Thunder Bay's impaired driving rate far exceeds the rest of Ontario

THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay has a much bigger problem with impaired driving than the rest of the province.

New data released by the Thunder Bay Police Service shows a huge discrepancy in the city's impaired driving rate compared with the Ontario average.

In 2021, TBPS investigated 211 incidents of impaired driving.

That equates to a rate of 180 cases per 100,000 people.

It's 64 per cent higher than the provincial rate of 110 per 100,000 population.

In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidence of impaired driving in Thunder Bay was even worse – 233 cases per 100,000 – and was well over twice the Ontario average of 103 cases per 100,000.

These statistics reinforce a long-term trend.

According to TBPS, the city's impaired driving rate between 2017 and 2019 was also 60 to 70 percent worse than the rest of the province in each year.

Thunder Bay Police say they will continue to target impaired driving through the RIDE program and other initiatives.