The idea of not having enough time to debate active transportation during budget deliberations really grinds the gears of some city councillors.
At Tuesday’s public works committee meeting, Coun. Devi Sharma told her peers that “there isn’t adequate time” to really get into cycling and walking plans amidst other budget issues.
“On the floor of council (there’s) obviously not a lot of time to talk about anything,” Sharma said. “I don’t agree with that.”
For 2016, the plan was passed several months after the budget was approved, but for 2017 it’s slated to be debated along with road spending and the rest of council’s priorities during budget deliberations.
Councillors recently passed a $6-million pedestrian and cycling action plan unanimously—green-lighting the construction of paths, sidewalks and bike lanes that will be part of a $334 million active transportation roll-out over the next 20 years.
At that time, Coun. Matt Allard expressed the same concerns as Sharma, saying rolling it into the budget process could potentially see it buried.
Sharma said in her six years on council “there has never been adequate time” to get into nuance while balancing large spending priorities, so she doesn’t “think big changes are going to be on the horizon” and wants active transportation kept separate from the rest.
Committee chairperson Coun. Janice Lukes sympathized, and said giving active transportation spending plans time at a separate meeting might be best.
“Currently (for 2017) it’s tied to the budget process, what we might do is take it out of that process and make it still in the public works committee, which probably is a good idea,” she said. “In a regular committee meeting we can have more flexibility to make adjustments to the report and to work with the departments, whereas in the budget it’s usually all or nothing.”
She said because active transportation is “literally in your front yard, you want it to go smoothly.”
2016 Active transportation spending
- $1.3 million for walkways and bike paths
- $1 million for regional sidewalks
- $1.5 million for bicycle corridors