The Ontario Liberals say they are set to introduce tougher rules for street racers, including dramatically increased fines and giving police the power to impound cars on the spot.
Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield says the stiff legislation will be revealed in the next few weeks.
Cansfield said street racing is becoming a serious and deadly problem for many Ontario communities, and the government is cracking down to deter drivers from participating in the often-fatal practice.
"We can make it abundantly clear -- you race, you pay and the penalty will be big time," Cansfield said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"I'm hoping the message will be out there loud and clear ... and they'll think twice before they gun up their cars and decide to race each other on a city street."
The announcement comes as a Brantford mother began a 470-kilometre, 18-day walk to protest the current laws. Adrienne Seggie's 21-year-old son was killed last fall in Hamilton by an alleged street racer.
Seggie's trek includes stops at the Ontario legislature and then Ottawa, where she says she will pressure politicians into passing stiffer penalties.
"My son didn't have a chance,'' Seggie said at Queen's Park on Wednesday as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"The damage that was done to him left us four days without being able to see him or hold him or touch him . . . All because someone decided it would be a big rush to drive extremely fast down a street where there are pedestrians.''
Cansfield says speeding-related deaths are unacceptable and totally preventable.
The Progressive Conservatives, meanwhile, are calling on the McGuinty government to impose more serious consequences for street racers, including automatically suspensions of driver's licences.
MPP Frank Klees says the proposed bill should also target cars that use nitrous oxide fuel systems, something he says turns ordinary cars into "rockets."
Terry McLaren, head of Ontario's police chiefs, says police welcome changes that will prevent street racing.
Cansfield says the province will work with forces across Ontario to provide young people safe places to race.
"If young people need a venue to do street racing, we can provide a venue that's safe, controlled and with the appropriate oversight," she said. "We've been working on this for some time."
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Cam Woolley, who has seen the gruesome aftermath of many street racing collisions, says the act is like "firing a gun into a crowd."
He feels taking away the drivers' cars would be an effective weapon because "for some young guys, the car is everything."
Woolley said the government could help make street racing as socially unacceptable as drunk driving.
"For extreme driving, there should be extreme consequences," he said. "Society no longer accepts preventable death."
With files from The Canadian Press
