Be responsible if you celebrate with alcohol

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"In Saskatchewan, police do a 'stop drinking and driving blitz' during the month of December," says Barbara Cross, acting assistant vice president of communications at Saskatchewan Government Insurance. "We partner with them on those kinds of things.

"That's when SGI runs designated driver programs such as 'Have Someone for the Road,'" she said. "The lead agency on that," Cross continues, "is the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan. "That's a designed driver program that is run through a lot of hotels and bars throughout Saskatchewan, particularly in rural areas.

"Another of SGI's 'don't drink and drive' programs is New Year's Eve's 'Ding in the New Year'" says Cross. SGI picks up the tab for bus service in Prince Albert, Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, so party-goers can leave their vehicle at home and ride safely.

Jamie La Roth is the community relations co-ordinator at SGI who promotes traffic safety full time with Saskatchewan's 72 reserves.

The member of Cowesses First Nation says, "The drinking and driving 'bloody idiot' festive campaign that we have is a small component of the stuff that I do, because traffic safety covers a lot of areas." During the holiday season, however, she puts the issue of drinking and driving first.

One of the things La Roth enjoys is "being able to communicate and educate my own people" about provincial and federal laws.

"A lot of the times, either community leaders or teachers or counsellors want to have some kind of a theme day and they invite a number of different outside speakers. . . . And I explain to the young drivers, in particular, what the consequences are, you know, with your driver's licence. And if you are charged with .04 or .08 what are the steps you have to take in order to get licence reinstatement.

"The police will speak, and then you'll have a traditional person come in and talk about the culture and how to respect your body and abstain from drugs and alcohol. And then I'll come in and have more on the SGI perspective on how it impacts your driver's licence."

La Roth was asked if any of the First Nations that she works with are doing anything additional or different regarding drinking and driving awareness to usher in the new millennium.

"I don't know of any particular reserve or First Nations community that is doing a big drinking and driving awareness campaign, because usually when they do stuff like that they will contact me and request some type of resource material, promotional material or items to act as an incentive when they stop people.

"When I first got into this position," says La Roth, "I made an effort to get to know the reserves, sending out letters and introducing myself and doing a lot of networking out in the province and getting into the communities. . . . and just making sure that they know I am a resource person that they can contact." There is no charge to the communities for La Roth's services.

"Just recently, too, we produced and printed a snowmobile safety poster that's targeted to the First Nations people of Saskatchewan. We have it all geared to respect, because that plays a big part in the community." The limited text on the poster is in the Cree language as well as English, La Roth said. "I get a lot of input from the community people to be able to put something through like that. Because it adds ownership to them and a sense of pride."

Another thing SGI has started this year is a newsletter, which is specifically for the Aboriginal community. It goes to band offices, band schools and health facilities and it highlights insurance and traffic safety.

December's issue, La Roth says, will talk about new federally increased suspension periods for Criminal Code violations surrounding .08, refusal to blow and impaired. "If you're charged with any one of those three offences," she says, ". . . as of July 1st of this year a first offence will result in a minimum one-year suspension."