Rising Tide: Impaired Driving Awareness Week 2012

The "rising tide" of liability against commercial liquor establishments and servers
This week is Impaired Driving Awareness Week in Saskatchewan. Drinking and driving is the leading cause of fatal crashes in our province.

About 45.1 per cent of fatal crashes in the province are alcohol-related, above the Canadian average of 37.9 per cent. By some estimates, impaired driving costs Canadians more than $225.5 billion a year.

Whether we like it or not, tourism industry operators have a stake in solving this problem.

The first thing that you need to know is that if you serve alcohol, whether to guests in your home or to customers in an establishment where you work, you are responsible for what happens to your guests - even after they leave. You have to take reasonable steps to prevent guests from becoming intoxicated. If you're running a commercial establishment or in charge of an organized event, such as a wedding, you have even more responsibility.

Estimated Percentage of Alcohol-Related
Fatalities and Injuries

Source: MADD Canada,
Estimating the Number and Cost of
Impairment-Related Traffic Crashes
in Canada: 1999 – 2009.

"There’s a significant body of civil liability against commercial permittees", says STEC's Manager of Training Diane Cohoon*. That was established as far back as 1973, in a landmark Supreme Court decision.

"The supreme court said you have a duty of care," Cohoon says. "If you allow somebody to become intoxicated, you can’t just turn them out into the street to become harmed."

"That rising tide of liability against commercial permittees started in the 1970s and it’s been fairly consistent. In addition, there have been lots of court cases against private providers. We’ve not seen a really big one yet, but they’re consistent - homeowners, office parties, bringing drinks in for your staff. We had a real estate company in Regina that had a civil liability suit over somebody that was hurt when they were providing alcohol for a Christmas party."

"You need to be aware that you have a liability attached to the service of alcohol," Cohoon says. It doesn’t matter if you’re having a party at home or if you’re a commercial permittee."

Recognizing your potential liability is a good start, but knowing what to do to manage your risk is something else again. Helping commercial permittees live up to their duty of care is why the Saskatchewan Tourism Education Council and industry representatives started responsible service of alcohol programs in the 1990s. Health Canada held the first meetings on responsible service in 1990, Cohoon says, with Saskatchewan launching "It's Good Business" early on. Most jurisdictions use that name, or a variation of it, today.

Every province now has a responsible service program, with most provinces making training mandatory. Saskatchewan's program, Serve It Right Saskatchewan (SIRS), available online and in-class, follows Alberta's training model. Alberta's ProServe program, launched in 2004 as the Alberta Server Intervention Program (ASIP), is one of the most extensive industry-led training programs available. Because the laws and regulations aren't the same in each province and territory, training taken in one jurisdiction isn't transferable to another. So, even if you've taken the program in another province, you still need to complete SIRS here.

So, what do you learn when you take SIRS and how does that help you manage your risk of liability? We'll cover that in the next post.


* In Saskatchewan, the term "permit" is used for liquor and the term "licence" refers to gaming. So, when you have one of the five types of liquor permits from SLGA, you are a "permittee".