The Supreme Court of Canada has, in R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27, created a new framework for analyzing an accused's right to be tried within a reasonable time:
At the heart of this new framework is a presumptive ceiling beyond which delay — from the charge to the actual or anticipated end of trial — is presumed to be unreasonable, unless exceptional circumstances justify it. The presumptive ceiling is 18 months for cases tried in the provincial court, and 30 months for cases in the superior court (or cases tried in the provincial court after a preliminary inquiry). Delay attributable to or waived by the defence does not count towards the presumptive ceiling.
It will be interesting to see how this new framework will affect impaired driving investigations and prosecutions. Will it result in having first appearance dates set earlier? Will the initial disclosure packages have to be more thorough (transcripts? photo binders?).
Previously, one court stayed charges for unreasonable delay due to an exceed .08 trial taking 27 months - R. v. Pankiw, 2016 SKCA 60. However, a different court held that there was no unreasonable delay when an impaired causing bodily harm trial took 34 months - R. v. Smith, 2013 ABCA 312.
Even though the Jordan case is less than a month old, some accused's convicted of impaired driving have already had courts stay their charges due to unreasonable delay : R. v. Korzh, 2016 ONSC 4745 (24 months) and R. v. Allison, 2016 NSSC 192 (60 months).