Impaired Driving (New Brunswick)

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

New Brunswick amended its Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) in 2017 to add immediate suspensions for those who drive while impaired. A year later, the province also increased its penalties for drug-impaired driving.

If you are pulled over while driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in the warning range between .05 and .08, you will face a seven-day licence suspension for a first offence within five years. If you are caught with a BAC at or above .08, your licence will be immediately suspended for 30 days, and you will face criminal charges.

If you are stopped and show signs of impairment by drugs, police will have the power to seize your vehicle and immediately suspend your driver’s licence.

Police officers also have discretion under the MVA to suspend your licence for 24 hours if they have reasonable grounds to believe you are unfit to drive safely for medical or other reasons. 

The MVA governs the rights and responsibilities of drivers, and the legislation includes laws to deal with impaired driving. You can also be charged under Canada's Criminal Code. You face criminal charges if you have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 80 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood (.08) or higher within two hours of stopping driving. The law does not require police to test you while you are actually behind the wheel. There is a limited exception if you consumed alcohol only after stopping and had no reason to expect you would be tested, but the exception has strict conditions.

It is not just alcohol that can impair your ability to drive. Over-the-counter drugs and prescription medications can impact your ability to drive.

The federal government also amended the Criminal Code in 2018 to deal with the legalization of cannabis. All of the cannabis offences below apply within two hours of when you stopped driving, not just while you are behind the wheel. There is a less serious offenceAn indictable offence with a maximum punishment of five years or more. to have between two and five nanograms (ng) of THC per mL of blood within two hours of stopping driving. This lower-level charge is a summary convictionLess-serious criminal offences only, carrying a maximum fine of $1,000. It is a more serious criminal offence to have five ng or more of THC per mL of blood within two hours of stopping driving. 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, again within two hours of stopping driving.

Police no longer need proof to demand a breath test if you have been pulled over at a roadside stop. The federal government introduced mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) in 2018, allowing police to demand that drivers submit to a breath test even if there is no reasonable suspicion that alcohol has been consumed.

Failure or refusing to comply with a demand by the police, including refusing to submit to a breath test, comes with consequences. Failing or refusing, without a reasonable excuse, to comply with a lawful demand is an offence under s. 320.15(1) of the Criminal Code. For a first conviction, s. 320.19(4) prescribes a mandatory minimum fine of $2,000. The offence is hybrid, and s. 320.19(1) sets maximum penalties of 10 years by indictment or, on summary conviction, a $5,000 fine, imprisonment for two years less a day, or both.

Your vehicle can be immediately impounded, and you must pay the towing and storage charges if caught driving impaired. The impoundment program applies to short-term licence suspensions and Criminal Code alcohol-impaired driving cases.

If you have a BAC between .05 and .08 your vehicle will be impounded for:

• three days for a first offence within five years (discretionary);
• seven days for a second offence within five years (discretionary);
• seven days for a third and subsequent offence within five years (mandatory).

If you are caught with a BAC over 0.08, your vehicle will be impounded for:

• 30 days for a first suspension or for failing or refusing to provide a breath sample within 10 years (mandatory);
• 60 days after a previous suspension or for failing or refusing to give a breath sample within 10 years (mandatory);

An alcohol ignition interlock device prevents you from starting your vehicle if you are under the influence of alcohol. Once the ignition is started, you will be expected to provide breath samples intermittently as long the vehicle is running. If a sample is not provided or your BAC is over the legal limit, the device will register the event, warn you, and trigger an alarm that will sound until you turn the ignition off.

Under the program, you will be issued a restricted driver’s licence and only be allowed to operate vehicles equipped with a device. As well you will be required to take a drinking driver education course. You will be expected to pay for the rental and installation of the interlock.

Impaired driving has two separate layers of consequences in New Brunswick. 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 New Brunswick’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.

Immediate Roadside Suspension: threshold and suspension lengths

Under New Brunswick’s Motor Vehicle Act, a police officer may issue an Immediate Roadside Suspension (IRS) where a breath or blood test shows blood alcohol concentration at or above 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood (0.08), or where the driver fails or refuses to provide a sample. An IRS is an administrative suspension under the Motor Vehicle Act — it is not a criminal conviction — and it can be issued alongside, rather than instead of, a Criminal Code charge arising from the same stop.

An IRS is not available where the driving caused serious bodily harm or death to another person, or where there was a passenger under 16 in the vehicle; those situations proceed through the criminal justice system instead.

The length of an IRS suspension increases with a driver’s history over the previous 10 years, which counts both earlier roadside suspensions and earlier Criminal Code convictions for impaired driving:

• First IRS: licence suspended 15 months.
• Second IRS: licence suspended 39 months.
• Third or subsequent IRS: licence suspended 63 months.

A first-time IRS suspension may allow a person to move to a probationary or interlock-based licence after part of the suspension has been served, if statutory conditions are met.

Zero-tolerance and warn-range rules

Below the 0.08 criminal threshold, New Brunswick applies its own lower administrative BAC rules, which are separate from — and should not be confused with — the Criminal Code’s 0.08 threshold:

• Novice and graduated-licence drivers are held to zero tolerance for alcohol or drugs in their system.
• Any driver with a BAC in the “warn range” — from 0.05 up to just under 0.08 — faces a short licence suspension: 7 days for a first offence, 15 days for a second, and 30 days for a third or more, each counted within a 5-year window.

Vehicle impoundment

Vehicle impoundment applies across all three regimes above and is separate from the licence suspension itself:

• Immediate Roadside Suspension: 30 days (first), 60 days (second), 60 days (third or subsequent).
• Warn-range suspension: 3 days (first), 7 days (second), 7 days (third or more).
• Zero-tolerance (novice/graduated licence): 7 days, mandatory.

Ignition interlock program

Following an IRS, a driver must complete a 12-month mandatory ignition interlock program — a breathalyzer device wired into the vehicle that prevents the engine from starting if it detects alcohol — before a full licence is restored.

Review and reinstatement

A driver may apply in writing to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles for a review of an IRS within 15 days of the suspension starting. Applying for a review does not put the suspension on hold while the review is being decided. A review application fee applies: $64 for a written-only review, or $100 if an oral or virtual hearing is requested.

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

These provincial measures operate alongside, not instead of, the Criminal Code process — New Brunswick’s Motor Vehicle Act says its administrative penalties are in addition to, and not a substitute for, any Criminal Code penalties or proceedings arising from the same event. A federal court driving prohibition under Criminal Code s. 320.24 is a separate, criminal-court order handed down by a judge on conviction, and is distinct from a New Brunswick administrative licence suspension.