A Yukon Party MLA was given the minimum penalty Wednesday afternoon for failing to provide a breath sample earlier this year.

Vuntut Gwitchin MLA Darius Elias must pay a $1,000 fine and is banned from driving for one year. He must also pay $300 in victim surcharges.

“I’ve made a serious mistake here, and I’m taking it very seriously,” Elias told Justice of the Peace Sharman Morrison-Harvey.

“If I’d known what was in my system from the night before, I wouldn’t have been driving ... It’s been a rough couple of months, but I’ve done everything I told my family and the Yukon public I was going to do.”

He pleaded guilty to the offence earlier this month.

Elias did not answer questions from media outside the courthouse about his rehabilitation nor whether he will seek re-election in 2016.

Cabinet spokesman Dan Macdonald said today Premier Darrell Pasloski will not comment on the matter.

“I can confirm that (Elias) remains a member of the Yukon Party caucus,” Macdonald said.

In court Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Jennifer Grandy read a list of the events leading to Elias’ arrest on May 15.

After 11 a.m., RCMP officers on patrol on Copper Road in Whitehorse in an unmarked car spotted the driver of a green GMC Sierra using a cell phone.

After pulling the truck over, the RCMP officer told the driver, Elias, that he’d been stopped for using his cell phone, to which Elias replied, “I made that law.

“I was talking on a speakerphone,” he said.

The officer told him that isn’t permissible.

“I know,” Elias said. “I made that law.”

As a then-opposition Liberal MLA, he supported the government’s legislation to ban the use of cell phones while driving.

The officer noted a “strong odour” coming from the vehicle and Elias, Grandy told the court.

He asked the MLA if he had had anything to drink, and Elias replied he had the night before.

He got out of the vehicle and identified himself as an MLA.

The officer noticed his bloodshot eyes and it became obvious the smell was coming from Elias’ mouth.

He asked the MLA how much he’d had to drink, and Elias replied that he didn’t know.

The officer then asked him to provide a breath test. He had to explain the process a couple of times because Elias didn’t seem to understand.

“I don’t want to blow into that,” the MLA said.

Elias refused twice more and then was arrested for failing to provide a breath sample.

Grandy proposed the minimum sentence for the offence. The mitigating factors, she said, were that Elias has no previous criminal record and that he’d entered a guilty plea early, on July 16.

The charge carries the same penalty as impaired driving.

The Star has reported the details of that May day.

At about 11 a.m., Elias stopped at The Roadhouse for a beer before heading to the legislative building, according to sources. It was the last day of the spring sitting.

Hours later, he returned to the bar for a shot of Jägermeister.

And, mid-afternoon, he spent an hour at the Edgewater Hotel’s bar and restaurant.

He returned to the legislature and voted to help pass the government’s $1.3-billion budget into law.

At a press conference nearly a week after his arrest, Elias admitted he has a problem with alcohol.

“I recognize that I have some personal issues that I need to work on and I have already begun the process of seeking professional help,” he said. He was seated next to Pasloski and cabinet spokeswoman Elaine Schiman,

“(O)ur caucus will support him as he works through these serious personal issues and remains a member of the Yukon Party caucus,” Pasloski said at the time.

“He is a strong MLA for his community. We recognize his strengths and his value as an MLA.... This doesn’t make him immune to problems. People can and do make mistakes.

“The key thing is Darius is ready to seek help.”