The Ford government is set to increase the speed limit on hundreds of kilometres of its highway network, including large portions of the 401.
Beginning on July 12, Ontario will permanently boost the speed limit to 110 km/h on 10 sections of provincial highway in both the north and south of the province.
More than 250 km of Highway 401 — including around Kingston and Belleville — will see speed limits increase. Highway 403 near Brantford will also be changed, along with a 60 km stretch between Sudbury and French River in the north.
The 10 km/h increase comes two years after the government introduced the measure on six highway sections in 2022.
“Much of Ontario’s highway network was originally designed to safely accommodate speed limits of 110 km/h and data from our changes in 2022 show they do just that,” Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria said in a statement Wednesday.
“These evidence-based increases are a common-sense change to make life more convenient for Ontario drivers while bringing our highway speed limits in line with other Canadian provinces.”
Work on the speed increase program began through consultations and a pilot in 2019, the year after Ontario Premier Doug Ford formed the government.
The province estimates that, after the latest changes take effect in July, roughly 36 per cent of the highways it controls will have speed limits of 110 km/h instead of 100.
The increase in speed limit will not raise the threshold at which stunt charges can be laid for speeding.
Across Ontario, a driver can be hit with a stunt driving charge for going 50 km/h or more above the posted speed limit on highways.
The government said that on sections with an increased speed limit, 150 km/h will still be considered the threshold for stunt driving.
The full list of areas where speed limits are set to increase is set out below:
- Highway 401
- At Tilbury, extending the existing 110 km/h zone further east by 7 km
- From Hwy 35/115 to Cobourg (approximately 35 km)
- From Colborne to Belleville (approximately 44 km)
- From Belleville to Kingston (approximately 66 km)
- From Hwy 16 to the Quebec boundary (approximately 107 km)
- Highway 403
- From Woodstock to Brantford (approximately 26 km)
- From Brantford to Hamilton (approximately 14.5 km)
- Highway 406 from Thorold to Welland (approximately 13 km)
- Highway 416 from Hwy 401 to Ottawa (approximately 70 km)
- Highway 69 from Sudbury to French River (approximately 60 km