Quebec won’t drop legal alcohol limit despite fourth coroner’s recommendation

Quebec won’t drop legal alcohol limit despite fourth coroner’s recommendation.

Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault says the province will not be lowering the legal blood alcohol limit despite another coroner’s report released this week urging the province to act.

Quebec is the only province that has not established a legal limit lower than the .08 — 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood — set in the Criminal Code.

This week’s coroner’s report is the fourth in the past two years recommending provincial sanctions for drivers above .05, and both the provincial police and the automobile insurance board support lowering the limit.

But the government refuses to budge on the issue, with Guilbault telling reporters today that Quebec is one of the strictest jurisdictions when it comes to impaired driving.

Her comments come after a coroner reported on a fatal crash caused by a motorist who had been stopped by police an hour earlier for driving erratically but was allowed to go because the breathalyzer result was inconclusive.

The test showed his blood alcohol level was above .05 but could not confirm whether it was above the Criminal Code limit of .08, meaning other signs of impairment were necessary to make an arrest.

Coroner Geneviève Thériault wrote that if the province’s limit had been in line with the rest of the country, the driver would have been arrested and the crash would not have occurred.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2025.