Photo: Luc Rempel

Council calls for speed limit reduction on Highway 97B

Salmon Arm city council wants to see the speed limit reduced on a section of Highway 97B stretching from the R.J. Haney Heritage Village to the intersection with Auto Road.

During an April 14 meeting, council received a letter from Susan Mackie, general manager of the R.J. Haney Heritage Village and Museum, requesting support for speed reduction along the stretch of highway.

In her letter, Mackie said she had already written a letter to the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit requesting the current speed limit of 90 kilometres per hour be reduced to 70.

“Over my 15 years as general manager, I have witnessed multiple collisions and near-misses — including a recent accident on Nov. 15, 2024, when a vehicle was t-boned while crossing Highway 97B at Drives Truck Sales,” Mackie said.

She has proposed extending the 70 kilometre per hour zone that starts just north of the Heritage Village all the way to the intersection at 10 Avenue SE.

“That area is definitely in need of some speed reduction,” said Coun. David Gonella, who put forward a motion to forward the letter to the ministry.

“What [the] speed is would be appropriate for the ministry of transportation to decide, but I'm fully supporting this letter to have that conversation at the ministry level.”

Other councillors felt the proposed motion did not go far enough.

“As you will recall, when we met with our MLA, I brought up this item,” said Coun. Kevin Flynn, adding he felt the speed reduction needs to begin before the 10 Avenue SE intersection.

Council has pointed to the intersection of Highway 97B and 10 Avenue SE as dangerous and in need of changes as recently as last December.

In that December meeting, Flynn said the need for intersection safety improvements has been discussed “just about every year” he has been on city council.

Mayor Alan Harrison agreed with Flynn, and said he expects to discuss the topic with the ministry at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention.

“I certainly understand what you're saying,” he said. “My thought was that… if we just send this letter, it's planting the seed.”

“I expect we're going to meet at UBCM about the speed limit... from Auto Road, all the way in.”

He added if council wanted him to write a letter supporting a speed limit reduction, he would accept a motion or he would be fine with simply forwarding the Heritage Village letter.

“I would ask that you write a letter now,” Flynn said. “Because if we wait, we've got the summer and all that increased traffic. That 97 is a nightmare right now when there's the closure at Bruhn Bridge. So I'd like to ask you to add to this motion that you write a letter.”

Council voted unanimously in support of forwarding the Heritage Village letter to the ministry of transportation along with a letter from the mayor asking to extend the 70 kilometres per hour zone further south to the intersection with Auto Road.