Amanda Baton, justice coordinator and mental health and addictions counselor with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, teamed up with a group of students from K’àlemì Dene School last week to raise awareness about the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
They were sending that message in front of the Yellowknife Fire Hall on June 7 to passing drivers on Franklin Avenue.
Baton said that in her role as a justice coordinator, she noticed a big increase in cases of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
“It’s alarming with just the recent losses that we had in the month of May,” she said, “We had about four youth between the ages of 18 to 31 lose their lives from alcohol (and) being involved in a motor vehicle accident.”
Baton said that she is planning to continue her efforts with other schools in the area to organize prevention awareness rallies.
She believes that the legal limit for driving with alcohol should be zero and that the legal driving age should be raised.
“Their brains aren’t fully matured yet until they’re at least the age of 21,” she said.
Baton is also calling on local governments to step up their efforts in addressing addiction and trauma by opening a treatment centre and providing more funding for prevention and awareness program.
Yellowknifer contacted the Department of Infrastructure to see what sort of response it had to Baton’s concerns.
Spokesperson Nancy Guardado said that the GNWT is actively involved in national discussions on road safety, including conversations on the impacts of impaired driving.
“These discussions inform the development of NWT legislation on motor vehicles and allow the department to align NWT legislation with comparable legislation of other Canadian jurisdictions,” she stated.
She also said that the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level in the NWT is .08, or 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, which is equal to one to two standard alcoholic beverages. Provinces and territories across Canada have comparable legal BAC limits.
“While consuming alcohol and driving is not illegal in the NWT, drivers must abide by the NWT’s legal BAC level before driving,” she said. “If alcohol remotely impairs a person’s driving ability, they are at risk of violating the law.”
Baton believes that it takes a community to heal a community and noted many of the students who took part are Indigenous.
“You need to step up with opening up a trauma and addiction treatment centre, you need to put more money into this,” she said. “There needs to be more funding available for prevention and awareness purposes. We have to look at that and look at all the students here. I’m grateful and honoured to be a sober parent.”