A proposal to change to drunk driving laws in a Canadian province has reignited a fierce debate over the best way to prevent alcohol-related deaths on the country’s roads.

Officials in Alberta suggested that major changes are coming to the province’s laws on the issue and have even raised the possibility of the decriminalisation of drunk driving.

“It’s obvious the criminal justice system punishes people, but it doesn’t stop people from reoffending and people continuing to drive impaired,” said Andrew Murie, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, which has strongly supported decriminalisation across Canada and is now lobbying for Alberta to enact similar policies.

“Our organisation is all about stopping deaths, not punishing people.”

Drivers whose blood alcohol concentration exceeds the legal limit currently face a number of penalties in Alberta, including fines, jail time and vehicle seizure – most of which lead to a criminal record.

But neighbouring British Columbia piloted a new approach nearly a decade ago, giving police officers discretion to impound vehicles and revoke licenses – but without necessarily pursuing criminal charges. Stiff criminal penalties still exist for serious cases.

“It’s a combination of rehabilitation and punishment; the criminal justice system is basically a punishment,” said Murie.

Manitoba unveiled a similar program in 2018, arguing that the new approach deters one-time offenders from returning to the criminal justice system and is more efficient. Murie said administrative fines are processed within an hour – rather than the four hours needed for a criminal charge.

Since the changes were made in British Columbia nearly a decade ago, alcohol-related deaths in the province have dropped 50%, Murie said.

“That’s an incredible accomplishment that hasn’t been accomplished anywhere else in the world,” he said. “We have way more people alive today than if BC hadn’t changed their system.”

Kyla Lee, a Vancouver-based lawyer specialising in drunk driving cases, disagrees that decriminalisation in British Columbia has brought about such radical change.

“[The province’s] rules are having literally no impact on the death rate,” she said, suggesting instead that other factors – including intense media coverage of the policy, as well as greater public awareness – played an outsized role in reducing alcohol-related deaths.

She said that the administrative tools are financially devastating to lower-income residents who often can’t afford the fines levied against them.

“I’ve had clients who, as a result of [a roadside stop] committed suicide. I’ve had clients who’ve been hospitalised after suicide attempts. I’ve had people who’ve lost their jobs, lost their homes,” she said.

Alberta has not yet announced what changes to the law might look like, other than it is “considering all options”.

Lee agreed that an approach which forces drivers to address the “underlying issues” rather than forcing them into the criminal system provides better end results.

“If you can keep a person alive, working and contributing to society and address whatever it is that got them in that position, that’s going to be much better for preventing these types of incidents from happening in the future.”