also pay a Victims of Crime Surcharge. Jail terms increase to 90 days for a third or subsequent offence. If you cause bodily harm to another person while driving impaired, you face a maximum of 14 years in prison under the Criminal Code (s. 320.2). You could be jailed for life if you are convicted of impaired driving causing death (s. 320.21). Your licence will be cancelled for three years for a second offence under the HTA . A third or subsequent offence will see your licence suspended for five years. You will be required to install an ignition interlock device on your vehicle after you have been convicted. You must provide an alcohol-free breath sample to start your vehicle. While the vehicle is running, the device requires you to provide breath samples randomly. If a sample is not provided or your blood alcohol content is over the limit, the device will register the event, warn you, and trigger an alarm that will sound until you turn the ignition off. The device will remain in place for one year after a first offence, three years after a second offence and 10 years for a third and subsequent offence. An additional one year is added to the term if you had a passenger under the age of 16 when you were charged with impaired driving. You are responsible for all costs associated with the interlock device.

A driver's licence is a privilege, not a right, and it is not automatically reinstated once your suspension is complete. You must re-apply and pay a $750 reinstatement fee. 

After completing the mandatory ignition interlock term, you will be issued a Restricted ZERO BAC Driver's Licence for three years, which means you cannot have any amount of alcohol in your system while operating a motor vehicle. 

After a first offence, you will be required to complete the Highway Safety Division's driver rehabilitation course, a five-hour educational program on impaired driving and the effects of drugs and alcohol. You will be placed on administrative probation for one year and must follow the terms of the probation order.

If you are convicted a second time, you must meet with a driver improvement officer to complete a driver risk analysis. If you are considered "low-risk" or "medium-risk" for re-offending, you will be referred to the driver rehabilitation program. If you are "high-risk," you will be referred to Addiction Services for an assessment and treatment program recommendations. To get your licence back, you must complete all recommended programs. You will then be placed on administrative probation for up to five years.

After a third and subsequent offence, you must be assessed by an addiction services counsellor and complete any recommended treatment if it is found that you have a problem with drugs or alcohol.

The Registrar of Motor Vehicles can refuse to reinstate your driver's licence if it is determined that your problem has not improved or if you are deemed to be a risk.

If you are reinstated, you will be placed on administrative probation for 10 years and must follow the terms and conditions of your probation order.

Impaired driving has two separate layers of consequences in Prince Edward Island. 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 Prince Edward Island’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 licence suspensions for a failed test

If a roadside breath test shows 50 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, often written as .05, or more, or the driver fails the breath test, or fails a physical coordination test, the officer must take the driver’s licence on the spot. This immediate roadside suspension escalates with repeat stops in a 3-year window: 7 days for a first suspension, 30 days for a second, and 90 days for a third. A driver can ask for an on-the-spot retest, and the suspension ends immediately if the retest comes back under .05, or a doctor confirms the same.

Administrative driving prohibitions — a separate track

Separately from the roadside suspension above, if police have reasonable grounds to believe a driver is impaired at the criminal (.08+) level, has an unlawful drug or drug-and-alcohol concentration, or has failed or refused a formal breath or drug demand, they can serve a notice of driving prohibition. This is a different mechanism from the roadside suspension above and can involve different numbers: serving the notice suspends the licence immediately for 24 hours. For a Prince Edward Island licence holder, the notice then works as a 7-day temporary licence, followed by a 90-day administrative driving prohibition. A driver with an out-of-province licence goes straight to the 90-day prohibition, starting 7 days after the notice is served. A driver can ask the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to review any of these.

Zero tolerance for new and young drivers

Anyone who holds a graduated driver’s licence, or who is under 22, must have zero alcohol in their system while driving — even a small amount that would be legal for an adult driver is an offence, and the same zero-tolerance rule applies to detectable drug presence. If a driver in this group fails, refuses, or tests positive, police can suspend the licence for 24 hours, and the officer must also start the administrative driving prohibition process described above, with the .08 criminal threshold swapped for a zero-alcohol administrative threshold for these drivers.

Vehicle impoundment

Police can impound the vehicle a person was driving if that person is found to have committed a Criminal Code impaired-driving, over-.08, or refusal offence, or a more serious one such as one causing bodily harm or death, manslaughter, criminal negligence, or a qualifying repeat offence within 10 years. A basic impaired, over-.08, or refusal offence carries a 30-day vehicle impoundment; the more serious offences above carry a 6-month impoundment. A roadside suspension on its own can also trigger a shorter impoundment matched to its length: 3 days for a 7-day suspension, 7 days for a 30-day suspension, and 30 days for a 90-day suspension.

Ignition interlock and licence cancellation

A Criminal Code conviction for impaired driving or refusal automatically cancels a person’s Prince Edward Island driver’s licence. The cancellation period escalates for repeat convictions within a 10-year window: 1 year for a first offence, 3 years for a second, and 5 years for a third or subsequent offence — on top of whatever driving prohibition the criminal court itself imposes under the Criminal Code. To get back on the road sooner, a person can apply for a restricted licence limited to a vehicle fitted with an alcohol ignition interlock device — a breath-testing device wired into the ignition — once a minimum part of the cancellation period has passed (3 months for a first offence, 6 months for a second, 12 months for a third or subsequent). The interlock requirement itself then runs for a set term measured from the end of the court’s own prohibition period: 1 year for a first conviction; 3 years for a second conviction with a blood-alcohol reading at or under 120 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, or 5 years for a second conviction above that reading or on a refusal; and 10 years for a third or subsequent conviction. Driving without the required device, tampering with it, or helping someone bypass it are their own separate provincial offences under the Highway Traffic Act.

Reinstatement, programs, and other costs

Reinstatement fees, towing and storage costs, interlock costs, or program fees may also apply.

All of these measures — the roadside suspension, the administrative driving prohibition, the zero-tolerance rules for new and young drivers, vehicle impoundment, and the interlock and licence-cancellation regime — are Prince Edward Island administrative measures under the Highway Traffic Act. They apply automatically alongside a Criminal Code charge or conviction, not instead of it, and none of them is a criminal conviction, a criminal record, or a jail sentence. They remain separate from any driving prohibition a criminal court imposes directly under the Criminal Code, and separate from the Criminal Code’s own fines and mandatory minimum jail terms, both of which are covered on this site’s federal impaired-driving page rather than repeated here.