Catherine McKay, who pleaded guilty in June to impaired driving causing death after a family of four was killed in January, learned her fate on Wednesday.
Judge Barry Singer accepted a joint submission asking for her to serve 10 years in prison, less time served.
She has also been banned from driving for 12 years after she gets out.
READ MORE: Catherine McKay pleads guilty to impaired driving causing death of Saskatoon family
Court heard that McKay was three times the legal limit when she ran a stop sign on Jan. 3 and slammed into the side of a vehicle at the intersection of Highway 11 and Wanuskewin Road.
Jordan Van de Vorst, 34 and Chanda, 33, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their children, five-year-old Kamryn and two-year-old Miguire, would later die in hospital.
“We would be enjoying our kids and our grandkids right now except for that decision that she made and it was very, very hard to hear those details it really was,” said Lou Van de Vorst, Jordan’s father.
“She drove the car to the bar after she was drinking at home – now she could have said simply ‘OK, I’m going to take a cab to the bar, have a few drinks, take a cab home’ that would’ve been fine, that’s an easy decision to make but she didn’t make that decision.”
READ MORE: Saskatoon family reeling after fatal crash claims four lives
McKay was even offered a ride that evening by a bartender who noticed she seemed intoxicated but she didn’t take it.
The family was hoping for a 12-year sentence – the worst penalty – in a province with the worst record for impaired driving.
“The range in the country up until this year has been disgusting, I don’t think there is a better word to describe it,” said Crown prosecutor Micheal Pilon.
“Ten years is a big jump over the seven, seven-and-a-half that have been previously done. Hopefully, we don’t see more cases like where four people are killed in one swoop by one drunk driver but if it does happen again hopefully this does set a precedent for consideration in the future.”
An emotional courtroom heard two-and-a-half hours of victim impact statements before the decision was read.
With files from Meaghan Craig
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