The Ontario government is exploring the idea of making impaired drivers pay ongoing child support if they kill a child’s parent or guardian.
The move is being considered as part of a legislative package the government plans to introduce at Queen’s Park in the coming weeks.
Speaking during Question Period Tuesday, Attorney General Doug Downey said the loss of a parent can have far-reaching consequences for minor dependents.
“The devastating impact reaches far beyond the immediate loss. It leaves a child struggling, both emotionally and financially,” Downey said.
He said that while family members are currently able to sue impaired drivers in civil court, that’s not enough.
“Additional measures such as requiring a convicted impaired driver to pay financial support would strengthen accountability and help ensure children receive meaningful support in the wake of such tragedies,” Downey said.
Opposition parties say province could be doing more to prevent drunk driving
Responding to the idea Tuesday, opposition parties said the government could be doing more to prevent impaired driving from occurring in the first place.
“We want to do everything possible to discourage (impaired driving). If this is one way to do that, it’s great,” Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said. “It feels a bit rich coming from a government that’s put alcohol in corner stores and on routes and have been removing all road safety measures. But hey, if this helps, fine.”
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the government has been in power for eight years and hasn’t done enough to curb impaired driving.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think, for example, that deciding to put booze in gas stations is probably the right approach to curbing drinking and driving,” Stiles said.
She added that almost everybody knows someone who has been impacted by impaired driving and the province needs to use as many tools as possible to combat it.
Meanwhile Liberal MPP John Fraser said the province still offers weak protections for some people, such as uninsured passengers, from impaired driving.
Fraser called the announcement “very vague” and said the government is “making it up as they go along” because they want to distract from the ongoing scandal around the Skills Development Fund.
“They do this all the time, they’re trying to distract us from the thing they’ve done that’s wrong. They’re probably still making it up,” he said.
The new law would apply to impaired drivers, whether they were under the influence of alcohol or other substances.
Advocates applaud move, but say prevention still key
In an interview with CP24, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) National President Tanya Hansen Pratt said she applauds any action to help children who are robbed of a parent by impaired driving.
Hansen Pratt, who lost her own mother to impaired driving, called it “an incredible loss.”
“I wasn’t underage at the time, but I was still quite young, and to lose that physical support, spiritual, emotional, financial support at such a young age is a tremendous loss,” she said. “So I applaud a decision to support young people, to help them kind of transition their lives, from having that support from a parent to not having that support, very, very suddenly.”
Still, she said the move is unlikely to be a deterrent and that more needs to be done to prevent people from getting behind the wheel impaired in the first place.
“I’m not going to sit here and say that this is going to be a wild deterrent, because we know this isn’t what people think of when they’re getting behind the wheel impaired,” Hansen Pratt said. “No one’s going to stop making a poor decision because they think they’re going to have to pay a child support the next day.”
According to the province, there were 182 deaths caused by impaired driving on Ontario roads in 2021, including 96 drinking and driving deaths and 86 that were due to drugs.
The government says the legislation could be similar to a 2023 Texas law that requires impaired drivers convicted of “intoxication manslaughter” to pay child support until a child turns 18 or graduates high school if their parent or guardian is killed by an impaired driver.
Last year the province introduced a lifetime licence suspension for anyone convicted of impaired driving causing death under the Criminal Code.
Downey told reporters that while he can’t speak to the specifics of what will be in the legislation, the announcement is “an important piece going into the Christmas season to make sure that people know that drinking and driving has consequences, and that we will protect the interests of children.”
He didn’t say why the legislation does not include other types of drivers who kill parents, such as distracted drivers.
