Sault councillors push for speed limit increase on Hwy. 17

Sault city council will debate a motion next week that would call on the province to increase the speed limit on Highway 17 from Sault Ste Marie to Thessalon. (File)

Sault city council will debate a motion next week that would call on the province to increase the speed limit on Highway 17 from Sault Ste Marie to Thessalon.

The motion comes after the Ontario government raised the speed limit on nine sections of provincial highways, including Highway 69 in Sudbury.

The change, which took effect July 12, affects the section of highway from Sudbury to French River, a distance of about 60 kilometres. The speed limit there is now 110 km/h.

In the Sault, a motion oved by Coun. Stephan Kinach and seconded by Coun. Marchy Bruni calls on the province to do the same on Highway 17.

The motion says that “most of Ontario’s highways were originally designed to safely accommodate speed limits of 110km/hr.”

It also says new technology increases safety in vehicles and that other provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan) already have a maximum speed limit of 110km/h. In British Columbia, maximum limit is 120km/h, the motion said.

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And the motion says a provincial study concluded that “evidence-based speed increases are a common-sense change to make life more convenient for Ontario drivers while bringing our highway speed limit in line with other Canadian provinces.”

If approved, the motion would have Mayor Matthew Shoemaker write a letter to Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria asking him to consider “a maximum speed limit increase along the sections on two-lane divided highway from the current 90km/h.”

Sault council meeting Monday at 5 p.m. A copy of the full agenda can be found here.