Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the comments from the Member. There were a number of different options and ideas that we looked at. We did look at all other Canadian provinces and into the US states and what they’re doing to try to combat this problem, which rules are changing and becoming more strict, fines are increasing, suspensions, et cetera, and yet the problem still appears to be growing, so we need to be proactive to make sure that we address it as forcefully as we can.

We looked at all the different options and decided that a suspension would be the way to go for this. Working with law enforcement, we already do provide these types of suspensions related to drinking and driving, so it was appealing to the law enforcement community because they were aware of what’s happening. We also like the fact that it’s tied directly to the immediate conviction or the immediate problem of distracted driving, and it’s not demerit points where you can get demerit points for speeding or for distracted driving or any number of things, and if you get too many then you have to get called in and go through a review. But we liked the fact that the suspension was directly related to the distracted driving offence.