At $287 a pop and three points off each licence, Whitehorse drivers are facing more than $11,000 in fines and a total loss of 120 points.

The penalties became evident after Whitehorse RCMP spent last week looking out for and ticketing people who were on their phones while driving.

A total of 40 tickets were issued over the week.

A plainclothes officer stood on the side of roads watching for and reporting offenders for a few hours each day.

"People are not learning,” Cpl. Shawn Pollard, who heads up the traffic division, said in an interview Monday.

Officers spent only about five hours total doing the blitz. It had been prompted by many complaints to police about people recklessly using their phones while driving.

There have been numerous educational campaigns around the dangers of driving while using a phone – to little avail.

Pollard said he hopes the tickets will be a deterrent to keep people off their phones while they're travelling from Point A to Point B in a vehicle.

Put simply, "it's a bad habit” that's hard to break, Pollard said.

People have become accustomed to using their phones everywhere. In his own case, he said he's been guilty of using it more than he needs to at restaurants.

Most of those pulled over during the campaign recognized using their phones while driving their vehicles as a problem and understood the reason behind the ticket.

Whether the nearly $300 ticket and losing points from their licences will be enough to break bad habits remains a question.

Pollard said there have been cases of tickets being issued to the same driver twice in the same day.

He pointed out other jurisdictions are now considering impounding offenders' vehicles for up to three days.

While there aren't any provinces or territories which have adopted that type of regulation yet, Pollard said it shows other deterrents are needed to keep drivers off their phones.

"We've got to do something,” he said.