Demerit Points System

Demerit points exist to nudge drivers toward better habits and to shield everyone else from people who drive unsafely. When a driver is convicted of a driving-related offence, the points land on that driver's record.

Key facts:

• Each offence's points linger on your record for two years, counted from the day the offence happened
• Pile up too many points and your driver's licence can be suspended

2 or more points: A warning letter is mailed to you

6 points: A second warning letter arrives, urging you to clean up your driving

9 or more points:

• Your licence gets a 60-day suspension, starting the day you turn it in
• Drag your feet on handing it over and you risk losing it for as long as two years
• Once the suspension ends, your point total resets to four
• Picking up more points from there can push you right back to the suspension mark
• Hit 9 points a second time and the suspension may stretch to six months

As a novice driver, this applies if you're convicted of any of the following:

• Breaking one of your novice conditions
• An offence that carries 4 or more demerit points
• A court-ordered suspension tied to an offence that would otherwise have meant 4+ demerit points

In these cases you get both the usual penalty AND a Novice Driver Escalating Sanction licence suspension. The catch: those demerit points are logged as zero on your record, so they do NOT feed into the accumulated demerit point system.

6 points: A warning letter lands, advising you to sharpen your driving skills

9 points: A second warning letter follows, pressing you to do better

15 points:

• Expect a 30-day suspension, counted from the day you hand the licence over
• Refuse to surrender it and you could be off the road for up to two years
• When the suspension lifts, your tally drops back to seven
• Earning more points after that can return you to the suspension threshold
• Reach 15 points once more and the suspension runs for six months

Seven-point offences (the gravest):

• Leaving a collision scene instead of remaining there
• Not stopping when police signal you to

Six-point offences:

• Careless driving
• Racing
• Going 40 km/h or more over the limit where that limit is under 80 km/h
• Going 50 km/h or more over the limit anywhere
• Not stopping for a school bus

Five-point offence:

• A bus driver who does not halt at an unprotected railway crossing

Four-point offences:

• Driving 30 to 49 km/h past the posted limit
• Following too closely
• Rolling through a pedestrian crossover without stopping

Three-point offences (the category you'll see most often):

• Driving 16 to 29 km/h above the limit
• Passing through, around, or beneath a railway crossing barrier
• Holding or using a hand-held wireless communications/entertainment device while driving, or looking at a display screen that has nothing to do with driving
• Not yielding the right-of-way
• Ignoring a stop sign, traffic light, or railway crossing signal
• Disregarding a traffic control stop sign
• Disregarding a traffic control slow sign
• Disregarding a school crossing stop sign
• Refusing to follow a police officer's directions
• Heading the wrong way along a divided road
• Not reporting a collision to police
• Lane discipline failures where a road is split into lanes
• Crowding the driver's seat
• Travelling the wrong direction on a one-way street
• Driving on a road that has been closed
• Cutting across a divided road where no proper crossing exists
• Not slowing and passing carefully when an emergency vehicle is stopped
• Not moving into another lane, when you safely can, while passing a stopped emergency vehicle
• Operating a car fitted with a radar detector
• Misusing a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane
• Opening a vehicle door improperly

Two-point offences:

• Not dimming your headlight beam
• Making a prohibited turn
• Towing people -- on toboggans, bicycles, skis, and the like
• Ignoring signs
• Not sharing the road
• Improper right turn
• Improper left turn
• Not signalling
• Driving needlessly slowly
• Backing up on a highway
• A driver not wearing a seatbelt
• A driver who fails to secure an infant passenger
• A driver who fails to secure a toddler passenger
• A driver who fails to secure a child
• A driver who lets a passenger under 16 ride without a seatbelt fastened
• A driver who seats a passenger under 16 in a spot that has no seatbelt