After Attorney General David Eby hinted that winter tire rules could be expanded to include the entire province, one Vancouver based defense lawyer is calling it a silly idea.

Acumen Law’s Kyla Lee says of course it makes sense to need winter tires on highways and around places like Kamloops, but in cities like Vancouver they would only be required for a couple days of the year.

“I don’t think that the entire province should have to be subjected to a specific rule that causes them to have to spend more money, that overburdens tire shops, that takes money out of peoples pockets simply because drivers in the lower mainland can’t get it together.”

Lee says there are a lot of ways the government could go about doing this. “Ticket people under existing laws, like having an improperly equipped motor vehicle if they cause an accident and their vehicle doesn’t have snow tires rather than putting a mandatory requirement that people have snow tires. The vast majority of the province either doesn’t need to have such a requirement to know that they need to get snow tires, or don’t need the requirement because it only snows five days a year.”

ICBC had stated that a recent rash in claims could be blamed on a lack of snow tires, but Lee says the entire province shouldn’t have to be burdened by a specific rule that doesn’t make sense province-wide.

“Most of the province that has to deal with snow for several months of the year, drivers do the responsible thing and get snow tires or they’re experienced enough as drivers to know when they can’t be taking their car on the road, to make the right decisions when they’re navigating the snow. Unlike drivers in the lower mainland when there’s a couple snow flakes and we all shut-down and panic.”