Anyone convicted of drinking and driving in Ontario will find it much harder to offend a second time.

Beginning Monday, the province introduced stiff new penalties, including an ignition interlock program.

Convicted drunk drivers who want their licences reinstated will have to blow into a breathalyzer installed in their car.

Before you start the car

If the driver has been drinking, the car won't start.

The drivers must foot the bill of about $1,500 to have the device installed and operated for a year.

Ontario Transportation Minister Norm Sterling says drunk driving is the number one cause of criminal death and injury in Canada.

Sterling was on hand for the opening of an ignition interlock installation centre in Toronto Monday, one of six opening across the province.

Anne Leonard, executive director of the Ontario Community Council on Impaired Driving likes the device. "I urge people to begin using it on a vounteer basis," she told CBC Newsworld.

First-time offenders in Ontario will now face a one-year licence suspension followed by a year of the ignition interlock use. For a second offence, drivers would be handed a three-year suspension, and three years with the device.