For a straightforward first offence with no injury, jail is not the usual outcome. The minimum penalty is a fine. What changes that answer is not the drinking. It is what else happened.
This is the question people ask first, usually within hours of getting home, and the honest answer has two halves. The floor for a first impaired driving offence is a fine rather than custody. But several ordinary-sounding facts move a case out of that category entirely.
The Statutory Floor
Under section 320.19 of the Criminal Code, a first offence carries a minimum fine of $1,000 and a driving prohibition of at least one year, whatever the reading. The higher minimums are narrower than commonly stated: section 320.19(3) raises the fine to $1,500 at 120 to 159 and $2,000 at 160 and above only on a conviction for driving over 80 under paragraph 320.14(1)(b). On a conviction for impaired operation under paragraph 320.14(1)(a), the $1,000 minimum stands regardless of the reading. Refusal carries its own $2,000 minimum.
A second offence is different in kind rather than degree: the minimum becomes 30 days imprisonment, and a third 120 days. Those minimums are mandatory.
"The first offence question is really a question about which category your case falls into. Most of the work is making sure it stays in the one with a fine at the bottom of it."
What Moves a First Offence Toward Custody
Bodily harm or death changes the offence and the range completely. A very high reading, a collision, a passenger in the car, particularly a child, dangerous driving alongside the impaired charge, or a refusal on top of the driving all push a case upward. So does driving while already prohibited.
None of those require a prior record to matter. A genuinely first-time offender can face a custodial range where the circumstances are serious enough.
The Consequence That Outlasts the Sentence
For most first offenders the sentence is not the problem. The record is. An impaired driving conviction is a criminal record, and it does not come off for a long time: a record suspension becomes available five years after the completion of the entire sentence for a summary conviction and ten years for an indictable one, with a $50 Parole Board fee. Completion means everything, including the fine and the surcharge.
That record affects insurance, employment where driving or bonding is involved, entry to the United States, and immigration status for non-citizens. See criminal records and the US border.
What the Defence Actually Looks At
Impaired driving cases are technical and documentary. The grounds for the demand, the calibration and maintenance records for the instrument, the qualifications of the operator, the observation period, the timing of the tests relative to driving, and the implementation of your right to counsel are all concrete, checkable things. That is where outcomes change, not in the explanation you give the officer at the roadside.
Our driving offences practice page sets out the process, and the first evaluation is free and confidential.
