This might be one time of year people actually like getting pulled over by police. Alberta Health Services, with the help of Grande Prairie RCMP and first responders, will soon hold its annual candy cane check stop in the city.
AHS Health Promotion Facilitator Michelle Hodder says drivers are pulled over, given a candy cane and sent on their way.
“We section off a part of the main highway or the main roadway and we pull over anywhere from five to 15 vehicles at a time… We give a safety message, give them a candy cane and then those enforcement partners send them on their way.”
The program has been running in Grande Prairie for over 15 years. Last year, Hodder says officers give out between 10,000 and 12,000 candy canes and pull over about 5000 drivers. She says the point of the check stop is to get people thinking about safety this time of year.
“The great point of doing something like this is to give that proactive messaging around being safe. Reminding drivers that there are supports out there to get people home safely and making sure that we’re not only keeping ourselves safe but other people on the roadways with us.”
The Grande Prairie campaign is set to run over a two hour period on December 17th.