Whereas Bill C-46 amended the Criminal Code to authorize any police officer who has reasonable grounds to believe a drug-impaired driving offence or a blood drug concentration level offence has occurred, to demand a sample of blood to determine per se limits of drug levels in the blood; And whereas Bill C-46 amended the Criminal Code to allow qualified technicians to draw blood without the supervision of a doctor; And whereas drawing blood in a timely matter less than two hours is critical to capturing accurate blood drug concentration levels: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM urge the BC Government to allow hospital emergency room nurses or qualified technicians to draw blood, at the request of police, without having to admit the subjects as patients to the hospital.
Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General The Province of British Columbia is committed to ensuring that our roads are as safe as possible for all road users and acknowledges that there are several strategies in place to ensure that law enforcement officers can address the public safety risks caused by drug-impaired driving. Non-medical blood draws are just one component of this strategy, along with Standardized Field Sobriety Tests SFSTs and Drug Recognition Experts DREs. Currently, those designated as qualified technicians to take samples of blood are registered nurses, nurse practitioners, registered psychiatric nurse andor a person working in a hospital who, in the normal course of their duties, takes blood samples. Non-medical blood draws, performed by a qualified technician, can be conducted outside of a hospital setting, which means the subject does not have to be admitted as a patient to hospital. It is recommended that law enforcement agencies examine opportunities to hire or contract nursing staff or approach their local Health Authority to develop processes and policies related to non-medical blood draws for drug-impaired driving investigations. There are no plans at this time to expand the scope of the designation of a qualified technician beyond the extent of the current designations, which were updated in June 2019.