Council will decide in the coming weeks whether to top up the snow removal ahead of this winter.

Staff are asking that council approve adding $120,000 to help clear snow faster from sidewalks and bus stops on local streets. The money would come from property taxes, and pay for the equivalent of one new full-time position and on-call costs as needed.

The topic came up at Monday’s civic operations committee, where council members voted 2-1 to send the decision to a future council meeting. Councillors Bill Sarai and Kathy Sinclair were in favour, with mayor Ken Christian opposed.

“We are putting a new emphasis on accessiblity for folks who have mobility issues and have trouble getting around, and this really speaks to that and allows us to put our money where our mouth is,” Sinclair said.

Sarai said it’s the city’s job to make sure people can access transit safely.

“I think for our residents to get around safely in the winter time, especially the ones who don’t have a vehicle – and this is where we started this whole conversation about a year and a half ago – how do they safely get around? Trying to get onto a bus that’s got a two-foot-high ice berm on it, and they have to put their foot on top of it and hope that they don’t slip backwards and bang their head.”

Christian had wanted hold off on voting on the new spending until supplemental budget items come forward in February. He said he’s concerned with how much new spending there will be in next year’s budget, including a new RCMP contract, and said Kamloops could see an “astonishing” tax increase next year.

“If we’re fortunate in finding other areas of surplus or more grant money, then I would by all means recommend approval of this. I just, at this point in time, think it would be prudent of us to wait it out and hear where we’re going. I think all of these budget asks that we have right now leading up to a comprehensive review of our financial situation are a bit premature.”

The new spending would allow the city to clear snow from bus stops and sidewalks on local streets within 24 hours of a snow event starting. In the current guidelines on snow removal, those sidewalks and bus stops are cleared 24 hours after a snow event ends. Snow is removed sooner from “arterial” roads, like Summit Drive and Pacific Way, but not “collector” roads, like Gleneagles Drive and Qu’Appelle Boulevard, or local streets.

The extra annual spending would raise the snow removal budget from $1.9 million to $2.02 million.