Changes have arrived for impaired driving laws.

With 44% of traffic fatalities in the province being alcohol-related, SGI and the Government decided to incite change.

Joe Hargrave, now into his third month as the Government's Minister of SGI, explains why Saskatchewan didn't just model BC's laws.

“We wanted to make a ‘Made in Saskatchewan’ model, not a BC model. We don’t want a bunch of court challenges that will go through like what has happened in both BC and Alberta.

So in our discussions with MADD, they said to do it but take the time to do it right.

We came in with this legislation for the first step. We hope to very soon come in with additional legislation that might fall in line a bit more with BC’s laws,” he said.

The Minister, who is the MLA for the Prince Albert Carlton constituency, also discussed the legislative changes to distracted driving.

The law, which previously referred to "using a cell phone" as an infraction, is being re-worded to see a loophole in the law closed.

The government says too many people were contesting their tickets by saying they were just holding the phone, not using it.

Moving forward, the change will prohibit drivers from holding, viewing, using or manipulating a cellphone while driving.

Minister Hargrave explains how the prevalence of distracted driving affected him back in the Fall of 2016.

“I was almost run off the road by a distracted driver - you could see that they were texting. So then my wife and I had to drive up on the curb in the vehicle just to avoid someone texting while driving,” he said.

The full SGI release from early November can be seen by clicking on the link below.

Impaired Driving Initiatives Backgrounder